In Australian business, some feisty femmes are building empires of influence, innovation and inspiration.

Our women athletes are world-beaters in netball, soccer, cricket, cycling, swimming, surfing - the list is long.

And some lovely local faces can be seen lighting up screens and stages to international acclaim in entertainment.

So why do the most recent statistics show there's still a long way to go for the pay equality of women at work?

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics in late February put the national gender pay gap at 18.8 per cent.

That record-high, up 1.4 per cent from 2013, is an average figure: in some industries, the gap is nearly 30 per cent.

The figures don't actually measure dollar-for-dollar discrimination between men and women paid for comparable roles. If only the gap were that easy to identify and explain, it would be a straightforward solution to an invidious problem.

Rather, the data detects the more insidious issues of the cultural and structural barriers that can encumber women.

Despite nearly equal numbers of men and women at work, the latter have a much smaller slice of opportunity and security.

Women comprise one in three full-time employees; three in four working part-time; and nearly six in 10 casuals.

It's not for lack of ambition, nor access to education (nearly 56 per cent of higher education students are female).

It's because the mums, sisters, aunties and nannas are still the primary care-givers at home and in the community.

Care-giving is important work for the welfare of the young, elderly and ill, but it's costing the welfare of women.

Is it nurture? Is this what the community expects of women? Or is it nature? That women are more caring than men?

Statistics support the nature argument: sectors for health, welfare and teaching are dominated by women workers.

But what about nurture? Can we, as a community, do more to support pay equality for the welfare of women?

This is something to consider with International Women's Day on March 8 (local events on March 6).