Prime Minister Tony Abbott's male-dominated cabinet shows why mandatory gender quotas shouldn't be imposed, according to NSW Family and Community Services Minister Pru Goward.
Speaking at a women in leadership luncheon in Sydney on Friday, Ms Goward touched on the criticism directed at Mr Abbott for including only one woman in the coalition government's new cabinet.
"Let me tell you that, as a minister, you need to be sure that your premier or your prime minister backs you - and you can be sure of that when you know you have been appointed to that job on merit," Ms Goward said.
The minister, who is under pressure in the NSW parliament over state caseworker numbers, said that the percentage of women in full-time work had barely changed in the past 40 years.
"We have gone from 28 per cent of women in the full-time work force to 36."
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She said this presented one of the biggest challenges to gender equality in the workforce because part-time work does not provide the promotional opportunities and experience needed at a senior executive level.
Rather than enforcing mandatory quotas, Ms Goward wants to boost the number of women in full-time work and their participation in non-traditional jobs including trades.
"So long as women are seen to be employable in only a few occupations and sectors, we will never see women as capable of doing any job that comes up, including leadership jobs," she argued.
"I certainly don't think that any woman in the NSW parliament would like to say they were there as a result of a quota, as a result of their gender."
