More Women in Leadership Roles – what needs to change?
Where are we now?
At the March 2017 Community Services 1 Leadership Breakfast, Gill Savage discussed the challenges of increasing the number of women in leadership roles with participants. Here is the transcript of her presentation.
Increasing the number of women in leadership roles in Australia continues to be an important focus for public, private and community sector organisations – big and small. From a purely numbers perspective, the representation of women in leadership roles should reflect the representation of women in the community – a 50:50 split IS fair and reasonable. But there is much more to this than being fair. There are tangible bottom line benefits. Studies show that women in leadership roles improves organisational performance, ensures greater access to talented individuals and increases competitive advantage.
I am pleased that female representation on company boards within Australia is increasing. The latest figures taken from the ’30 per cent by 2018: Gender diversity progress report’ show that women now account for 25 per cent of ASX 200 board positions, a stark improvement from 8.3 per cent in 2009. There is still a way to go to reaching critical mass of 30 per cent women on boards. While the case for diversity is well established, there are still 14 companies in the ASX 200 with no women on their boards.
Sadly, a survey of company directors in 2016 by the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) identified there is a very long way to go. The feedback from company directors included: ‘We’re going to be denying that opportunity to all those men’, ‘Women talk too much, they don’t get to the heart of the matter’, ‘We often have board meetings at odd hours, which doesn’t suit women who need to be looking after their families’, and ‘We’d love to have more women on out board, we just can’t find them with the right skills and the right experience’.
Big challenges in relation to company director attitudes but what about executive roles in Australia? The level of female representation in executive positions in Australian companies has stagnated. Despite being low, the level in Australia is the highest when compared to other countries. However, we shouldn’t settle for being the highest if the figure is low. There is a need for more action and a greater focus within Australia.
Why bother?
Besides being the right thing to do, it makes very good sense! Here are some statistics that highlight the tangible benefits female board members and executive-level women make. A one percentage point increase in women on boards reduces the probability of fraud by around seven percent (Gender Equity Insights 2016: Inside Australia’s Gender Pay Gap). Of 265 Asia-Pacific companies with over USD10 billion market capitalisation, those with at least one female board member delivered 58{b043c28e7b9947be28c1282b3df39b21c511d3f2967fc2b8db83775bbc7e7dfb} better performance in share prices from 2006 to July 2016 (CS Gender 3000: The Reward for Change).
It just makes very good sense.
What is the problem?
There are a range of challenges including the gender pay gap, the amount of unpaid work performed by women compared to men, flexible working arrangements, and corporate, and community, attitudes. There is a 23{b043c28e7b9947be28c1282b3df39b21c511d3f2967fc2b8db83775bbc7e7dfb} pay gap between women and men in average total remuneration, worth almost $27,000 a year and Australian women working full-time earn less than men on average in every industry. For every hour of unpaid care work that men perform, women do one hour and 48 minutes (The Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Australian Government, March 2017).
Government and big organisations can drive uptake of programs and policies but as we’ve seen with the examples from the AICD survey, community attitudes also need to change. When there are equal numbers of men and women distributed around the kitchen bench and the barbecue outside during the average Australian social gathering, then we will know we’ve made significant progress.
What’s happening?
There are lots of change initiatives underway that are effective in big and small, and government and non-government workplaces. Male champions of change is a great initiative but it’s not enough to talk about change. You must do something that is different within your organisation as well.
Targets do work. The key driver of increased representation of women on boards is the AICD target and given the results to date, it is looking positive. Do we need quotas? If you asked me that question when I was in my 20s I would have said no – I would have said ‘I don’t need any help!’ Ask me today and my answer is ‘feel free to help in any way!’ A government department recently introduced quotas for its graduate program. That department usually takes many graduates each year and assessed that there was no reason why 50{b043c28e7b9947be28c1282b3df39b21c511d3f2967fc2b8db83775bbc7e7dfb} shouldn’t be women and 50{b043c28e7b9947be28c1282b3df39b21c511d3f2967fc2b8db83775bbc7e7dfb} men. Given the number of applications received and the quality of candidates, achieving that outcome was very likely. It will be interesting to see how that pans out because the culture of the department will greatly influence the success of that initiative.
Flexible working arrangements and family friendly workplaces. This is not about minimalist part time arrangements or a parent’s room in the workplace. We assume we all know what flexible working means – and I thought I did too until recently. Gather a bunch of people from your organisation together from different levels and roles and different genders and backgrounds. You will be amazed at the different expectations concerning flexible working and it’s not about part time hours. An interesting side point here is that the tech savvy millennial workforce is a big advocate for flexible working. And for them that means working in the same manner as they operate at home and working wherever they are whenever they choose. Traditional workplaces need to have a big rethink to satisfy those expectations.
If you had asked when I started working all that time ago if I EXPECTED to be discriminated against in the workforce based on my gender, I would have said no. But I was and like women of my age, I have lots of stories that I won’t bore you with here. But how much has changed? A study last year found that most young women entering the workforce EXPECT to be discriminated against. I guess forewarned is forearmed. It’s not the kind of progress I was hoping for!
Another big challenge we don’t often think about is when you have a diverse workforce and flexible working arrangements, the quality of your managers and leaders needs to be much, much higher! We generally don’t invest in management and leadership for diversity outcomes but maybe we should.
And the policies need to work – they must stop being a list of hurdles that make it almost impossible to fulfil. While the boss and the HR team are important, we all must contribute.
Time to take it personally
The theme for International Women’s Day 2017 is Be Bold for Change. But how? Well, I think, it’s time to take it personally!
I have a great niece. (When I say ‘great’ I mean she is fantastic and she is also my niece’s daughter!) At the end of the school year her mum posted a picture and a message on Facebook that read ‘I am so proud of my daughter – she received a class achievement award today’. Of course, the congratulations started to flow. And do you know what the most used words were? Gorgeous girl! Really!! So being the annoying great aunt I am – I am fantastic too – my Facebook post was ‘And she is smart, and capable, and strong, and loyal, and nice….’ I think I may have inadvertently bullied everyone into submission because the fb posts STOPPED!
I have another great niece. She is five and a bit of a thinker. One day we were playing and she asked me if I was a girl. And when I said ‘Yes’ she responded ‘But you don’t have long hair or nail polish’. She has long hair and nail polish. Now, I confess I was a bit stunned but managed to calmly say that all people are different and its OK. When I told her dad, his response was ‘Oh that’s because her mum and grandmother take her to have her hair and nails done’. But the obvious question for dad was ‘What activities do you do with her?’
The theatre director Jude Kelly argues that for many centuries (and for many reasons) critically acclaimed creative genius has generally come from a male perspective. Until we see and understand a gender-equal society, we won’t see significant change. The point being, until we experience the value of a gender-equal society in action, it is difficult to appreciate the enormous benefit. It is a little like, we don’t know what we don’t know!
Dame Stephanie Shirley was described by TEDX in 2015 as ‘the most successful tech entrepreneur you never heard of’. In the 1960s, she founded an all-woman software company in the UK, all working from home, which was ultimately valued at $3 billion, making millionaires of 70 of her team members. She went by the name of “Steve” just to get in the door. And in the early 1970s she had to start employing men to meet the gender discrimination laws. Dame Stephanie is confirmation that women can succeed in challenging the bias towards men in business.
So, while we have made progress and we need to celebrate that success, there is still a long way to go. If each of us takes it personally, the momentum will continue to build. But we need to work at change every day.
We need to engage with women in the spotlight the way we do with men. No one ever comments on the shoes of male Prime Ministers and no one would ask a male Member of Parliament if they are going to resume their modelling career after they leave Parliament.
We also need to support aspiring women by not only opening the door but also assisting them to walk through the door. I have spent a lot of time mentoring women and I am amazed that they put so much effort into barriers to a new job before they have even written their application! And let’s not allow people to get away with saying that women don’t walk through the door because they don’t want to walk through.
And lastly we need to build the leadership pipeline by doing things as simple as using more meaningful and empowering words in our conversations with young girls. I will continue to balance the Facebook posts much to the annoyance of my family and their friends!
Thank you