Women of Influence Awards

Elizabeth Broderick

Sex Discrimination Commissioner

Women of Influence Awards

19 June 2015

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Thank you Brian and Westpac and Greg and Fairfax for conceiving and sponsoring these awards. The WOI awards not only lift the visibility of female leaders, but provide a crucial platform for women to expand their influence – and in so doing create a more gender equal Australia.  And for that I am very grateful.  Thank you.

I was so excited and honoured to be named the winner in the 2014 Women of Influence Awards – and to stand beside so many talented and accomplished women – influential leaders in their own right.  Today I wish to acknowledge the leadership of Alex Birrell, entrepreneur and CEO of a medical technology company; Linda O’Brien, an innovative educator and principal of Granville Boys High; Genevieve Clay-Smith, an accomplished documentary maker unafraid to tackle hard societal issues; Jane Halton the first female secretary of the Dept of Finance and a trail blazer in government; Janette Savage an incredible fund raiser and advocate for cancer care and ensuring patients in regional Australia are not disadvantaged; Anne Marie Corboy CEO of Hesta Super and a strong advocate for women’s economic independence; Anne Henderson-Sellers an international thought leader in climate science; Rebecca Ivers whose pioneering work to prevent injury in high risk and disadvantaged populations is saving lives around the globe; and Jo Cavanagh a leader in the not for profit sector who is promoting innovative approaches to ending child abuse and family violence.  What an incredible group of women!  It’s an honour to stand with them.

I remember the awards night last October vividly – much excitement and positive energy in the room, a diverse range of women – from entrepreneurs to teachers, public servants to film makers, health professionals to financial services leaders, community workers to women in the military, CALD women, indigenous women, women with disability and men (one half of humanity supporting the other). What was noticeable was the shared understanding that it is women who lift up societies and propel economies; that when we support female leaders, particularly over 100 of them, everyone benefits.

As I said when I accepted the award - with acclaim comes great responsibility – a responsibility to speak when I see unfairness, to disrupt the status quo, to create opportunities for other women, to raise my son to believe that equality is the only path, to have courage and compassion, to stay connected to my heart.

So what have I done as the 2014 Women of Influence and more importantly what did I learn?

The first thing I learnt and I learnt this on the night of the awards is – you have to be in it to win it.  Like me, some of you here tonight may already have opportunities for profiling that others don’t. Others may be thinking well ‘I could never be competitive with all those successful women”. But remember if you are to have impact and create opportunities for others then being involved in awards like this is so very important.

I have learnt that you don’t have to be extraordinary to be a woman of influence.  I’m certainly not.  As one woman in the United Nations recently told me when explaining how change happens.  She said “She did what she could, when she could and that’s how she changed the world.”

As many of you will know much of my work this year has been spent listening to strong women, courageous women - women who have experienced domestic violence, sexual assault, abuse in the military, pregnancy discrimination, and extreme victimisation. So the second lesson I’ve learnt is that whilst on occasion it can be easy to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the challenge - to lose faith in the possibility of change, it is the individual stories that build a commitment to take action.  I have learnt just how important it is to hold your compassionate self with your strategic executive self.  When you are deeply moved by what you witness you must hold that shared suffering – not let it overwhelm you - but use it to exert influence on a systemic level.

You must harness your compassion and the deep connections created through the story telling to build closer human relationships with key sponsors – those people who will join you in the pursuit of a better future.  What women of influence have is the strategic capability to build strong relationships with those who hold the levers of power – those who can be influenced to create a more just world.

My final example consolidates my view that to have influence – to create change – we must engage both the head and the heart.  Around the time of the Awards last year the blight of domestic violence was quite appropriately gaining a higher national profile.  You may remember that part of my work has been in driving the MCC – a strategy to engage men to step up beside women on gender equality.  For the last few years we have focussed solely on women’s under-representation in leadership.  Last year the men decided they wanted to learn more about gender based violence and why workplaces needed to be part of the solution.  With this in mind I brought the MCCs together to listen to the stories of two courageous survivors of domestic violence – Rosie Batty and Kristy McKellar. The men heard from Rosie and Kristy about the “pieces that are taken from you that can never be reclaimed”, such as the “the joy of parenting and watching your son grow up”.

The men started to understand at a profoundly human level what it is like for many women – robbed of dignity, living in fear in the very place they should be safe – in their own home.

And they also started to understand that domestic violence is a serious workplace issue. They heard from Kristy and Rosie about struggling to hold down a job when you are living with domestic and family violence. For Kirsty, a senior manager of over 200 staff, it meant having to hide the bruises; find that her husband had sawn the heels off all her high heels because he didn’t like that she was taller than him – the difficulty of trying to find her car keys or mobile phone that her husband had hidden or destroyed.

Since then, we have seen some great initiatives emerging within the Male Champions of Change and other organisations. Telstra and the ASX, for example, have launched a domestic violence policy that provides paid domestic violence leave for their employees, as well as a range of support services. Most importantly there is now a space for employees to discuss domestic violence and seek support.

I learnt that one of the most important contributions we women of influence can make is to give voice to those who have been silenced and disempowered.

Women lie at the heart of creating a more gender equal world but to make progress we must amplify their voice.  As Rosie Batty said when she spoke to the MCCs “Prior to Luke’s death no-one wanted to hear my story of living with violence.  Now everyone does.” 

As Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, it saddens me that when women living with violence speak, the system doesn’t listen.

So in summary what have I learnt as the 2014 winner of the Women of Influence Awards? 

I have learnt that as a woman of influence I must have a strong belief in myself, that it is as vital for women to be powerful and influential as it is for men.

I have learnt that you don’t have to be extraordinary, but you must:

• Meet people where they’re at - acknowledge each individual’s contribution to the existing structures and systems before you seek to change them.
• Listen to learn
• Have a deep and abiding belief in equality
• Place respect and dignity at the core of every interaction
• Engage others through both the head and the heart
• Navigate hostile situations with compassion and respect
• Share the stories and lived experiences of women with those who have the capacity to create change
• Find courage
• And remember that progress does not come in one giant leap but rather in many small intentional steps.

So how will I continue to use my influence?

I will use my influence to create an Australia that welcomes women, that cherishes their voice and eagerly awaits their wisdom. I will use my influence to create a world where a women’s value does not decrease because of another’s inability to see her worth.  A world where vulnerability is power, where difference is celebrated, where those who struggle are supported, where leadership is shared equally between men and women and where each half of humanity embraces and supports the other.

How will you use yours?