Australia’s women remain an untapped resource in the hunt for productivity

‘There has been little to no productivity growth in the care sector for two decades. Yet the care economy is the single largest employer in Australia and our fastest growing industry as measured by job growth, by a long way.’ Photograph: Penny Stephens/The Guardian

In 2022, at the newly elected Labor government’s jobs and skills summit, economist Danielle Wood put women in the workforce front and centre. “I can’t help but reflect that if untapped women’s workforce participation was a massive ore deposit, we would have governments lining up to give tax concessions to get it out of the ground,” she said.

As the CEO of the Grattan Institute, Wood had long been a powerful advocate for women to create a more productive economy.