Achieving a Gender Equal World

Elizabeth Broderick

Sex Discrimination Commissioner

Australian Human Rights Commission

2015 Women’s Empowerment Principles Annual Event, Unlimited Potential: Business Partners for Gender Equality

Achieving a Gender Equal World

11 March 2015

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It’s a great pleasure to be speaking here today.

I was introduced earlier in the conference, but I thought I might tell you a little more about my role as Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner. I am a statutory officer appointed by Australia’s Head of State on the recommendation of the Cabinet.  My role is to progress gender equality and women’s rights in all aspects of Australian Society that includes in business, the military, government, unions and civil society.

It’s an immense privilege to hold the role.  This work has taken me from 200 metres under the sea in a submarine to the United Nations in New York, to camping out with aboriginal women in Northern Australia, to the mountains and valleys of Afghanistan, the White House, the Pentagon, NATO and the World Bank ALL in the same few months.

The tremendous privilege of this role – whether I am working to support corporate leaders, refugees, defence force personnel, women with disability, indigenous women – is that every day I meet inspiring individuals – individuals committed to using whatever influence they have to create a more equal world.  Being at CSW last week, and at the WEPs conference these two days, reminds me just how important gender equality is in the world.

Today I want to do three things:

1. Talk a little about why our quest to increase women’s leadership is so slow 

2. Describe one strategy for implementing the WEPs through engaging decent powerful men – the Male Champions of Change.  This is a strategy that links directly to the Women’s Empowerment Principles.

3. Finally, to invite you to explore whether the strategy might be right for your workplace, community or nation.

Solving for women’s under-representation in workplaces is difficult, complex and takes time.  It’s a journey characterised by persistence.  Up until now much of the focus has been on ‘fixing women’ – by providing assertiveness training, mentoring and self branding strategies. I observe this is what has been comfortable for most organisations – mentoring women – getting them to lean in – and this is important BUT it is by no means enough.

What is required? Courageous leadership.  Courageous leadership by both men and by women.  And that’s where the WEPs principles start.

In most organisations the business case for diversity is well understood intellectually, but despite this and despite “program excellence” we continue to see little change in outcomes.   Why is this?

One reason is that whilst men and women understand intellectually the challenge, we have not embraced at an emotional level the case for change. By that I mean our gender schema - the deeply held beliefs we have about the role of men and women (our unconscious beliefs) – about who cares and who works – the thoughts we internalised at a very young age when we first placed our feet on the ground - those beliefs clash with the case for change.  This makes it difficult for us to accept a new model – a model where leadership is shared between men and women.

The second reason many initiatives fail is that they focus solely on engaging and changing women — from the way women network to the way women lead. Too many organisations look to women alone to change the organisational practices that maintain the status quo - an approach that fails to recognise the site of most organisational power.  Such power in the main resides with men.

Over the last 7 years I have become more and more convinced of one thing - this is my second theme.

To deliver equality for women we need to focus on men.  We need men taking the message of gender equality to other men.  It’s not about men speaking for women or saving women.  We can take care of ourselves, thank you very much.

It is about men stepping up beside us, working in partnership with us, so that promoting women’s leadership becomes everyone’s business.  It’s about men as equal partners with us in ensuring that the WEPs come to life to transform our businesses and communities to move us to a world where – power and leadership is shared equally between men and women.

So with that in mind, today I’d like to talk about one tangible solution – a controversial and disruptive strategy – but one that is delivering results in Australia.  That strategy is known as the Male Champions of Change – in essence a strategy to engage powerful decent men.

How did this begin? I picked up the phone and rang Australia’s most powerful and influential men – men who lead Australia’s iconic companies like Telstra, Commonwealth Bank and Woolworths – men who lead global organisations like Citibank and Goldman Sachs – men who hold the most senior roles in Government and in our military –– and I made a personal plea.  Will you use your power and influence, your collective voice and wisdom to create change for women in our nation?

As Gordon Cairns, one of the Male Champions and a McKinsey Specialist Adviser explains “Let’s not pretend that there aren't already established norms that advantage men. Men invented the system. Men largely run the system. Men need to change the system." And that's what the Male Champions of Change strategy is all about - men changing the system.

I remember our first get together - a room full of “A type” personalities and me – we came together to take ownership and commit to the difficult decisions that needed to be taken – We brought to life WEPs principle 1.

The discussions are serious, they are led by men, and action is taken.   They meet quarterly, and no delegates are accepted.  They have a charter – inspired by the WEPs. 

Each MCC appoints a senior leader to work with them on the program – advancing work within their organisation and collaborating across organisations.  We have a senior executive and former McKinsey consultant who leads the program on a day-to-day basis.

The men follow a three phase approach – Listening, learning and leading – They listen deeply to understand the facts and what has and hasn’t worked. They absorb quickly the knowledge of experts.  Then they learn from women peers, gender experts, their employees and through the story telling.  And finally they step up beside women to lead through strong actions, often actions that only CEOs can take.  Finally they track the impact of their actions, sharing successes, failures and learnings along the way. 

Or to put it more succinctly and in WEPs language - they make a visible commitment to lead in partnership with women (WEPS principle 1).  They set targets and report progress (WEPs principle 7).  They invest energy and capital through planned in intervention (WEPs principles 2, 3 and 4). They learn about what interventions work and those that don’t. They course correct.  Then, they start the cycle again.

In 2011, 2013, 2014 and just last week, the group wrote to the CEO of every Australian listed company urging them step up on gender diversity.  Last week’s report has been called ground-breaking – it sets a new standard of disclosure. 

The men recognise that they must disrupt the status quo that consistently favours the advancement of men over that of women.

The Male Champions recognize that change starts with them. They have developed and published a model to examine whether they are living up to their own aspirations in championing women. Their model has four elements - what I say, what I do, what I prioritize and what I measure. For example, I say I’m interested in gender diversity but all I talk about are clients and cost. I say I want an inclusive culture but I schedule meetings at 7am. These are the behaviours where there is a disconnect between the leadership we think we are providing and our own leadership shadow.

The men worked together, led by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Head of the Australian Securities Exchange, to examine what it looks like to Lead on Gender Report.  The group has advocated for targets since its early beginning.  The MCCs recommended additions to our Securities Exchange reporting requirements. They have gone beyond what is required in reporting and not only that because one of the MCCs is the CEO of the Securities Exchange, these extended reporting requirements have now become the standard for all ASX-listed companies.

Since 2009 in Australia, we have doubled the number of women on boards.  From 8% in the dark days of 2010 to 19% today.  It’s still not enough, but we’re trending in the right direction.

The men have worked together to develop bold strategies such as the "All Roles Flex" initiative.  Rather than a female or male employee having to ask for and justify a flexible work arrangement, every role in the organisation is available in a flexible arrangement.  Where this is not possible it’s up to the manager to justify why it can’t be done that way.  This strategy changes the starting point of work. It’s bold and innovative and it is delivering.

They have adopted the panel pledge to help ensure they do not speak at events where there are few women. And their supplier multiplier initiative ensures that tens of billions in annual spend is directed to those partners and suppliers who also care about gender equality – including professional services firms. 

One of the most powerful thought experiments the men have undertaken was to ask the question – 50/50, If Not, Why Not?  When they ask this question it makes their commitment to achieving gender balance intentional. And as they understand – if you don’t actively and intentionally include women the system will unintentionally exclude them.  For decisions all along the development pipeline from an incoming graduate, to a talent and development program, to speaking opportunities, to promotions, the MCCs asked themselves, what stands in the way, this time, of hitting gender balance? Every male champion making progress in this area has set a target for women’s progression. Of course, we all know that targets are necessary to provide focus and force innovation. If a strategy is not delivering against the target, it is discarded quickly and new approaches adopted. Targets are not inconsistent with a merit-based environment.  Indeed it’s the exact opposite.  A target allows women’s merit to be exposed by making sure that both men and women are operating on an even playing field.  50/50, If Not Why not has led to considerable improvement on the MCCs leading indicators –such as representation of women in graduates, external hires and on talent programs.

In the last 12 months, despite being the busiest men in our country, they have spoken at over 75 major leadership events about gender equality in Australia, Washington, New York, Tokyo and Brazil to name but a few.  In accordance with WEPs principle 6, the MCCs are strong advocates on gender equality.

People in Australia say that the conversation has shifted.  We don’t talk about the business case anymore.  We talk about what practical action leaders need to take to disrupt the status quo.

The fact is that the visible presence of the MCC role models has made it unacceptable for organisations not to be taking action.  In Australia, it is a basic expectation that both male and female leaders be active on women’s leadership.

Men from across Australia want to join Male Champions of Change groups – we have a waitlist.

There are now many groups being established, with more than 100 active MCCs – Australian men of power and influence. 

One group is for smaller businesses working in specific sectors such as the Built Environment.  There is one started in the Property Sector, which is critical for the Australian economy.  There are two state based groups (in Queensland and Victoria.) 

One that I believe holds much potential is a group recently started made up of CEOs of Australian sports organisation.  If you know anything about Australians, it is that we are sports-mad.  The men in that group are striving to move from a vision of sport as ”a domain for men to show that they’re real men or what they think men should be” to…a “genuine mindset that men and women, boys and girls share sport.” 

It’s still very early days, but with more than 100 male leaders and counting, stepping up beside women to lead, I am optimistic about what might develop in Australia.

I am conscious that the MCC is only one strategy of many – only one piece of the puzzle.  It is an additive strategy – it must not take away from the resources available to women to pursue change.  However, I did want to take some time to consider whether we are doing enough to engage men’s leadership in creating a more gender equal world. 

Lastly, I invite you to explore whether the strategy might be right for your workplace, community or nation 

What opportunity might be there for you to empower a group of men in your community, your company, your nation to work together, in a serious structured manner?  What might come from such an effort? Are you the right person to lead this or could you motivate someone else to step forward to do so?

If you believe that this approach might assist you or your organisation, we may be able to help.

Over the last few years, we have received many requests for briefings.  Janet Menzies, the MCC Secretariat and I have spent countless hours briefing leaders on they might approach setting up their own.  As part of their 2014 Program of Work, the MCC agree to develop a guide describing the strategy, sharing their experience with the work, and providing practical tools that leaders might find useful. 

I’m pleased to announce that our first website with our guide went live last week at www.malechampionsofchange.com. 

In the short time we have had together, I hope I have been able to give you a sense of the MCC strategy and got you thinking about whether it might have some applicability in your day-to-day world.  

One thing I know for sure is that progressing women’s leadership cannot sit on the shoulders of women alone.  We need powerful decent men to stand up beside us.  I want now to leave you with the voices of some of those powerful decent men.