Australia is failing to break down economic and social barriers to work and leadership.
Men and women continue to be in traditional occupations, and executive positions remain skewed to men, according to research by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA).
"People of any gender should be able to do the job they're most suited for and most interested in," CEDA chief executive Melinda Cilento said on Tuesday.
Many talented women have left jobs or are actively considering leaving them because of a lack of flexibility or long, non-family friendly hours.
Flexible hours and working arrangements became the highest priority for Australian workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and many employers responded.
Businesses promoting flexible rosters, remote work and shift-swapping rose from 15 per cent in 2017 to 68 per cent in 2021.
But only one in 10 organisations in Australia set flexible work targets and only five per cent have targets specifically for men.
Women continue to dominate in health, care and education, while men make up most of the mining and construction workforce.
Digital transformation, the energy transition and an ageing population will require a much more agile labour market than Australia has now, Ms Cilento said.
"If economic and social barriers prevent flexible movement between occupations, we will not be able to respond to these changes," she said.
In the submission to the federal government's Employment White Paper, the leading think-tank warns of worsening levels of occupational gender segregation - where a job is done by either mostly male or female workers.
And this is despite a skills shortage and more women in the workforce.
A minimum 40 per cent female representation on company boards is one of a series of recommendations by CEDA.
"Blind hiring" that blocks out personal details at the initial screening stage of hiring, standardising interviews and setting targets in heavily gendered occupations are also recommended.
Making paid parental leave more equal, with more leave reserved for so-called secondary carers under a "use it or lose it" system, could also tilt the balance.
Australia has had one of the least generous and most unequal paid parental leave schemes among advanced economies, with 99.5 per cent of parental leave taken by mothers, CEDA said.
Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs receiving federal funding should publish data to show if they're working, and the focus should shift to mentoring and leadership - from school to work, CEDA said.
STEM jobs are expected to remain in high demand, yet in key occupations such as software programming the proportion of women has gone backwards.
Men are still 1.8 times more likely than women to be working in a science, technology, engineering and mathematics field five years after completing their qualification.
And the proportion of women studying and working in these STEM areas has barely changed since 2015, CEDA found.
This worsens the gender pay gap, as these fields are typically highly paid.
