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DIVERSITY
gender equity
ly
e
n
o
L
AT THE TOP
Despite increased awareness, it
appears to be one step forward and
two steps back for improving female
representation in the top echelons of
business. Iain Hopkins asks what’s
still going wrong
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When asked to name a great Australian leader
– someone who is able to lead groups of people to
collectively achieve great things – nine out of 10
respondents in a recent survey chose a man.
The survey, commissioned by Australian business
consultancy Change2020, posed the question to 610
professionals, a staggering 93% of whom chose male
leaders. Julia Gillard was named by 7% of respondents.
Interestingly, 70% of these were female.
Another study of 60 leading companies by McKinsey
indicated that although about the same proportion of
mid-level female and male managers said they’d like to
advance to higher levels in their companies (69% and 74%,
respectively), only 18% of women said they’d become
C-level leaders “if anything were possible”. That’s just half
the proportion of men. Numerous women said they were
put off by the corporate politics of the C-suite.
While all surveys need to be taken with a pinch of salt,
there are some interesting insights to be gleaned from both.
Firstly, they shine the light on women themselves: their
self-perception, their aspirations and goals; and, secondly,
they highlight the broader societal gender boundaries in
which we live.
This poses an interesting question: what can the business
world do to change things?
TACKLING THE STEREOTYPES
Nicholas S. Barnett, CEO of Insync Surveys and co-founder
of Gender Worx, the specialist gender diversity division of
Insync Surveys, says the dominant masculine culture in our
workplaces has persisted for decades and is reinforced
every night on our televisions and in other daily media.
“Gender stereotypes are often exhibited in small and
subtle ways that have significant cumulative effect over
time,” he says. “By way of example, Gail Kelly is regularly
referred to as a great female leader but rarely as a great
leader. In contrast, her male counterparts are simply
referred to as great leaders; it is very rare for a male to be
referred to as a great male leader.”
Further, very few organisations really understand
the extent of the male domination of their cultures, the
conscious and unconscious biases behind the formation
of their cultures, and what they need to do to change their
cultures, assuming that is what they want.
Research has shown that the pervasiveness of
unconscious gender bias means that decisions about
Competent, ambitious
women need to have
access to the same
opportunities and
assistance with those
opportunities as competent,
ambitious men. Period
– LENORE LAMBERT
legitimate leadership are also routinely biased against
women and in favour of men. Surprisingly, the research
shows that women are just as biased as men, and young
women are just as biased as older women. What this means
is that most men and women discriminate and tolerate
gender discrimination in favour of men when it comes to
leadership without even knowing it.
Having some unconscious beliefs isn’t the problem,
Barnett says. The problem is:
having unconscious beliefs and not knowing that
you do
having unconscious beliefs and not acknowledging
them
knowing that you have unconscious beliefs and not
seeking to challenge them
“Significant and sustained change is only likely to be
achieved across the community and in workplaces if
a bright light is shone on this issue, together with a
determined, systematic, well-planned and persistent
long-term approach,” Barnett says. “Based on current
political and organisational priorities it is unlikely that the
persistent, systematic and long-term plans to bring about
gender equity will be put in place and, accordingly,
significant change is likely to take decades if not
generations.”
ADOPTING THE MIND OF A SCIENTIST
Lenore Lambert, director of The Interview Group, says that
too often the gender issue is discussed in emotive ways. To
tackle it effectively she believes the “mind of a scientist”
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DIVERSITY
gender equity
Gender stereotypes are
often exhibited in small
and subtle ways that have
significant cumulative
effect over time
– NICHOLAS S. BARNETT
needs to be adopted, to “gently lead the sacred cows out
of the room for a while – both male and female”.
Secondly, she believes that to really get to the bottom
of this issue it’s necessary to ask some seemingly dumb
questions. However, these questions need to be asked
and answered in a way that isn’t railroaded by social
desirability. “So we have proportionally fewer women in
senior positions in business. Let’s ask the first dumb
question: why is this a problem?” she says.
Clearly, Lambert states, it’s a very real problem for
organisations that want to perform well because there is
now a mountain of evidence suggesting diversity of views
in a problem-solving team leads to better outcomes if
facilitated constructively (a very important ‘if’, Lambert
adds). So, number one, organisations themselves are
missing out. From that point of view, one would hope there
would be a desire to solve the problem.
“I suspect the reason they’re not the most vocal parties is
that they don’t really know what they’re missing yet,” says
Lambert. “This ‘better performance’ and ‘better problem
solving’ hasn’t been experienced by many, so it’s all
academic at present. All male boards possibly believe
nothing is broke as they don’t know anything different.
There is probably also an element of cultural reluctance to
change if an all-male board enjoys its all-male way of doing
things – but that’s just conjecture, to be tested properly.”
This is obviously also a problem for the ambitious women
who want to be part of the C-suite but who encounter some
kind of obstacle unrelated to their competence.
“I think we all agree that to the extent that this is
happening it needs to be addressed decisively. Competent,
ambitious women need to have access to the same
opportunities and assistance with those opportunities
as competent, ambitious men. Period. Where this is not
happening we need to understand what’s happening and
fix it,” Lambert says.
QUOTAS AND MANDATES
It’s the ‘fixing’ part that throws up the most divisive
viewpoints. The quota debate for women on boards and,
to a lesser extent, on executive teams, continues to rage.
Kerryn Fewster, co-director, Change2020, for one, does not
support quotas. “Personally, I don’t think I could sit at
GENDER WAGE GAP
According to average weekly earnings data, women’s full-time ordinary-time average weekly earnings are 82.5% of
what men earn: a gap of 17.5%
18
17.5
17
16.5
16
15.5
15
14.5
14
Aug 2012
Aug 2011
Aug 2010
Aug 2009
Aug 2008
Aug 2007
Aug 2006
Aug 2005
Aug 2004
Aug 2003
Aug 2002
Aug 2001
Aug 2000
Aug 1999
Aug 1998
Aug 1997
Aug 1996
Aug 1995
Aug 1994
13.5
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, November 2012: 6302.0. Difference of male full-time
ordinary-time average weekly earnings and female full-time ordinary-time average weekly earnings
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a board table knowing that I got there not just for merit
but also due to my gender. However, I do deserve the
opportunity to be there. We need to ensure any minority,
whatever their backgrounds, are given similar opportunities
for success. We can’t just have a private boys’ school sitting
around the boardroom tables making decisions.”
Barnett says the new ASX requirements for reporting the
percentage of women on boards, in executive teams and in
the organisation as a whole has helped shine a light on bias
in favour of men. This, along with support from the Australian
Institute of Company Directors and the Business Council of
Australia, has resulted in a small but measurable change in
the number of women on boards in the ASX top 200.
Similar shifts in the percentage of women on boards
have been experienced in the UK, but the momentum for
ongoing change in the UK is stalling.
“History shows that substantial shifts of this nature have
only ever been achieved through a mandated or legislated
approach,” Barnett says, and reiterates his earlier statement:
“As politicians and business leaders haven’t prioritised the
development and persistent implementation of systematic
long-term plans to bring about gender equity, significant
change is likely to take decades if not generations without
some form of mandated or legislated response.”
Women and leadership:
facts & figures
Gender bias in selection reduces women’s chances of success by 16% where
they have comparable skills and capabilities
Women tend to apply for senior roles if they consider that they meet 100%
of selection criteria, whereas men apply if they think they meet 60% of
requirements
66% of men and 33% of women believe women have an equal opportunity
to be promoted to senior roles
Overall, women in Australia earn 18% less than their male peers in similar
positions; in middle management, 25% less; and among high performers at
the most senior levels, women earn only 58% of what men earn
Over a working lifetime it is estimated that a woman working the same job for
the same length of time will earn $1m less than a man
Deloitte calculated its flexibility program has saved an estimated $41.5m in
global turnover costs in one year alone
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DIVERSITY
gender equity
Percentage of businesses employing women in senior
HR and finance roles
22
21
20
18
16
14
13
13
12
12
10
9
8
8
8
6
5
5
4
3
2
0
Human
resources
director
20
Chief
financial
officer
Other
finance
director
(eg
Controller)
Chief
operating
officer
Chief
executive
officer
Head of
sales
Chief
marketing
officer
Chief
information
officer
Office/
general
manager
Partner
Source: Grant Thornton International Business Report 2012
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TARGETS AND KPI’S
While many organisations have established aspirational
goals to increase the representation of women on their
boards and in their executive ranks, very few have set hard
targets. KPIs have been set for some CEOs and executive
teams, but not many have tied those KPIs to CEO and
executive remuneration. “For this reason and the reasons
set out above it will be very hard and slow to change a
sexist Australian culture,” suggests Barnett.
Yet it’s a start. Fewster says having a target is quite useful
because it creates opportunities to think differently.
“If I know I have a target I need to achieve, I might look
at different ways to achieve it. If it’s just a pure quota, it’s
a fixed number so I go and find it and achieve it. But a KPI
means there’s ways to look at encouraging females into
leadership positions across organisations.”
However, Fewster echoes Barnett when she adds that
such KPIs need to be treated with the same rigour as other
measures around productivity, operations, finance and
people development. “It needs to be treated with the same
rigour as the financial KPI, so it’s measurable, it adds value
to the business, it makes sense, and if we achieve it the
business is in a better place. I would hate to see it disguised
as a quota,” she says.
FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS
What else can be done? Just like any high-potential
employees, women with leadership potential need to be
given a clear career path and development plan, including
experience in the operational parts of the business.
Barnett says young and less experienced women need
to see women in senior executive ranks of an organisation
to give them confidence that women can actually advance
to the top. “Many female graduates are turned off by seeing
photos of an all-male executive team,” he says.
More troublesome is the so-called ‘leaky talent pipeline’,
which is caused both by women self-selecting out of the
corporate world and by women being pushed out as
a result of the overly dominant masculine culture of
their organisations. “The latter needs to be a focus of
organisations if they don’t want their female employees
to feel they are being pushed out,” Barnett says.
Flexible work practices are now commonplace, but
employers are advised to ‘normalise’ these so they are used
equally by men and women, irrespective of whether family
responsibilities are involved or not. “Our culture in the
workplace needs to change from saying ‘Wow! That’s
interesting – you’re taking 12 months off to be with your
kids!’, which is what they might say to the male as opposed
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DIVERSITY
gender equity
REALITY CHECK?
Women hold 21% of senior management
positions globally
19%
2004
24%
2007
24%
2009
20%
2011
21%
2012
Source: Grant Thornton International Business Report 2012
to the female. It’s a different conversation. I do think policy
and organisations are doing a good job around encouraging
equity for time off to rear kids, but it needs to be as easy for
the men to come back as it is for the women,” says Fewster.
But there’s a deeper issue at play. Barnett says flexible
work arrangements in many organisations carry the stigma
that the participant isn’t seriously interested in advancing
their career. “Societal expectations are starting to change a
little in this regard, but change is slow,” he says.
He suggests organisations also need to take a more
holistic and long-term view of the female career path and
not simply see it as ending at the time a woman has her first
child. A small number of organisations do this well by
engaging with females on maternity leave and developing
plans to integrate them back into executive ranks when they
return. Barnett cites Tracey Fellows, who was recruited by
Microsoft from IBM when she was six or seven months’
pregnant, achieved a promotion while on maternity leave,
and was integrated into Microsoft’s executive ranks after
maternity leave. She later became CEO of Microsoft
Australia. “This very enlightened approach to the female
career path isn’t taken by many organisations,” says Barnett.
The old truism holds here: one either lives to work or
works to live. “Work is what we do – a lot of people enjoy it;
a lot of others just do it to pay the bills,” says Fewster.
“Either way, ultimately there’s something more, and that
might be around your family or caring for your parents, or
whatever it might be. We need to recognise that to get the
best out of people we need to provide as much flexibility as
possible, but they need to demonstrate they’re delivering as
well. At the end of the day this is a business.”
22
Lambert believes where the discussion “goes a bit fuzzy” is
when we start generalising about the importance of rising
to the top of the corporate ladder for women generally and
expecting that their participation in the C-suite will be
proportional to their numbers in the workforce.
“I’ve long held the view that, in general – and remember
we’re talking about half the human population here – fewer
women want to live that kind of life. In the same way that
fewer women want to be plumbers because being up to
your elbows in muck every day is not appealing to them,
my personal experience has led me to believe that fewer
women want to live their lives in the top echelon of
organisations where you have almost all of your bandwidth
devoted to work.”
Lambert is fully cognizant of the outcry from competent,
ambitious women in the room when this view is put
forward, but she notes that, like everyone, “they generalise
their own experience to others”.
“This is where I think we need to bring our ‘slow
thinking’ brain and not make quick reactive judgments.
I think this outcry often turns the less ambitious women
off of speaking up. It’s almost like letting the sisterhood
down if we admit we don’t want to be a C-suiter, as if
being a CEO is as much a right as the right to vote. The
opportunity to be a CEO should be as much a right for
women, but that doesn’t mean as many women as men
will take that opportunity,” Lambert says.
The problem, Lambert adds, is the unquestioning
acceptance of the C-suite as a desirable destination.
“Occupying the C-suite means you need to devote almost all
of your mental and emotional bandwidth to work. I think
fewer women than men are willing to live their lives in such
a mono-focal way. Maybe this is why Gail Kelly wasn’t
named by many women as a ‘great Australian leader’?”
Key takeaways
Companies need to:
Monitor proportion of females at all levels and
determine what stops them from progressing
Build the business case for gender diversity (it’s not
difficult)
Provide an essentially fair environment for talent
management. For example, allow women (and men)
to put their careers on hold for a few years and then
re-accelerate
Women themselves need to:
Obtain a coach or mentor early to develop confidence,
leadership skills and build networks
Have a clear career plan, including how to manage
each stage of life (all the way up to dealing with elderly
parents, still largely a responsibility that falls to women)
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EXPERT INSIGHT
gender equity
Stop talking,
start doing
Human Capital talks to Andrea O’Bryan, vice president of Diversity@Work,
for some tips on improving gender inequalities in business
Human Capital: Gender equity is now set as a KPI
for many CEOs in top companies. Do you think we’ll
start to see further improvements – and there have
been some in recent years – or will it be tougher to
ultimately shift a sexist Australian culture?
Andrea O’Bryan: For CEOs, CFOs and HR, there is no
time left for debate. Sound economics have driven the
Australian Government to legislate for significant increases
in the proportion of women in executive management roles
across every organisation that employs at least 100 people.
It has been proven that a better balance of gender on
boards and in management equates to a higher GDP, and
because of this the Government introduced the Workplace
Gender Equality Act. This act is a real game changer and,
whilst organisations have a transitional year in 2013 to get
their businesses in order, from 2014 there are serious
penalties for organisations that fail to comply. These range
from ineligibility to bid for Commonwealth tenders, to
being denied access to any Commonwealth subsidies.
As a result, target setting for women in leadership and
robust succession planning for women will become
mandatory within medium to large organisations.
Diversity@Work has consulted widely across our client
base to drive this transformation, auditing organisational
practices and developing career pathway structures.
As for seeing a new maturity across the Australian
culture and a reduction in the acceptance of sexism, I can
only hope. Systemic shifts in social mores take time and
often the transitioning of power to the next generation.
HC: There is still the expectation in society that
women will be the primary caregivers of children
and even older people. Yet it seems that in doing
so women lose their place in the corporate hierarchy.
Is there anything businesses can do to make this
viable both for themselves and for their employees?
AO: It’s a challenging dilemma. I cannot understand why
parents aren’t sharing the responsibility of childcare more
equally and why elder care is often the duty of daughters,
Essentially, it’s about
training managers not
to make assumptions
regarding what flexibility
their employees need
– ANDREA O’BRYAN
not sons. I hope the Gen Y’s will change this societal
expectation. Research has shown that ‘care givers’ make
better managers, and best practice employers recognise that
talent is often the only differentiator between themselves
and their competitors. They advocate flexible work
practices and use of technology to ensure they retain talent,
especially during times when family care is critical.
Essentially it’s about training managers not to make
assumptions regarding what flexibility their employees
need. Keep the dialogue open with their employees and ask
them directly what assistance is required.
HC: Are there examples of further ‘family friendly’
initiatives and benefits employers could invest in?
AO: It’s extraordinary some of the innovation I’ve
witnessed and heard about from organisations who are
authentic about employee retention and engagement.
Beyond flexible work practices and the ability to purchase
more recreational leave, some offer benefits ranging from
paid babysitting to unlimited sick leave and generous
maternity leave conditions; and an organisation also actually
paid a lump sum when an employee became a new parent.
In the US, conditions can be even more generous, with
heavily subsidised childcare, breastfeeding rooms and
other much-welcomed incentives, such as access to
cheap home cleaning and groceries. It’s heartening to see
this maturity in the recognition of employee needs.
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