Australian Women in Banking

Abstract

Women came into the Australian banking industry to “fill in” for men and were left in lower grade, non-career jobs on their return. For the majority of women, little has changed with respect to their status in the industry. They outnumber men in lower level clerical grades and perform the bulk of part-time work. Very few women remain in the industry for a significant length of time, contributing to their under-representation in management. Managers and women themselves need to be aware of the structural, attitudinal, and social barriers which effectively disadvantage full-time and part-time women in the branch banking system so that affirmative action programmes can be correctly focused. Makes a number of recommendations to address these problems.