The Boardroom is no longer a closed shop (2009)

The Boardroom is no longer a closed shop

Author: Elizabeth Broderick, Sex Discrimination Commissioner

Publication: The Sun-Herald, 27 December 2009.

I have been asked why, as Sex Discrimination Commissioner, I have so strongly argued for an increase in the numbers of women in senior business leadership positions.

“How will this help women overall?” “How would it help the average woman on the street?”

While only 8.3% of board members in the largest companies in this country are women, it is hard to see any real social inequity at play here. These women are not poor, not hungry, not homeless and certainly not undereducated.

So why do it?

My answer to this is two fold. Because it is one of three main areas of change that will work together to close the gender divide in employment for all women. And because, while women continue to be under-represented in the economic decision-making of this country, they will continue to be marginalised everywhere.

But what does this actually mean? What does it mean for the women working as checkout operators, in child care centres, in factories, in restaurants, as bank tellers, as hairdressers or road workers?

As context, it is important to realize that 51% of our population are women - over half.

We should also pause to consider that the decision-makers, who directly and indirectly influence the way our country is shaped and operates, are no longer just people in government. Increasingly, they are also the heads of industry and business. Just look at the influence of the large supermarket, telecommunication, banking, recreation, property development, fuel, power generation and power retail companies on both our daily lives and on our political direction.

We expect more from our businesses and increasingly expect businesses to make social decisions that government used to make.

So, one would expect that these decision-makers would in some way reflect the profile of our population. Gender make-up is one of the simplest ways to describe a population. Yet, here we see our population of 51% women and 49% men having their decisions made, in a company sense at least, by 8.3% women and 91.7% men.

When you look at it like that, the shocking disparity becomes clearer, doesn’t it?

It is hard to ignore the significance, indeed the symbolism, of this gender divide.

Gender inequality is the reason we need to take all opportunities available to us to confront the gender divide.

Unlike men, when women have a family, in a high proportion of cases, they have to make a choice between employment and caring for the child. Usually, this means leaving work, dropping back to part time or casual work, taking lower paid or taking lower skilled work while fulfilling the caring role.

If we go back even further, to our school days, we find that that the education system is wedded to stereotypes when it comes to boys and girls and what they are schooled to expect in terms of their gender roles in the future.

When it comes to employment, these three things work together.

A higher representation of women in leadership positions means a higher representation of people who are most likely to have the primary caring responsibility when a family is started. Hence issues such as flexible work practices, which would accommodate caring, are more likely to fly.

Increasing the proportion of senior leadership positions that are held by women enables girls and boys at school to see this career aspiration of business leadership as one of the normal things that girls might be able to aim for. This gender balance then becomes a normal expectation for boys if they end up in such a position.

This is of course, a quick and simplistic look at things. But it at least illustrates why striving for a more women in senior business leadership positions is something that has payoffs for all women. It is not just a pursuit that benefits the elite in our society.

I have sat on boards, so have been in direct contact with this startling disparity and seen directly how little the experience and desires of 51% of our population are reflected in the decision-making that takes place.

The opportunity to act on this issue presented itself because the business community was ready to do something about it. They are taking steps to address women in senior leadership. The government has started with paid maternity leave. Lets hope they move on education and workplace flexibility as well.