Women quit leadership roles faster than men, Australian gender equity report finds
Representative image: ernestoeslava / Pixabay
A BCEC-WGEA report released October 13, 2026 finds women leave leadership roles faster than men, and only 13.2% of Australian employers design part-time management jobs.
What Happened
Women in Australia are leaving leadership roles at higher rates than men, creating what researchers call a "missing middle" in the pipeline to the top, according to a report released on Tuesday, October 13, 2026. "Gender Equity Insights 2026: Unlocking Australia's Workforce Potential" was produced by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) at Curtin University and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), the government body that collects gender data from Australian employers. The report links women's exits to caring duties that fall unevenly and to a lack of flexible work in senior jobs.
Key Facts
- The report finds women resign from leadership positions at higher rates than men, a persistent leak in the talent pipeline it calls the "missing middle".
- More than 90% of organisations offered flexible start and finish times in 2024-25, and 86% offered part-time work.
- But only 13.2% of employers had designed management roles that could be done part-time.
- Only about a quarter of organisations measured or evaluated how their flexible work arrangements were working.
- Women held 25.9% of chief executive roles in 2025, according to WGEA data cited in coverage.
- Employers with women as chief executives or in key management roles were more likely to have a strategy for flexible work.
- WGEA chief executive Christine Castley said: "Flexibility, of course, is about much more than part-time (work)."
Why It Matters
The report puts numbers on a pattern many working women recognise. Flexible work has become common, but it tends to stop at the door of management. A woman can often get flexible hours as a team member, yet find that stepping up to lead a team means accepting long, rigid days. When caring for children or older relatives falls mostly on women, many decide not to take that step, or leave senior roles after taking them.
The lead author, Alan Duncan, noted that stronger promotion rates for women at some stages of their careers did not turn into equal numbers at the top. In other words, the problem is not only getting women promoted, but keeping them there. BCEC's analysis points to the lack of flexible options for both women and men at key career moments, which suggests that making flexibility normal for fathers as well as mothers is part of the answer.
The recommendations are practical: design management jobs that can be done flexibly without blocking promotion, and track recruitment, promotion, pay and retention by gender so employers can see where women drop out. The finding that only a quarter of employers check whether their flexibility policies work suggests many organisations have policies on paper but little idea of their effect.
Although the data is Australian, the questions it raises apply to employers anywhere, including in India: whether flexible arrangements reach senior roles, and whether anyone is tracking which women leave and why. The report's measures, from part-time management roles to tracking retention by gender, are tools any organisation could adopt.
| Measure | Share of Australian employers |
|---|---|
| Offered flexible start and finish times (2024-25) | More than 90% |
| Offered part-time work | 86% |
| Designed management roles as part-time | 13.2% |
| Measured or evaluated flexibility | About 25% |
Impact
Short-term: Employers in Australia face pressure to make flexibility available in management roles, not only in junior positions, and to start measuring whether their policies keep women in senior jobs.
Long-term: If flexible leadership roles become normal, more women could stay in the pipeline to chief executive and board positions, narrowing the gap at the top.
Who is affected: Women managers and those aiming for leadership, working parents and carers, HR teams, and employers trying to retain senior talent.
Key Takeaway
Flexible work is widespread but rarely reaches management, and that gap is a key reason women leave leadership roles faster than men, the Gender Equity Insights 2026 report finds.
Questions and Answers
What is the "missing middle" in the Gender Equity Insights 2026 report?
It describes the loss of women from the leadership pipeline because they resign from management roles at higher rates than men, leaving fewer women to rise to the top.
Why are women leaving leadership roles, according to the report?
The researchers link it to caring responsibilities that fall unevenly on women and to a lack of flexible work for both women and men at key career moments.
How common are part-time management jobs?
Only 13.2% of Australian employers had designed management roles that could be done part-time, even though 86% offered part-time work in general.
Who produced the report?
It was produced by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre at Curtin University and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, and released on October 13, 2026.
Disclaimer: Prepared by the Peepals newsroom from publicly available sources with AI assistance. Information is accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication and may change. Images may be representative. Not professional advice. Report an error via our contact page.
Sourced and fact-checked by the Peepals Global Editorial Team
Reported, fact-checked and published by the Peepals Global Editorial Team.
