Women are still not paid as well as men for equivalent work. Women continue to volunteer in the community more than men and are still doing the bulk of household work.

Women are far less safe in NSW families and communities than men. Women are more than twice as likely as men to experience domestic violence and five times more likely than men to be sexually assaulted and have the assault perpetrated by their partner.

Why, if women are better educated, more qualified, less likely to commit crimes, more literate and less likely to drink to excess, do we still lag behind men on power scales and the indicators that count?

Maybe it is because of the assumption that we are responsible for the nurture and care of others, whether paid, underpaid or unpaid. Men have not taken up those hands-on roles and women owned jobs are still undervalued at high and low level. Human resources executives (female) are paid much less than their counterparts in finance, who are mainly males. Most school principals and directors of nursing are male, despite the majority of their workers being female.

We have not achieved the necessary social and cultural changes to match our new legal rights. Instead, workplaces have become ever more macho, pushing longer hours and more profits, rather than looking at social contributions.

Inbuilt masculine prejudices and assumptions still decide on gender acceptable behaviours. So progress for women often means behaving like men – or ‘choosing’ to opt out into the undervalued feminised areas in paid and unpaid roles.

For those who are, I say go for it, but lets not fall into the trap of imagining that what men and women want, or how they measure success are identical.