Financy Women's Index

The Women’s Index measures the progress of Australian women and gender financial equality

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Financial inequality is a major obstacle to the progress of women, families and future generations

About Financy Women's Index

How we’re tackling Financial Inequality

The Financy Women’s Index™ (FWX) is a quarterly measurement of the economic progress of women and time frames to gender financial equality in Australia.

The FWX provides a snapshot on equality across 7 critical areas and includes both drivers and indicators of progress.

The drivers are Education and Unpaid Work. The indicators are Unpaid Work (dual), Employment, Underemployment, Pay, Board Leadership and Superannuation.

The purpose of the Women’s Index™ is to help drive fearless discussion and action among women, men and key decision makers in the public and private sectors.

The Index is an independent initiative of Financy Pty Ltd, which is advocates for gender financial equality and provides the IMPACTER software to improve organisations performance on diversity, equity and inclusion.

The Index is supported by the FWX Advisory Committee members; Dr Shane Oliver, Simone Cheung, Prof Roger Wilkins, Dr Leonora Risse, Bruce Hockman, Rhiannon Yetsenga and Nicki Hutley.

The Index is proudly sponsored by NGS Super, the Ecstra Foundation, Aspire Planning, Seven Consulting, Bespoke Co and PritchittBland Communications.

Creative works are produced by We Are Why Pty Ltd.

Ultimately, the purpose of the Index is to help inspire women to live more courageously and confidently – to be Fearless.

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Lastest Results

What do the latest FWX insights tell us about economic equity?

While the Australian economy continues to show surprising resilience in the face of high interest rates, the latest Financy Women’s Index (FWX) reveals that women are paying a disproportionate price to maintain that stability.

The FWX, now in its ninth year of tracking economic equality, fell to 77.76 points in the December quarter—a sharp drop of 1.42 points since September and 0.24 points lower year-on-year. This decline was enough to wipe out progress gains made early in 2025, leaving the Index at its lowest point since December 2023.

The report’s findings suggest that as persistent inflation and high interest rates squeeze households, women have increasingly acted as the economy’s “pressure valve,” as FWX Economic Advisor Bruce Hockman noted, with women largley absorbing the impact through higher underemployment and increase in unpaid work.

“It is disappointing to see that the steadily improving trend in the Index has given way to a more volatile and constrained trend ever since the pandemic,” Dr. Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP. “This indicates that women may be bearing a disproportionate share of the cost of the higher levels of economic uncertainty that we have been seeing since 2020.”

Key Results

  • Financial gender equality reversed in 2025, wiping out previous gains
    to finish at its lowest point since December 2023.
  • The Financy Women’s Index (FWX) fell 0.24 points year-on-year to 77.76 points in the December quarter 2025.
  • Widening gender gaps in Underemployment and stalled progress in Pay, Unpaid Work, and Employment drove the decline.
  • Education and Superannuation were the only sub-indices
    to show resilience and growth throughout 2025.
  • The median timeframe to equality relatively unchanged at 21.1 years
    due to steady historical progress.

Financy Women’s Index by Quarter

Financy Women’s Index by Year

Years to Economic Gender Equality

The median timeframe to achieving total gender equality in Australia is 24 years. But the largest timeframe is 139 years based on progress rates in Education.

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Past Reports

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Meet the FWX
Advisory Committee

The Financy Women’s Index is supported by an Advisory Committee, who believe in gender equality and the importance of measuring women’s financial progress. The Committee meets regularly to discuss the data findings and the best way forward for the Index to ensure it is as reliable and informative as possible.

The FWX Advisory Committee

Rhiannon Yetsenga

Associate Director at Deloitte Access Economics
Rhiannon is an Associate Director at Deloitte Access Economics, where she specialises in the digital economy, gender economics, and the economic value of Australia’s arts, cultural and sporting sectors.

Dr Leonora Risse

Associate Professor of Economics at Queensland University of Technology

Leonora is Associate Professor of Economics at Queensland University of Technology and is a specialist in gender equality. She is a Research Fellow with the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia and a co-founder of the Women in Economics Network in Australia. Her research focuses on evidence-based strategies to close gender gaps in economic outcomes.

Dr Shane Oliver

Chief Economist and Head of Investment Strategy at AMP
Shane has extensive experience analysing economic and investment cycles and what current positioning means for the return potential for different asset classes. He is also a highly sought after economics commentator for various media.

Nicki Hutley

Independent Economist
Nicki Hutley is a highly respected and sought after economist with a passion for social impact.
Simone Cheung

Simone Cheung

Independent Economics Advisor at Purpose Lab
I’m a strategic advisor and health economist driven by a deep belief that smart policy, backed by evidence, can transform lives — especially for those most often left behind.

Bruce Hockman

former Chief Economist of the Statistical Services Group at the Australian Bureau of Statistics
Bruce has an economics degree from Adelaide University and he also did post-graduate studies at Macquarie University.

Prof Roger Wilkins

Deputy Director of the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic & Social Research at the University of Melbourne
Professor Wilkins is also the Deputy Director (Research) of the HILDA Survey and produces the annual HILDA Survey Statistical Report.