Women are not a problem to be solved but rather the greatest untapped resource in Australia's economy, the jobs and skills summit has been told.
The landmark summit of business, university and union representatives has been urged to put women at the forefront of workplace reform.
But the federal government must also take action to ensure women can participate fully in the workforce, independent MP Zoe Daniel said.
Gender impact statements on all new legislation, strengthening worker flexibility rights and mandating gender pay gap reporting are some of the changes government could make to benefit female workers, Ms Daniel said.
"Women are done with being secondary," she told the summit.
Societal norms as a whole need to change to improve the standing of women in Australia, Equality Institute chief Emma Fulu said.
"We value male-dominated industries more and female-dominated industries less ... because we value women less in our society," she told the summit.
"When we think of solutions, we need to be addressing these deep cultural and structural issues ... we need to challenge those rigid gender norms."
Change within Australia's important industries will have a far bigger impact for women than reform in one business or organisation, Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins said.
Scott Farquhar, the co-founder of software giant Atlassian, said the tech industry did not have the same gender challenges as others.
While agreeing the industry needed more female workers, Mr Farquhar said tech's gender pay gap is half of that found in other high-paying sectors.
The national average gap, the difference in full-time earnings between men and women, is currently 14.1 per cent according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data released last month.
Yet Ms Jenkins said the summit was an important turning point for women in the workforce.
"The conversations today and leading up to this have given me the chills with such hope and optimism of change," she said.
"We're not having to argue why we need more women in the workplace."
A key part of encouraging more women in the workforce will be improving access to and affordability of child care.
Policies to reform childcare subsidies are not welfare but sound investments with tangible economic benefits, KPMG national chair Alison Kitchen said.
Businesswoman and women's safety advocate Sam Mostyn, announced as head of the government's Women's Economic Equality Taskforce on Thursday, said the government's childcare subsidy should be fast-tracked to January.
"We know (child care) doesn't just pay for itself, there's a compounding benefit to the economy because of the economic activity it releases," she said at the summit.
Women's Minister Katy Gallagher defended the plan to continue with the coalition-initiated high-income tax cuts, set to benefit men most, while resisting calls to bring the childcare subsidy forward.
"We tried to make amendments to stage three when they were debated in the parliament and we lost that debate," she told ABC Radio.
"The government hasn't changed the position we took to the election on stage three (tax cuts)."
If the government could afford tax cuts for the wealthy it could also afford to bring the childcare subsidy forward, Ms Daniels said.
Summit attendees must not forget about the lived experiences of women across Australia, Ms Mostyn said.
"Action will mean looking at budgets, tax reform policies and initiatives through the lens of a simple question: whether the measure disproportionately discriminates or holds back women and girls," she said.
