Topics:
FINANCIAL EQUALITY
Women outnumber men as graduates and yet earn less at every point in their working lives, eventually retiring with half the funds of their male contemporaries.
Chief Executive Women makes a valuable contribution to the national debate about how we achieve genuine equality between men and women in Australia.
There is undeniable evidence that we have a long way to go in Australia before financial equality for men and women is achieved. Women outnumber men as graduates at a ratio of 5:4, yet start out earning 90 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earn. The pay gap widens over time, with an overall average pay differential of around 18%. It's far worse in some industries - for example 30% in financial services - and often men are paid larger discretionary bonuses. Wealth accumulation for women is further slowed by career breaks and a lack of flexible work options on returning to the workforce, streaming women into roles that do not advance their careers. This culminates with women retiring, on average, with half the superannuation savings of men.
WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION
For Australia to prosper we must both create jobs and do better to make the benefit of working as attractive to women as it is for men.
Workforce participation in Australia is less than 60% for women, compared to more than 70% for men, despite the fact that women graduate and progress into tertiary education in larger numbers.
If Australia's female workforce participation rate increased by 6%, our GDP would be $25 billion higher, according to analysis by the Grattan Institute.
An opportunity of this scale needs to be treated just like any other national priority, such as innovation, balancing the budget or tax reform. CEW advocates for equal pay; affordable, accessible and flexible childcare and treating childcare costs like any other work related expense.
WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP
More diversity through female voices at every level of leadership will deliver better decisions and more equitable outcomes for Australia
Women are significantly under-represented in decision making in Australia. Despite women graduating from university in record numbers and in greater numbers than men, the representation of women falls by approximately 10 percentage points at each step on the management ladder. Looking to the highest levels of decision making in this country, we see only one in three parliamentary seats is occupied by a woman.
And there is evidence that progress in the private sector has stalled, with the number of women in the leadership roles in ASX200 companies stable at 12% since 2002. Many of these senior women are found in functional roles, which typically don't lead to senior executive roles. Less than 5% of CEOs of ASX200 companies are women and just over 20% of board members of ASX200 companies are women. 12% of ASX200 companies do not have any women on their board.
Chief Executive Women supports and calls for interventions to increase representation of women in all facets of leadership in Australia. Through collaborative work with policy makers and respected organisations such as Bain & Co, Boston Consulting Group, Australian Institute of Company Directors and Male Champions of Change we aim to bring greater awareness and urgency to these issues. CEW also works directly with organisations to bring about better gender balance within their workplaces.
WORKPLACE FLEXIBILITY
If we aspire to adapt to the workplace of the future and the desires of both genders to play meaningful parenting roles, we need strong leadership from leaders and significant role models to make flexible working a success for men and women
In order to advance gender equality in the workplace, flexible work arrangements must be available and actively supported for both genders. According to joint CEW and Bain & Co research, less than 50% of Australian organisations have a workplace flexibility policy and even when such policies exist, there are barriers to effective utilisation. This is in spite of evidence that where flexible arrangements are widely used, all employees are four times more engaged than in organisations with no flexible options.
Chief Executive Women believes that organisations have much to gain by actively encouraging the uptake of flexible work arrangements. Crucially, flexible arrangements must work successfully for men and women, and be underpinned by clear policies around promotion and compensation when working flexibly and a culture that is supportive and respectful of flexible work.
THE BUSINESS CASE
Through advocacy, targeted programs and scholarships, CEW works to remove the barriers to women's progression and ensure equal opportunity for prosperity.
Chief Executive Women partners with government and private sector organisations to attract, promote and retain talented women leaders. Our membership of nearly 400 prominent women leaders are actively sought out for insights on how to improve the representation of women in all facets of leadership in Australia.
We work with organisations to find the keys to increasing the representation of women in leadership. Through our case studies, research and our programs such as the Leadership Program and CEO Conversations, Chief Executive Women offers substantial resources for every organisation serious about improving gender diversity.
MERIT TRAP
If we continue to define 'merit' as 'people like us' who have done what we did, we will get more of the same.
While most leaders would agree that people should be judged on their merits, a close look at the evaluation of merit reveals that what adds up to merit for some is susceptible to bias and clouded judgement.
Chief Executive Women and the Male Champions of Change have collaborated to produce In the eye of the beholder: Avoiding the merit trap.
This report blows the cover on the common biases that impact decision making and calls on every leader to reflect on their decision making and avoid falling for the merit trap.
