Aussie men and women ranking as more equal than ever

Australia has reached a record high position of eighth on the global gender equality ranking, climbing five places from its previous standing. However, the nation still lags behind several others in key areas like life expectancy and school outcomes. While Australian women live longer than men, the gap between genders was narrower than in other countries, causing Australia's ranking on this metric to slip to 107th place.

The nation's economic parity with women has also dropped since its peak in 2006, currently sitting at 72.1 percent. Despite these setbacks, Australia still leads the world in gender equality for literacy rates, women's representation in ministerial roles, sex ratio at birth, and enrollment in primary and tertiary education. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed pride in the country's progress but acknowledged that there is still work to be done.