APESMA 2009-10 Women in the Professions Survey Report has just been released and it contains some sobering reading about how women are still treated unfairly and inequitably in the workplace.

As noted on the APESMA site:

• Nearly 70% of respondents said that taking maternity/parental leave – including unpaid leave – was likely to be detrimental to their career, despite legally having access to these provisions.
• Disturbingly, nearly 40% of respondents stated that they had been bullied and 38% discriminated against in the course of their employment. Nearly 20% reported that they had been sexually harassed, although only one fifth of those had reported the incident through official channels. Reports of sexual harassment and discrimination were higher in male-dominated industries.
• 47.4% of respondents said that their career progression had been affected by workplace culture.
• And nearly one quarter of respondents expected that they would leave their profession within five years.

The real question is what we are going to do about this. So many women seem to believe that the fight for equal pay and fair treatment at work is over.

But is not over. And each of us needs to decide what action we will take to make the workplace a better, safer and fairer place for the women who come along after us.

Equal Pay Day is 4 September 2010 – why not start with that?