It's time to make equality a daily habit

IT’S TIME TO MAKE EQUALITY

A DAILY HABIT

By KATE HADWEN (PhD. MEd. MNTCW. BTeach. MAICD) PRINCIPAL, PYMBLE LADIES’ COLLEGE

One of the signs of great leadership is the ability to recognise when evolution is needed, and when it’s not –and when to lean into like-minded supporters who can help effect the change that is required.

We are proud to partner with The Australian Financial Review to create this special International Women’s Day magazine, reflecting our joint commitment to building a more diverse, equitable and inclusive world. This is an important statement to the girls we educate and the business community they aspire to join.

We’ve intentionally timed this initiative to coincide with a day designed to embrace equality for women all around the world. However, this is just the start of an ongoing conversation we hope to continue with you.

Schools like Pymble Ladies’ College, and the universities our students attend afterwards, do an amazing job preparing our girls for their future – but what happens when the future is not prepared for our girls? Sadly, we are all too familiar with the data showing gaps in pay and pipelines for women in the workplace. In fact, the Australian government’s Workplace Gender Equity Agency data from 2022 shows that progress towards gender equality has stalled, and in eight industries it has actually gone backwards.

It’s time for us all to lean in harder, faster, further

to build on and accelerate the great work and inroads being made to promote gender equality in workplaces all around Australia.

It’s time for schools and educators to add our voices and scale to partner with industry and create a more equitable world, together.

This magazine is not some creative enrolments stunt. Instead, it reflects our deep commitment to helping shape a world in which the lessons we teach in schools – lessons about equality and opportunity – ring true for girls when they step out of our classrooms and into the world of work.

Our hope is that this magazine and other initiatives from our partnership with the AFR will add impetus and urgency to the strategies and actions in your workplace, which will positively impact our students, now and in the future.

We warmly invite you to read on and learn about the incredible, inspiring, insightful and innovative women showcased in this magazine; women who are forging new paths, tackling the big issues of the day, and making significant contributions to the world.

Women, like the students and graduates of Pymble Ladies’ College, who are using their unique gifts and talents to pave the way for others. Women you would be proud to see leading the way.

It’s time to change the world for better, together.

“It’s time for schools and educators to add our voices and scale to partner with industry and create a more equitable world.’’

Claiming a rightful place in the polity

Addressing the under-representation of women in politics.

By MURIEL REDDY

Women are the new force in Australian politics. Wave after wave is joining the fray, competing to represent constituencies across the country in federal, state and local governments. Even more significantly – and certainly not before time – women are winning a greater number of seats than ever before.

The figures speak for themselves. Women now fill 44.5 per cent of the seats in federal parliament. They make up a majority in the Senate. Ten women sit at the cabinet table of the Albanese government, and they come from diverse racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds.

In the lower tiers of government, representation by women is patchy but is slowly improving too.

At least some of the credit for this monumental shift must go to “Pathways to Politics for Women”, a national nonpartisan initiative designed to prepare women for competing in the political arena.

The program, which provides networking opportunities and practical training, and emphasises good governance, ethics and leadership, was launched to address the underrepresentation of women and non-binary people in Australian politics.

The initiative was rolled out eight years ago at the University of Melbourne but has now been embraced by universities in five other states and territories: Queensland, South Australia, the NT, the ACT and NSW. The program expects to be truly national from next year.

Its achievements to date are impressive.

“We have 300 Pathways alumni nationally, drawn from the across the political spectrum, and have had 27 electoral successes at local, state and federal levels,” says Sarah Buckley, chief executive of the Trawalla Foundation, a philanthropic body that has spearheaded the movement along with the university and the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia.

“A record 19 alumni across six parties and independent campaigns ran in the recent Victorian election: six were elected, representing a 31 per cent success rate.”

Politics has historically been a fraught occupation for women, a fact brought into sharp relief by the famous 2012 misogyny speech of Australia’s first woman prime minister, Julia Gillard. Delivered across the dispatch box in the House of Representatives, it helped spark a global conversation about sexist and misogynistic treatment of female politicians. While ground has been gained, some of those fears persist.

“I think the greatest fear for many women is the impact

on them and their families,” explains Dr Meredith Martin, director of the Pathways program. “Unfortunately, the way misogyny can play out, through trolling for example, can spill over into real life and into threats.

“Women can also be concerned about the reality of managing their families and the demands on life of being a political figure.”

And yet, their passion to make a difference, to do something to effect change, is empowering women and non-binary people to break through the fear. More than 500 expressed an interest in joining the Pathways program two years ago.

“Over the years, as challenges have arisen in our political system, we have wondered if women would want to step back,” says Martin. “But we have seen the reverse. We had a huge increase in our waitlist, and I think that was a statement from women that enough is enough.

“Most of the women who join our program want to change the way politics is done and make a down payment on that through their own behaviour.”

Diversity is an important criterion of the cohort.

“For some, there is an issue around youth. A lot of young women are interested in politics, but they don’t feel they have a seat at the table. Increasingly now, it’s thinking broadly about different barriers that women face in terms of formulating an aspiration, and then thinking realistically about how they can address that.

“What we do in spades is that we provide our participants with an enormous amount of confidence but at the same time prepare them for the resilience that is required for entering a parliament that is still not diverse. But we are making headway.”

The journey for many is magical. Understanding that they can have a voice in the hurly-burly of the political world can be transformative for those women and non-binary people who take on the challenge.

“Our success in terms of electoral success and electoral participation has gone beyond our wildest dreams,” says Buckley. “We’re one part of the effort and the agenda that has turned the tide.” unimelb.edu.au/pathways-to-politics

‘‘Our success in terms of electoral success and electoral participation has gone beyond our wildest dreams.’’

SARAH BUCKLEY CHIEF EXECUTIVE, TRAWALLA FOUNDATION

‘‘A lot of young women are interested in politics, but they don’t feel they have a seat at the table.’’ MEREDITH MARTIN

Going against the grain: The women leading change in male-dominated industries

From inspiration to impact.

By FRAN MOLLOY

Many of the best-paid jobs are in industries and occupations with low ratios of women, such as construction, mining, engineering and technology –and improving gender balance in these industries could put a real dent in the gender pay gap.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) points out that longheld gender-based stereotypes not only hold people back from following careers that align with their interests, but also limit innovation.

“Construction is the third-largest industry in Australia, but only around 13 per cent of the workforce is female,” says Christina Yiakkoupis, who chairs the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC), boasting around 10,000 members.

Yiakkoupis says that site-based roles are even more male-dominated, with women making up just over 2 per cent of trade-qualified workers in the construction industry.

“There’s potential to earn high pay rates from quite early in your career in construction; for example, certificatequalified electricians and carpenters typically earn more two years out of qualifying than people doing nursing or hairdressing.”

WGEA’s

2022 Gender

Equality

Scorecard found that only eight of Australia’s 19 main industries have a gender-balanced workforce with at least 40 per cent male and 40 per cent female.

That’s despite a 2017 Senate inquiry into gender segregation in the workplace and a subsequent strategy to boost women’s workforce participation, particularly in fast-growth high-pay industries such as technology and engineering.

But it’s not all bad news; shifts towards more equitable workplaces are slowly under way, in part due to rolemodelling by high-profile women leaders, and to the persistence of industry groups like NAWIC.

Embracing equity in industries that are traditionally dominated by men involves supporting women pioneers, while also encouraging organisations to adopt more innovative work practices that can improve conditions for everyone.

Yiakkoupis says that NAWIC offers opportunities for mentoring and training for women – and works closely with men who support and sponsor various initiatives such as a male ally program.

“We try to tackle the ‘leaky pipeline’ at all career stages, because many women who join the industry, don’t stay; so, we roll out trade days and work experience for girls in high schools, we work with TAFE and universities and we have networking, training and support, plus we promote female role models.”

Can’t be what you can’t see

Role-modelling was the impetus for construction industry executive Fiona Doherty to become a quantity surveyor, after seeing a BBC program profiling a woman working in that job.

“I was thinking of doing accountancy, but this job looked technical and professional while also being hands-on going out to building sites; but if that documentary had shown a lad doing that job, I probably wouldn’t have remembered it.”

Doherty’s cadetship at a workplace where two of the eight quantity surveyors were female was a fortunate beginning to a career she loves and one in which she is well paid, has plenty of job opportunities and the potential to travel the world.

“There weren’t a lot of women in the industry at the time,” she says, adding that even now, women make up just 17 per cent of the profession’s workforce in Australia.

Doherty thinks the construction industry has slowly become more accessible to women thanks to hard-won anti-discrimination legislation and programs to improve retention.

MELANIE KURZYDLO EXECUTIVE MANAGER, APP GROUP

FELICITY M c VAY GLOBAL HEAD OF ENTERTAINMENT, TIKTOK

CHRISTINA YIAKKOUPIS CHAIR, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN IN CONSTRUCTION

“Construction is still widely perceived as blokey, but at the big sites run by large companies, we now see a lot more women coming through on site,” she says.

“Change is slow, and it starts with policy changes and a shift at the top.”

Role models and champions

According to Romilly Madew, the chief executive of Engineers Australia, “just 14 per cent of working engineers across Australia are women – and this statistic has not budged much in decades”.

Research commissioned in 2021 showed that the sector’s gender gap starts at school; only one in four girls even consider engineering as a career, with lack of familiarity with the profession the most-cited reason.

Only 16 per cent of engineering graduates are women, and their numbers drop off over time. “We lose engineers, specifically women, as their experience grows, and they are ready to move into senior roles,” Madew says.

This low retention is likely part of the reason that the gender pay gap in engineering is around 22 per cent. However, changed priorities in the sector could shift this over time.

“Female graduates are slightly out-earning male graduates on average now, due to increasing demand for female engineers,” says Madew.

Amid a nationwide skills shortage, the past year has seen an alarming 41 per cent increase in engineering vacancies, Madew adds, and the industry is now focused on programs to bring qualified engineers back into the profession after a break (often to raise children) through mentoring and paid internships.

She argues that shifting the dial on diversity in engineering will need a holistic, co-ordinated approach from government, industry and educators – and is a big fan of mentoring and networking opportunities to help women advance their careers.

Madew’s own career saw her move from studying agricultural economics into a marketing role at a large law firm. She later joined the Property Council before heading up the Green Building Council for 13 years. Last year, she was appointed to the top role at Engineers Australia.

“I’ve had a really interesting career, building a great network through always participating and being on boards and committees – for sports, community and work

– through which I developed mentors and champions,” she says.

Mentoring is only part of the solution though, and Madew lists numerous practices that the industry can introduce to improve diversity and inclusion such as sponsorship, and career planning and development.

Another strategy is “opt-out promotions,” where organisations identify candidates for promotion, rather than asking them to apply. This tackles a known issue where women with the required skills are less likely than men to apply for a promotion.

Other strategies include introducing flexible work, gender-neutral parental leave and putting a gender diversity lens on practices such as hiring, talent retention and succession planning.

Diversity is a strength

“Australian business serves a diverse, beautiful society made up of a whole range of people with differences in gender, race, sexuality, neurodiversity and so on,” says Melanie Kurzydlo, who is the executive manager of project management at multibillion-dollar property and infrastructure firm APP Group.

“Improving diversity and inclusion isn’t just the right thing to do; research shows companies with a diverse workforce and management will lift profits by 20 per cent or more.”

Kurzydlo says that construction has actually experienced a downwards shift in gender diversity, with women now accounting for just 14 per cent of construction industry employees compared to 17 per cent in 2006.

She says the industry needs to improve its flexibility and role-modelling if it is to attract more women and turn that trend around.

“People have changed their expectations about work, but much of the construction industry still holds onto inflexible traditional work patterns, expecting everyone on site from 7am til late, when there’s no reason that we can’t do things differently and better – get project managers to job-share a morning and afternoon shift, for example.”

Kurzydlo says that organisations need to put different solutions on the table, rather than expecting women to “speak up” and ask for change.

Retaining women is another

ROMILLY MADEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA

big challenge faced by the industry – and Kurzydlo believes that’s partly because so few women make it into management.

“The industry has more visibility with girls, who then choose subjects at school and degrees at university that get them into the junior roles – but then we lose them, because they see fewer and fewer women in senior leadership positions.”

Pushing for gender balance in technology

Technology companies rank among the world’s top revenue earners, and senior roles can attract big salaries – but, in 2016, women made up just 12 per cent of IT executives in Australia.

That’s no surprise to Felicity McVay, now global head of entertainment at social media giant TikTok, which she says is the most diverse workplace she’s ever experienced. However, that’s not reflected across the wider industry.

“At TikTok, I work with a mix of people from different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, different gender identities, with plenty of female representation, including the heads of legal, marketing, communications, HR,” she says.

McVay trained as a lawyer then shifted to television at Fremantle Media nearly 20 years ago – “a very blokey culture back then” – and moving to their US offices.

Returning to Australia in 2010 as an early local employee of Google’s YouTube and its director of content partnerships, McVay then moved to TikTok three years ago.

“Senior leadership, in both media and technology, remains male dominated – but both industries are aware and trying to address it,” she says, adding that achieving gender balance is most challenging in technical roles like software engineering.

LEADING BY EXAMPLE

Pymble Ladies’ College principal Dr Kate Hadwen cites three simple steps that schools, organisations, industry groups and individuals can take to embrace workplace diversity.

Update procurement policies

Pymble has changed its procurement policy to only partner with businesses that have women in their senior leadership teams. “It sends a clear message to potential partners, the business world and our community: we are serious about continuing to support our students –indeed all women – beyond the school years and in the workplace,” Hadwen says.

Focus on the first point of promotion

“Research indicates that it’s the first promotion from employee to manager where the greatest gender disparity can occur,” says Hadwen, who suggests that organisations who focus on developing this pool of women, will support a bigger pool of female CEOs, CFOs and board chairs in years to come.

Support girls in the workplace

Studies show that boys are more likely than girls to know what their parents do for work, with the gap greatest in families where fathers work in male-dominated fields such as technology, finance and construction. “Parents are the single greatest influencers in their children’s careers – imagine the impact if all organisations set aside one day or even one morning to ‘bring your daughter to work’.”

McVay applauds company-wide strategies to reduce the gender pay gap and improve retention; for example, Google ran “pay transparency” exercises comparing salaries across job grades and continues to offer promotion for people on parental leave.

But she believes there is more to do at a government level; for example, she says, “support for universal access to affordable childcare will directly impact on women’s participation”.

Mining’s workforce evolution

Around 20 per cent of the 280,000 or so people working in mining in Australia are female – a proportion that has more than doubled over the past 20 years, according to

Nicole Brook, the president of the resources sector’s 14,000-member peak body Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM).

“The resources sector has grown 28 per cent over the last five years, and that will grow even more as the world undergoes a massive energy transition – we will need 10 times as much lithium in 2030 as we used in 2020, for example,” says Brook.

She says this drastic change demands plenty of innovation and will open up opportunities for a broader range of people, work types and skill sets. Traditional roles like geologists and mining engineers are expected to be supplemented by data analysts, machine learning specialists and robotics experts, among many others.

“Mining is becoming far more automated, increasing opportunities for women as it removes barriers and challenges that women faced in the past,” Brook says.

Her own career began several decades ago when, as a fresh-faced mining engineering graduate, she was the only woman working hundreds of metres underground at Tahmoor Colliery in the Southern Highlands region of NSW.

That’s unusual these days, she says. Rio Tinto reports that 58 per cent of its new graduate hires are female, while BHP reports that women make up 47 per cent of all new hirings.

“The industry has been working for many years to address the gender pay gap in the mining industry,” she says. However, there remain few women in senior roles, and a large percentage of women leave the industry after a few years – leaving fewer role models for those coming through the ranks.

AusIMM runs an extensive women’s mentoring program, from which sponsorship often emerges.

The difference? “Mentorship involves someone talking to you – sponsorship is someone talking about you,” says Brook, who says she’s personally benefited from such opportunity.

“Sponsors recognise high potential individuals and endorse them to other people. It’s not something formal, and it’s susceptible to affinity bias, where people recommend others who look, think and act like them.”

But Brook says that diversity and inclusion training can raise awareness of, and challenge, these inherent biases.

“Being part of an all-girls’ robotics team at Pymble has shown me the drive and interest girls possess in STEM.”

ANG-YA, YEAR 10

Bringing gender equality in from the cold

Increasingly, women are at the forefront of Australia’s intelligence effort.

By BARBARA COSSON

As a woman who admits to being late to feminism, Rachel Noble, director-general of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), sees her role as an opportunity to raise awareness about gender inequality.

Noble is the first female head of a statutory intelligence agency in Australia. Last month, she was joined by Kerrie Hartland, the newly appointed director-general of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS).

It is the first time that women have filled the top positions in two of the nation’s frontline spy agencies and comes at a time of unparalleled global threats that include an intensifying battle in cyberspace.

Noble’s journey to feminism has been a slow burn. She has previously said that her mother was probably more of a feminist than she and her sister, as they found the concept hard to relate to.

There was not any one thing that triggered her feminist awakening.

“In a lot of my career, I’ve been in meeting rooms where I’m the only woman,” she says. “I think as I got more senior, I could see that there was a network of men who were more likely to be socially connected to each other as well as professionally.”

Noble realised that as an outsider she had to “work out how to become involved in that network or at least understand it enough to still be able to influence outcomes”.

She is cognisant, though, of the important role that men play in achieving gender equality. Indeed, most of her mentors along her career journey have been men.

“Frankly, it’s really those men who have helped pave the way because they held the more senior roles to then allow women like me to find our space and spread our arms out,” she says.

At the same time, she believes many men still need to be “liberated”.

“There’s some really scary data that shows if a man in today’s society says, ‘Hey boss, I need to pick my kids up from school three days a week, so if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to leave a bit earlier, but I’ll make up my time later,’ he is more likely to suffer career harm as a consequence than a woman.”

According to Noble, it’s important to enable the sharing of

care as this is a task that falls mostly to women and can impact their career progression and long-term financial security.

She describes a culture of flexibility at ASD, which collects foreign signals intelligence and monitors information security on behalf of the federal government, that she says encourages involved fatherhood. “If it’s dad asking, dad gets.”

A 25-year public service veteran, Noble previously headed the Australian Cyber Security Centre where she was responsible for leading the nation’s defence against cybersecurity threats and incidents. She took on the top role at ASD in 2020.

Noble is clearly proud of the agency’s gender equity initiatives, which include a parent’s day, in which those on leave and caring for children at home are encouraged to remain connected by coming into work with their children.

“It’s the most hilarious thing when you go down to address a group of staff with babies screaming and little toddlers running around,” she says. While ASD is doing better than many organisations when it comes to gender balance, Noble says they are working hard to encourage more young women into cybersecurity roles. About 40 per cent of the directorate’s workforce is female, with a conscious effort being made to improve further the representation of women. This includes a range of initiatives such as sponsoring the Australian Women in Security Network, the Women in Cyber Mentoring program and the Girl’s Programming Network, a school program aimed at girls in years 4 to 12.

“Fifty-two per cent of people who joined us this financial year were female,” says Noble. “So, that is more reflective of the population.”

Her message to young women is not to believe stereotypes, which tend to perpetuate the myth of cybersecurity roles requiring workers to be locked in a room tethered to their computers with little to no engagement with others.

“Find out for yourself and come and meet some of the amazing women who are working in ASD who can tell you their stories about what their day-to-day life is like,” she says. “You might find that it is way cooler and way more fun than you ever dreamed.”

“Fifty-two per cent of people who joined us this financial year were female. So, that is more reflective of the population.”

RACHEL NOBLE DIRECTOR-GENERAL, AUSTRALIAN SIGNALS DIRECTORATE

If you see it, you believe you can be it

Rugby Sevens member and Pymble alumna reflects on her sporting journey.

By CHLOE DALTON

One of my favourite memories as a kid was walking down to my local footy field, Rat Park (named after our local team, the Warringah Rats), to watch my brothers play rugby. I would sit patiently on the hill, counting down the seconds until halftime. Before the siren sounded, I would collect my worn-out footy and find a dodgy cone to act as my tee. Once the boys had cleared the field, I would set up my makeshift tee and attempt to kick the conversion from the sideline. I wasn’t half bad.

Grown men would walk up to me and say, “You should play rugby.” Slightly confused, my usual response was, “Girls don’t play rugby.” There were in fact some exceptional women playing rugby at the time, but I had never heard or seen them. They were always out on the worst pitch in the back paddock, and never in the newspaper or on television or radio.

The only time I could see my sports idols on TV was every four years when the Olympics and Paralympics rolled around. Keen to follow in the footsteps of Lauren Jackson and represent Australia at the Olympics, I picked up basketball from the age of about 12. By 19, I had the chance to play for the Sydney Uni Flames in the Women’s National Basketball League –where I spent game after game on the bench, high-fiving and towel waving.

In 2013, after two years of feeling a long way away from my Olympic dream, I arrived home from Flames

Chloe Dalton OAM is one of Australia’s few female triple-sport elite athletes, having played basketball, Rugby Sevens and now Australian Rules at national or international level.

In 2016, while still a student at Pymble Ladies’ College, Chloe was a member of the Australian Rugby Sevens team that won gold at the Rio Olympics and awarded an Order

training one night and Googled ‘list of Olympic sports’ on my computer. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Rugby Sevens would be an Olympic sport for the very first time in 2016. I switched codes and, thousands of tackles later, boarded the plane with my Aussie Sevens teammates, bound for Rio, where we each won our very own Olympic gold medal.  While we have made some ground in promoting and broadcasting women’s sport, a recent study found that women receive just 4 per cent of all sports media coverage despite accounting for 40 per cent of all participants in sport. The aim of the [female] athlete project is to recognise and celebrate stories and achievements of female athletes, and to address the gender inequalities that exist within the sports media space.

Through storytelling in podcast format and social media, we have built a community of 45,000+ people who are passionate about women in sport and changing the story, so that every young girl playing down at the local footy field can see her idols, everywhere she looks.

of Australia Medal for Service to Sport. In 2017, Chloe was recognised as Australia’s top Rugby Sevens player by winning the Shawn Mackay Medal. Today, Chloe plays in the Australian Football League Women’s Competition as a member of the GWS Giants. She is also the founder and host of the [female] athlete project to encourage more young women to realise their potential in sport.

“The only time I could see my sports idols on TV was every four years when the Olympics and Paralympics rolled around.”

Valuing women in business

The research is clear: more women in leadership adds value.

By CARA JENKIN

Women are edging their way into Australia’s boardrooms and C-suites and although progress appears slow, there is rising optimism that gains achieved at the top will start filtering through to those below.

Data compiled by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) reveals that around a third of board members are women and fewer than one in five boards (18 per cent) have a female chair.

But the agency’s 2022 employer census also found that the proportion of boards with no female members has declined, from 37 per cent in 2014-15 to 22 per cent.

And there are more female chief executives (22 per cent) than there were in 2013-14 (16 per cent), while the proportion of women in key management positions has also increased –from 26 per cent to 35 per cent over the same period.

The Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) says the lack of women chairing boards likely reflects the lack of women holding chief executive roles.

It cites a review by research and advocacy group Chief Executive Women that found more than half of ASX 300 company chairs had a career background as a chief executive, but only 11 per cent were women.

Nevertheless, AICD education and policy leadership general manager Louise Petschler says positive change is occurring, as 35.7 per cent of ASX 200 board directors are women, which is a similar proportion to other countries where gender quotas are legislated.

Petschler believes that even just a few years ago, boards were hostile to the idea of having female board members, but now they appreciate the need to embrace diversity.

“Our view is Australia has progressed very well in terms of gender diversity on boards, particularly the big ASX-listed companies,” she says.

When AICD started investigating the issue of boardroom diversity in 2010, just 8 per cent of board seats on ASX 200 companies were held by women.

“That change has happened in not a huge amount of time,” says Petschler. “Investors, particularly institutional investors, and the community understand that having, for example, less than 10 per cent of board seats on our biggest listed companies held by women – that’s clearly not a reflection of the talent pool, the experience and the perspectives that should be sitting around those board tables.

“If you’re a big company of any description and you have an all-white male board of very similar individuals, you’ll find yourself challenged by your customers, by your shareholders and by stakeholders who want, and expect to see, more diverse boards.”

Boards also are recognising the relationship between

‘‘Our view is Australia has progressed very well in terms of gender diversity on boards, particularly the big ASX-listed companies.’’ LOUISE PETSCHLER

Introducing the Chairs for Change campaign: because there are no prizes for coming 43rd

By DR KATE HADWEN

Chairman or chair? It’s often the simplest actions that have the greatest impact. With a big gulp and an even bigger dose of courage, I write this call to action in the hope it will convince you to support a campaign to do one simple thing: remove gender from the title of one of the highest offices in corporate Australia.

Chairs for Change is an initiative of Pymble Ladies’ College, the Southern Hemisphere’s largest school for girls. It was inspired by an article published in the AFR in 2022 that carried the headline, “Only 10 per cent of major ASX companies led by a female chairman”.

The headline alone raised an interesting question: is language holding back women from aspiring to lead company boards? The article went on to point out that just 21 blue-chip companies in Australia had female “chairmen”.

The term chairman dates to the 1650s, when the word meant “occupier of a chair of authority”. Today, the reference to gender in the title reinforces stereotypes that tie men to this leadership position.

For this reason, many schools have moved away from headmaster and headmistress to head of school or principal. What a statement it would make should corporate Australia transition from chairman to chair.

Language is a powerful tool. It shapes people and culture, and ultimately changes behaviour. Research shows

more women in leadership roles and subsequent improvements in company performance, productivity and profitability, as amply demonstrated by research.

The WGEA and AICD both support a 40:40:20 board model, where 40 per cent of members are male and 40 per cent are female, with the remaining 20 per cent drawn from either gender.

Petschler says mentoring, such as the institute’s Chairs Mentoring Program (which pairs aspiring and emerging female board members with senior ASX 200 chairs and directors), is one way to continue supporting the gender shift.

The growth in female representation in boardrooms and C-suites is gradual, however, a bit like the creep provisions underpinning Australia’s takeover laws.

University of Queensland research reports a 2 per cent a year increase in the number of women joining ASX 200 boards between 2009 and 2021. Its study reveals the two greatest barriers to further progress are affordable childcare and persistent gender stereotypes.

The 100% Project, a not-for-profit group championing gender equality in leadership, noted that stereotypes were preventing men from accessing familyfriendly work arrangements, leaving women to shoulder the burden of home care. It meant that men were continuing

the way we use language can influence subconscious biases without us even realising.

At times, we continue to use words we have always used without questioning the inferences and messages they convey in the modern context. Given that we know language reinforces stereotypes, it makes sense to remove gender from a significant leadership title to make it more inclusive. We all know how influential chairs of boards are; starting from the top sends a strong message of support and will encourage other leaders to follow suit.

Australia currently sits in 43rd place on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report. As an Australian, I’ve never really thought of myself as a citizen of a country ranked 43rd by any measure. We’re better than that. It would be a proud day for our country if all boards, whether they represent not-for-profits, ASX 200 companies or family businesses, chose to adopt the gender-neutral title of chair over chairman.

Join us in advocating for Chairs for Change, simply by scanning the QR code on the back page to register your interest in starting the conversation in your workplace.

BY THE NUMBERS

35% OF KEY MANAGEMENT ROLES ARE HELD BY WOMEN

22% OF CHIEF EXECUTIVES ARE FEMALE

34% OF BOARD MEMBERS ARE WOMEN

18% OF BOARDS HAVE A FEMALE CHAIR

22% OF BOARDS ARE ALL-MALE 1% OF BOARDS ARE ALL-FEMALE

20% OF BOARDS HAVE A GENDER BALANCE

SOURCE: WORKPLACE GENDER EQUALITY AGENCY

in their careers while women were less available to drive their own.

The group’s Breaking Dad white paper reveals family-friendly work arrangements are available to men, and they want to access them, but are concerned doing so will have a detrimental effect on their career.

This is despite men who are primary caregivers being perceived more favourably by workplaces than those who are the main breadwinners.

The organisation’s vision is to see 100 per cent of leadership talent, female and male, equally contribute to Australia’s social and economic future, adding that organisations need to invest more in creating psychologically safe workforces and drive change to achieve gender equality in parenting, as a precursor to greater gender equality in leadership.

Mary Wooldridge says WGEA data also shows that to attract more women into senior roles, more part-time and flexible roles should be offered.

“Innovative actions we’ve seen from leading employers include creating job sharing or part-time work arrangements for managerial or executive roles, and actively implementing and role-modelling flexible working approaches,” she says.

“These types of measures make it easier for men and women to equally participate in the workforce.”

‘‘What a statement it would make should corporate Australia transition from chairman to chair.’’

Why wouldn’t I try and diffuse gender disparity in the workplace, when I become a leader? Having been involved in all-girls teams my entire life, the prospect of having teams without empowered women seems nonsensical.

Being part of an all-female robotics team at Pymble has shown me the drive and interest girls possess in STEM. The international success of Pymble’s robotics pursuits is a testament to our technical capabilities. Through our achievements at competitions, we have demonstrated first-hand that the gender norms and stereotypes that exist surrounding STEM aptitude are false.

Research shows no innate cognitive biological differences between men and women in mathematics; however, men continue to dominate in STEM-related career paths such as engineering. Why?

The disparity is not due to lack of ambition or ability, but due to an imbalance in the industry. The imbalance is perpetuated by a culture that suggests STEM subjects are more suited to boys than girls.

It is vital that we hire women in the STEM workforce because equality and diversity in the workplace benefit all. A diverse workforce, with equal representation of women in STEM careers, breaks down gender barriers and leads to a more innovative environment. Investing in women in STEM not only empowers them, but also benefits society and drives progress.

When I think about building teams in the future, I know that having a diverse representation of women will be essential to achieving our goals and making a real impact. That’s why when I become a leader, I will diffuse gender disparity in the workplace by empowering and employing other women.

As a Year 10 student interested in pursuing medicine, I find it difficult to read the statistics on male dominance in this field, particularly in senior positions. The reality is that women are equally capable in these roles and have been shown to make a positive impact on productivity and profitability when given the opportunity to do so.

Research shows both genders have their own strengths and weaknesses. Women are particularly stronger with emotional intelligence. From my perspective, emotional intelligence is a valuable skillset that helps in improving various aspects of the workplace including communication, relationships and the harmony of the overall environment.

And yet, in 2023, women still face inequality in the workplace – whether it be lower pay or bias and discriminatory behaviour. When I become a leader, I hope to help change this by implementing some simple strategies to reduce gender disparity:

1. Encourage more women to be employed and celebrate their importance and skills in the workplace.

2. Provide gender-bias training and raise awareness across the organisation.

3. Improve culture by setting clear targets for the number of women in board positions, and measuring and reporting on those regularly.

4. Consider organisational processes such as recruitment, promotions and salary reviews to increase women’s participation.

5. Provide mentoring and sponsorship to support women in achieving their career goals in different stages; their increased success would provide the necessary evidence to address the long-standing bias and promote true meritocracy.

Gender disparity in the workplace can be difficult to address and often it seems it is easy for companies to get lost in the sea of gender targets. It can be confusing to know where to start, especially with all the subconscious narratives encouraging women to behave more like men – in what they wear, how they behave and what they need to sacrifice to be a “career woman”.

When I become a leader, the question I will be asking my leadership team is not, “How should we employ more women?” but rather “Why is gender disparity still an issue for this company?” The greatest value of women in the workplace is our individuality; just like men, women have their own strengths, ambitions and talents. So, how can we remove this gendered bias, and build a workforce built on merit?

In order to reach gender equality, everyone within an organisation needs to be committed to solving it together and being brave enough to implement a systemic overhaul. Targets and quotas are not enough; just look at the statistics.

Only 35 per cent of key management roles are held by women. Only 22 per cent of chief executive officers are women. Only 34 per cent of board members are women. And only 20 per cent of boards have gender balance.

Employers need to engage with their employees and the broader business community to raise awareness of the impact of unconscious and conscious gender bias and seek innovative ways to address it.

On this International Women’s Day, I would like us to celebrate what makes each of us valuable to the workplace –our unique experiences, traits and skills.

ANG-YA, YEAR 10

AYSEL, YEAR 10

TILLY, YEAR 12

What strategies would you use to diffuse gender disparity in the workplace when you become a leader?

Start-up sexism costs billions

Australia’s female founders are struggling to get a slice of the funding pie.

By HELEN SHIELD

Imagine, after years observing cumbersome processes with hit-and-miss results, you invent a straightforward, transparent solution giving consumers easy access to information to make vital decisions. You have contacts, technology, proof of concept and a global market.

Given your expertise and the desperate demand for your innovation, you’d get immediate funding – right? Wrong. And if you are an Australian woman, you couldn’t be more wrong.

The Deloitte report Accelerating Women Founders: The Untapped Investment Opportunity reveals that in the year to June 30, 2022, just 0.7 per cent of Australia’s start-up funding went to companies founded by women alone.

This was despite female-founded start-ups funded by angel investors the year before generating almost 5000 fulltime equivalent jobs and $1 billion in economic activity.

Take Global Study Partners, a matchmaking service for international students and education providers, designed to give students a transparent way to compare and select the best course for them.

Founder Elaine Starkey says raising money was “the most challenging part”. Family and friends stepped up with seed funding, helping her establish proof of concept, but “building a global two-sided marketplace required deep pockets”, with years of stressful, fruitless capital-raising discussions and “committed investors” who never delivered.

Meanwhile, her male-led, overseas-based start-up peers raised capital out of Silicon Valley and Singapore. If she had her time again, Starkey says, she would go outside Australia and take more money at the start.

In her work in international development in Asia, TOQQA founder and chief executive Michelle Curry realised that, as well as being excluded from the financial system, 95 per cent of women ran their enterprises manually.

So, she devised TOQQA, an app with the services needed to manage revenue, performance, growth and sustainability within a single portal.

Her funding attempts were also thwarted. “I decided to bootstrapfund it myself,” Curry says. “On the plus side, I have total control. On the downside, everything is slower.”

Both stories illustrate the struggle faced by female founders to get access to funding to develop businesses that will contribute billions of dollars and generate thousands of jobs.

The inequity is unlikely

to stem from fewer female-founder funding applicants, says Loren Bridge, the executive officer of the Alliance of Girls Schools Australia.

“Girls school environments give girls the confidence to step into male-dominated areas, be they leadership, STEM careers or entrepreneurship,” Bridge says, adding she suspects women are applying in equal numbers to men for grants and funding and the problem lies elsewhere.

SBE Australia chief executive Nicole Cook says despite commitments to moving investment metrics “closer to parity”, capital raising is formulaic and hasn’t changed to

cater for diversity, and women founders need to be wary of being “handcuffed” to one funding source or taking early capital from a mismatched investor. She backs tax incentives for those who invest in diverse founders. “Seed new funds with an investment thesis aligned to enterprises women are more likely to operate.”

Boosting Female Founders, a Department of Industry, Science and Resources initiative started in 2020 that matches funding, has awarded more than $23 million to 89 start-ups. A department spokesperson acknowledges women founders face obstacles in securing capital, other funding and supportive networks and that “increasing gender diversity of founders also has the potential to strengthen the performance of Australia’s start-up and innovation ecosystems”.

The female start-up angel group Scale Investors, which turns 10 this year, acts as a conduit between female start-ups and high-networth investors. It offers online courses to support founders’ investment knowledge and facilitates sessions between potential angel investors and founders.

Scale mostly runs a syndicate model. “We  need more investors investing in this asset class more regularly,” says co-CEO Chelsea Newell.

“And more male investors as allies.” The Deloitte study highlighted that for every dollar of funding, women-founded start-ups generated 78 cents of revenue compared with 31 cents for male-founded start-ups.

‘‘Girls school environments give girls the confidence to step into male-dominated areas.’’ LOREN BRIDGE

Turning a big idea into social enterprise

By VAL McFARLANE

There has long been a gender imbalance in health and medical research but, in 2023, it remains shockingly stark.

Early-career female researchers outnumber males, but the further up the ladder you look, the fewer women there are – women hold fewer senior academic positions, speak at fewer conferences and receive less research funding.

The reasons are many and complex, from patriarchal structures within academia, to poor work-life balance. But the result is the same: women abandon the traditional academic pathway from PhD to professorship, and often quit science altogether.

It’s a situation Dr Melina Georgousakis is working hard to change, having witnessed first-hand the female brain drain from science during her early career in infectious disease research.

“Women from our sector were being lost at a mass rate and, at the time, not very much was being done about it,” she says.

“I thought, we don’t need them all to be academic researchers, but we can’t lose this brain trust from the sector.”

In 2014, Georgousakis founded Franklin Women to bring together women working in the health and medical research sector.

“We were all working in silos and were all going through our really tough journeys alone,” she says. “There wasn’t really a support network.”

Named in recognition of Rosalind Franklin, who captured the image of DNA that led to the discovery of its double-helix structure, Franklin Women became that network. Today, it has around 400 members across Australia, and 15,000 others engaged as newsletter and social media subscribers.

Members range from PhD students to institute directors and corporate executives, working in roles from vaccine development to health communications.

“It’s really a mixed bag and that is its beauty and its value,” says Georgousakis.

Franklin Women is a for-profit social enterprise. Membership fees are reinvested to support members’ careers, ultimately benefiting the sector and society.

As well as in-person and online networking events, the group offers professional development activities and a mentoring program. There’s also a scholarship available to help reduce the impact of caring responsibilities on recipients’ career progression.

The organisation is designed to be flexible and responsive. This proved invaluable during the height of the COVID-19

pandemic, when many members found themselves heavily involved in the response.

“They were women who were on the frontline who also had a lot of caring roles, university lecturers whose teaching was turned upside down … they were being pulled in so many directions,” says Georgousakis. “The last thing that anyone really needed in that time was more things to do.”

The organisation paused membership fees for several months to ease financial pressure. As in-person gatherings were replaced by virtual events, the focus changed from career progression to wellbeing and mental health.

And funds for the scholarship were redirected to pay for meal service vouchers.

“Women, typically, were looking after kids, working from home, trying to do their teaching, trying to do their research, all while living in a bubble, and then they also had to grocery shop and plan a meal, cook a meal,” Georgousakis adds.

“That was getting in the way of their work. They didn’t need a work opportunity, they just needed time to do it.”

Georgousakis’ determination to clear the way for women is increasingly shared by employers. To date, 19 organisations have joined Franklin Women as partners.

“Connecting and investing in women is my primary aim because it is going to take a long time to change culture and I don’t want to lose them while that’s happening,” she explains.

“There is no point empowering women and giving them new skills and giving them opportunities if they go back into organisations where the cultures are just not inclusive. They are set up to fail.

“But now, we have an amazing alliance of partner organisations who are actively stepping up and trying to better understand the data in their organisations, where women and non-binary people are represented, and what they can do to change that at an organisation level.”

The results are promising. The organisation’s growth means what was once Georgousakis’ side hustle is now her full-time job.

In that, she represents the spirit of Franklin Women perfectly. She’s taken her own career advice, which is to “follow your own path”.

“It’s been so true for me and other members of the Franklin community,” she says. “It looks like you are up against so many challenges and the pathways seem very defined for you, but when you really think about who you are and what you love, and stay true to that, then all the other noise around the outside doesn’t really matter.” franklinwomen.com.au

Women are banding together to stop the female brain drain.

‘‘Women from our sector were being lost at a mass rate and, at the time, not very much was being done about it.’’

MELINA GEORGOUSAKIS FOUNDER, FRANKLIN WOMEN

Why are we waiting?

The latest Chief Executive Women Senior Executive Census tells us that it will take 100 years for women to make up at least 40 per cent of all CEO positions on the ASX 200.

By LI-ENN KOO

World Economic Forum data ranks

Australia first for women’s education and 70th for workforce participation. Our schools and universities are producing incredibly talented female graduates, but their potential is not being realised.

Chief Executive Women Senior Executive Census predicts it will take 100 years for women to make up at least 40 per cent of ASX 200 CEO positions.

Surely employers need to do more to embrace these graduates.

This isn’t diversity for diversity’s sake. There’s enormous value in having different perspectives across a team. Diversity in all its forms including gender, experience, culture, age, background, education and sexuality, is proven to lead to diversity of thought and improved problem solving in executive teams.

Contrary views have value when they challenge others to think differently and see other perspectives. This helps the bottom line and makes for a more dynamic work environment and culture.

In my working life, Australian business has improved diversity at the junior levels but in the senior corporate ranks the representation of women is still lagging. McKinsey calls this the “broken rung” at the first step of promotion to management. Women are promoted at far lower rates than men, which makes it difficult for companies to lay a foundation for sustained progress at more senior levels.

To do better at retaining and promoting female talent, businesses need to think about the main barriers to advancement.

They might consider whether the mindsets of decision makers are inadvertently holding progress back. Are leaders

challenging their own perceptions. Is there a policy or process that doesn’t help, or a lack of one that could?

Building diversity and inclusion requires a process of experimentation, learning from that and adapting.

Speaking directly to female employees is important to ensure they are seen, heard and supported. Listening to learn rather than react can help to inform impactful change. Tailored solutions may be required for those close to promotion such as supporting them through the process with mentoring, networking and development assistance, if required, to improve their commercial, strategic and financial acumen or other leadership skills.

Employers can help to raise the profile of women in their organisations by asking them to take up projects and secondments, and to speak on panels or at events.

It is also critical for organisations to think about how they can bring diversity into their hiring practices to improve their attractiveness as employers to diverse candidates. Diversity should be on display in the interview process and diverse candidates included on short lists.

Diversity and inclusion is about deep cultural change and requires ruthless examination of company values, leadership, policies and benefits to ensure they all encourage a culture of equity and inclusion where different views are valued.

It involves holding leaders to account for creating pathways for gender-balanced pay, promotion, retention and work practices.

These strategies will help bring businesses lacking senior women to a tipping point where it’s easier to attract and retain women.

OUR PHOTOGRAPHY Pymble is proud to recognise award-winning photographer, director, artist and thought leader Alina Gozin’a, who photographed both Pymble’s Watch Us Change the World Campaigns. Gozin’a is represented in Australia by Merv and is known for photographing some of the most iconic AFRMagazine covers of notable personalities such as Oscar winner Emile Sherman (January 2023), Judith Neilson, Scott Farquhar, Frank Lowy and Andrew Forrest to mention a few; and is an advocate and mentor for gender equality. Her keynote talk The Art of Seeing sets out to inspire all to see the world and themselves in a new light.

‘‘There is no silver bullet or one size fits all solution, but action is vital.’’

LI-ENN

KOO FOUNDING PARTNER AND HEAD OF PEOPLE AND CULTURE AT BARRENJOEY PYMBLE LADIES COLLEGE BOARD MEMBER

Edited by BARBARA COSSON ; Contributors: VAL McFARLANE , HELEN SHIELD , CARA JENKIN , FRAN MOLLOY and MURIEL REDDY Produced by MEDIAXPRESS

Watch us change the world one Chair at a time.

Chairman or Chair? The simplest actions have the greatest impact in life. This campaign aims to do one simple thing: remove gender from the title of one of the highest offices in corporate Australia.

The statistics show only 18 per cent of major ASX companies are led by a female “chairman.”

Language is a powerful tool shaping people, culture and reinforcing stereotypes. It makes sense to remove gender from a leadership title to make it more inclusive. Starting from the top down sends a strong message of inclusion and will encourage other leaders to follow suit.

What a statement it would be if all boards - non-forprofits, ASX 200 or family boards - choose to adopt the gender-neutral title of Chair over Chairman.

Join us in advocating for Chairs for Change. Simply scan the QR code to register your support. It’s one simple step that can help change the world.