The availability of meaningful flexible work is a fundamental enabler of gender equity in the workplace, as are policies, processes and working arrangements to support employees with caring responsibilities and other commitments.

The 2025 WGEA data includes an enormous amount of information on policies. Information is collected about seven areas – in each, data is also collected about the availability pf policies or formal strategies and the inclusion in policies. Of the reporting practices, 20 have policies in all seven areas. The inclusion in these policies vary – the lists of possible inclusions is very instructive, and educational in its own right.

This article focuses on four policy areas – flexible work, support for carers, parental leave and family and domestic violence support. The data on broad workplace gender equality policy and strategy is covered in Part 1. The extensive information on preventing and responding to harassment and sex-based discrimination is covered in Part 5.

For an outline of the context and limitations of the 2025 WGEA data, please see the background and considerations sections of Part 1. See also Part 1 Pay gaps & equal remuneration, Part 2 Gender Equality at Work Part 3 Workforce composition and Part 5 Sex-based harassment & discrimination.

Flexible work

ALL of the 29 practices / organisation reporting to WGEA have formal policies and / or strategies on flexible working. The WGEA data also gives insight into what is in these policies, with 19 options to choose from.

The most popular are those items relating to culture – leaders role modelling, the promotion of flex work, employee surveys etc. It is great to see that 19 practices take an ‘all-roles-flex’ approach, that is “flexible work offerings are available to all employees, with a default approval bias”.

Things like targets, metrics and training – the concrete, measurable stuff – are much less popular. And, despite policies stating that leaders are visible role models for flex, in only four practices are management roles designed to be able to be done part time (Aspect Studios, Bates Smart Architects, Rothelowman and SJB).

Only two practices incorporate the ability to job share into the design and advertising of jobs (Hassell, Mode Design). This despite the previous chart showing eight practices offer job sharing for managers, and 10 for non-managers.

WGEA collects data on the types of flexible work offered to managers and non-managers. All but one offer remote working. Part-time work, flexible hours, unpaid leave and time-in-lieu are also offered by most. Most practices do not distinguish between managers and non-managers on most types of flex, although there are some variations.

Parental leave

In 2025 WGEA published a very comprehensive account of parental leave offered by reporting organisations – 25 practices provide employer-funded paid parental leave, and four do not.

Universal Carers Leave – which means that the leave is available to all, without carer definitions – is provided by 11 practices. The other 14 offer leave based in primary / secondary carer definitions. All offer parental leave to parents of all genders.

The WGEA data documents the average months to qualify for all forms of employer paid parental leave, and the minimum weeks provided. It also documents what is covered (birth, adoption, still birth & surrogacy), who has access, the time period within which leave can be taken, the way that employer funded parental leave is paid, and if superannuation is paid on employer-funded parental leave, and how the leave is paid. It is heartening to see that a number of practices offer leave to fixed-term and contract employees, and Universal Parental Leave is available to casual employees in three practices. It would be interesting to also know if parental leave policies allow long service leave to accrue. This data is not currently available.

It is worth comparing this data to the WGEA Employer of Choice Continuous Improvement Criteria. For Parental Leave this is “The employer’s parental leave policy offers at least eight weeks of employer-funded paid parental leave (universal or for primary carers) AND all additional criteria is noted in Appendix 2.”

Most practices exceed the WGEA Employer of Choice criteria for Universal and Primary Carers Leave, but two-thirds of those with Secondary Carer Leave (nine out of 14) do not meet the Employer of Choice minimum of three weeks.

There is also very interesting information about the gender split of those taking Parental Leave. On the one hand, the balance is unsurprising. On the other, it makes the gendered impact of parenting blatantly obvious. Universal Carers Leave is seen as best practice – and the impact is noticeable.

Note: collating the WGEA data on parental leave has been particularly fiddly. For example, some practices with universal policies then reported the gender split in relation to the primary/ secondary categories.

Carers leave and support for carers

The WGEA data also includes information about formal policies / strategies for supporting employees with family or caring responsibilities. It is good to see that 90% (26) of reporting practices / organisations have something in place (three don’t).

It is very helpful to see the inclusions – the most popular are “Flexible working arrangements and adjustments to work hours and/or location to support family or caring responsibilities” and “Paid Parental Leave”. Support for all carers (for example, carers of children, elders, people with disability) is offered by 18 practices (62%).

This year WGEA also asked what kinds of support mechanisms were available to those with parenting or caring responsibilities. The list of options is in itself a very useful checklist of possibilities. Some are obviously more relevant to very large businesses (for example, on-site childcare), but others could be fairly straightforward to implement, while also having the potential to make quite a difference.

WGEA asks if these support mechanisms are available for the company as a whole, or at some worksites only. Our initial data compilation was for all worksites. These figures showed that only a quarter of reporting practices (seven) provided breastfeeding facilities. This seems shockingly low. Looking at the WGEA Data Explorer again shows that another 12 practices provide breastfeeding facilities “at some worksites”. (It would be good to know more about what “some worksites” means.) Another 10 practices do not offer breastfeeding facilities at all. Surely we can do better!

Family & domestic violence

The data also documents support offered to those experiencing family or domestic violence. All practices but one have a formal policy or strategy.

The inclusions vary. The most common are those that are also integrated into other policies – EAP, flex work, confidentiality and protection from discrimination. A number of practices also offer more concrete support. This is a new policy area for many, so it is good to see that most practices have at least made a start.

See Part 1 Pay gaps & equal remuneration, Part 2 Gender Equality at Work Part 3 Workforce composition and Part 5 Sex-based harassment & discrimination.