On Friday, Brittany Higgins, the former parliamentary staffer who sparked an country-wide movement when she went public with allegations of rape by a fellow staffer in a cabinet minister's office, met with both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition.

The aim was to have "constructive talks" about what can be done to address the toxic workplace culture faced by female political staffers.

On the same day, The Canberra Times ran a front-page story about the growing superannuation gap between men and women, and the horrifying toll this is taking on many older women.

Two different problems, but both on the same spectrum of what we're now calling the Women Problem.

In one, a young woman's experiences brings into stark relief the problems faced by many in workplaces across the country, something the prime minister himself claims to have been largely unaware of until forced - first by his own wife, and then by a growing mass of women speaking up - to reckon with.

In the other, a much quieter and insidious version of inequality, with a long tail of causes and consequences. In Australia, it is still women who largely bear the brunt of child-rearing duties.

Many opt to stay at home, or work part-time, while their children are young, often relying on their partners to support the family. But the cost of childcare means that for too many women, returning to work is not an obvious solution.

After Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced a $1.7 billion cash splash for the childcare sector on Sunday it remains to be seen what effect this will have on women and their families.

Thus, upon retirement many women find themselves with far smaller superannuation balances than their - usually male - partners.

New analysis from Industry Super Australia has revealed just how wide that gap has become in Canberra, where the average super balance of a Canberra woman in her 60s is roughly half that of a male at the same stage of life - $231,400 compared to $432,800.

In terms of practical effects, this disparity can have devastating consequences - poverty and homelessness - for older women who separated from their partners.

In the words of the chief executive of YWCA Canberra Frances Crimmins: "In other words, a system designed for men."

Super balances reflect other structural inequalities, just as Brittany Higgins' experience speaks to so many other age-old forms of discrimination faced by women in all sorts of settings throughout society.

So, women feel unsafe at work, insecure in retirement, and generally fed up with what is becoming increasingly apparent is a general disregard for gender inequality in a country that is, in many contexts, touted as progressive.

Meanwhile, momentum is gathering the lead-up to the May budget, as the government is set to unveil new measures, worth billions of dollars, to address women's economic security and personal safety.

Among these will be new policies to boost superannuation savings, make childcare more affordable, and develop new policies to tackle domestic violence.

It's sad and telling that these measures are being taken now, and only now - not in any given year before now. It's not as though any of these problems are new, or revelatory.

But better now than never, even if it took monumental and painful acts of courage for women to speak out loud enough for those in power to finally take notice.

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