New "On the Horizon!"

On the Horizon – EURAM Conference 2011


The call for papers is open for the 11th European Academy of Management (EURAM) conference to be held in Tallinn, Estonia from 1 – 4 June 2011.

The conference theme is “Management Culture in the 21st Century”. Online submissions of full papers will be accepted until 17 January 2011 via the EURAM’11 website submission portal: http://www.euram2011.org/r/scripts/register/default.asp

Bickley Blog readers may be particularly interested in the Gender and Diversity in Management track. The track invites papers from scholars from a broad range of disciplines and aims to “rejuvenate critical debate of the gendered, racialised and classed nature of organization systems”. Details of the track can be found here

For submission guidelines and further information visit the EURAM’11 website. www.euram2011.org

2011 Women in Resources Awards – Closing Soon!
Applications for the 2011 Women in Resources Awards will close on 10 December 2010. The awards recognise the increasingly important role of women in WA’s resource sector.

The categories are:
• Outstanding Woman in the Resources Sector – Professional/Specialist
• Outstanding Woman in the Resources Sector – Trade/Operator/Technician
• Women in Resources Champion (male or female)
• Outstanding Company Initiative

The 2011 Women in Resources Awards will be presented at a special breakfast on 8 March – coinciding with the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.

Forms and further information can be found at: CMEWA Inc - Women in Resources

National “Go Home on Time” Day - 24th November 2010

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Did you know that:

• Australians work more than 2 billion hours of unpaid overtime each year, worth $72 billion!


• 1 in 4 Australians need to visit a doctor or health professional but are “too busy”.


• 1 in 2 Australians don’t spend as much time with family as they would like to because of work.

November 24th is “Go Home on Time” Day. The Australia Institute is raising awareness of the extent that Australians overwork. The resulting epidemic of “time poverty” - of constantly not having time - has negative consequences on our health, relationships and wellbeing.

November 24th is a chance to make a change. Claim back that work-life balance! For your free “leave” pass visit http://www.gohomeontimeday.org.au/

On the Horizon – IEEE Women in Science and Engineering Conference

Perth will host the IEEE Women in Science and Engineering Conference from 23-25 March 2011. Featuring keynote speakers including Professor Margaret Sheil – CEO Australian Research Council, Sue Murphy – CEO Water Corporation and Hon. Kate Doust MLC – Shadow Minister for Energy, Science and Innovation, the conference aims to recognise women’s outstanding achievements in non-traditional fields and advocate for women in leadership roles and provide career advancement for women.

For more information visit: http://www.ieee-wise.debii.curtin.edu.au

Making a Move - Senior Leadership and Board Roles

Major Banks Making a Move

The Diversity Council of Australia recently reported that the major banks in Australia are taking action to increase the number of women in leadership positions. Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ have set measurable targets for the representation of women in senior positions:

• Commonwealth Bank – 35% representation of women in senior leadership roles by the end of 2014.
• Westpac – aiming to increase representation of women in senior leadership roles from 33% to 40% by the end of 2014.
• ANZ – achieved it’s target of 38% of women in management, and is expected to review this figure for 2011.

It’s fantastic to see change being driven from CEOs and Boards to create a strong and inclusive culture. Given that women hold just 8% of executive management positions in the ASX 200, the big banks are leading the way…

Click here for the full article from DCA.

Calling Aspiring Directors! AICD Board Diversity Scholarship Program

Applications for the Australian Institute of Company Directors Board Diversity Scholarship Program are now open. The program, jointly funded by AICD and the Australian Government Office for Women, is aimed at increasing the number of women holding directorships on Australian company boards.

Each scholarship recipient will be funded to undertake the AICD Company Directors Course and will receive a 12 month membership of the AICD to provide resources for their future directorship career.

Applications close on November 12^th 2010 – for this great opportunity see the Scholarship webpage for further details, criteria and the application portal.

Local Women Leading the Way - The Clare Burton Lecture 2010 and the 40under40 Awards

The 2010 Clare Burton Lecture

The Bickley Blog is delighted to announce that the 2010 Clare Burton Memorial Lecture is being delivered by Dr Linley Lord, Senior Lecturer at the CGSB, Director of the Maureen Bickley Centre for Women in Leadership and Bickley Blogger. Linley, who will be delivering the address, Moving beyond token women: The need for radical reform in corporate Australia, joins the ranks of Australia's most prominent women chosen to be part of this prestigious lecture series. Congratulations Linley!

Moving beyond token women: The need for radical reform in corporate Australia
Over past decades much has been said about the lack of women in senior decision making roles, without any notable change. Is structural reform now required to bring about real change in the composition of Australia’s executive ranks? The Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) recently reported that the number of women directors of Australia’s top listed companies has now reached 10%. While this statistic indicates an upward trend, does it really mark significant improvement in women’s representation in senior decision making roles in Australian organisations? Much of the local focus to date has been on ‘fixing’ women so that they can fit into existing structures. Will the initiatives addressing the lack of women on company boards recently launched by the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and the Business Council of Australia address some of the systemic problems leading to women’s underrepresentation?

The 2010 Clare Burton Memorial Lecture tackles these questions by examining overseas experience and the seemingly glacial rate of change in Australia. The lecture will explore ways that Australia could move beyond tokenism and towards achieving the diversity of thinking, experience and expertise needed in Australia’s organisations.

The lecture will be presented around Australia during October and November. For details of dates and venues, and to register please follow the link.


40 Under 40 Awards



Nominations for the 2011 40 under 40 awards are now open. The annual awards, run by WA Business News, aim to showcase the outstanding talent within WA.

Last year’s awards saw a number of talented WA women from a range of industries recognised including the overall winner “First Amoung Equals” awards – Suzanne Daubney, Managing Director, Banister Downs Dairy Company.

Women amoungst the 2010 award winners included:
Ceyda Genc, Managing Director, Turkish Bakeries
Diana Rigg, Director, PLD Organisation
Emma Williamson, Director, CODA
Fiona Crowe, Head of College, St Catherines College, University of Western Australia
Kellie Hill, Managing Director, KHC
Lisa Clarke, Manager, Mclaren Hire Vehicle Rentals
Melanie Cave, Partner, Freehills
Narelle Keogh, Owner, Katandra Furniture & Design
Paige McNeil, Company Secretary & Administation, Frontier Resources
Rebecca Thompson, Principal Occupational Therapist, Maximum Independence Occupational Therapy
Sarah Kinsey, Director/Owner, Ray White Uxcel
Tracey Westerman, Managing Director, Indigenous Psychological Services
Yvette Manalos, Senior Production Technologist, Woodside Energy Ltd

Follow the link and nominate a tall poppy for a 2011 award now!

At a Stand Still - 2010 EOWA Australian Census of Women in Leadership

The 2010 Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) Australian Census of Women in Leadership was released yesterday. The census measures the number of women holding Board Directorships and occupying CEO and Executive Management roles in the top 200 ASX listed companies. First conducted in 2002, the census is repeated every two years.

The fifth iteration of the census showed minimal change in measures since the previous release in 2008, and since its inception in 2002. Australian businesses have failed to increase the representation of women in corporate positions of authority and influence during the past decade.

Highlight findings of this census include:

Board Directors

• Women chair five ASX 200 boards and hold 8.4% of ASX 200 board directorships in 2010, compared with 8.3% in 2008.
• There are four additional women holding board seats in 2010 (93 individual women, up from 89 in 2008).
• 54% of ASX 200 companies do not have a single woman on their board. This has increased from 51% in 2008.
• The industry groups with the highest percentage of women Board Directors are:
  o Insurance
  o Consumer Services
  o Banks
  o Software & Services

Executive Management

• Women hold six CEO positions in 2010, compared with four positions in 2008. That’s 194 men in CEO positions.
• Women hold 8% of key Executive Management Personnel positions in 2010, compared to 7% in 2008.
• 61.9% of ASX200 companies do not have a single woman in a key Executive Management Personnel position. This has improved from 65.1% in 2008.
• Women’s representation in line positions is 4.1%, with no change since 2008. Line experience is widely considered to be essential for rising to the top corporate positions.

Australia trails the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and South Africa in these measures.

In the introduction to the report, Acting Director of EOWA Mairi Steele comments that “the census clearly shows that nothing significant has occurred in Australian business culture in the past eight years to address the systemic inequality” that exists within corporate Australia.

And nor is it likely until more ‘persuasive’ measures are implemented and enforced.

As previously highlighted on the Bickley Blog, the ASX have made some welcome changes to their corporate governance principles that will require companies to report the number of women in these senior roles, to set targets and report on annual progress. In a media release, Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick indicated that that she was hopeful that such initiatives would deliver an improved outcome for women by the time of the next census in 2012. The Commissioner went on to state that “if the 2012 Census does not reveal a dramatic increase in the number of women in Board Director and Chair positions and in executive management positions, I would suggest we need to consider putting stronger initiatives in place.”

The Bickley Bloggers look forward to a positive impact of the ASX guidelines and to the taking of action should they not deliver the desired outcomes!

Leading Out of Maternity Leave

Lead Engineer and Bickley Blog reader, Helen Pedersen, gave a thought provoking presentation to Engineers Australia members recently entitled "Leading Out of Maternity Leave". In 2007, Helen attended a presentation of the Career Review of Engineering Women report - the report investigates the issues surrounding women's retention, satisfaction and progression in the engineering workforce. She discovered that the report did not contain much in the way of good news and she observed a negative, almost defeatist response to the results from the mainly female audience. Questions asked from the audience indicated the difficulty of struggling against the tide and that young women were hesitant to have families because of the conflict with career.

Helen was driven to look on the positive side and reflected on her own experience as a parent and as an engineer. Her experience is that parenting is not negative, but can add to and complement a career. Her view is that there are leadership skills that are learnt in many other areas of life that are directly applicable to the workplace, with parenting being a prime example of this. The idea for the "Leading Out of Maternity Leave" (LOOMOL) project was born.

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Helen's presentation discussed the findings of a survey that she performed as part of the LOOML project, in conjunction with the Western Australia Women in Engineering group. The survey explored the additional skills that parenting can provide and looked at how these skills fit in an engineering environment. Her belief is that recognition of these skills will have multiple benefits - increased confidence for women, better employee contribution for employers, and improved retention for industry.

A group of engineering parents were asked to identify their sources of parenting learning and to rate their leadership skills in terms of how much impact parenting had on these skills in the workplace. The top five skills, seen as enhanced by parenting were:

1. Time management


2. Planning


3. Delegation


4. Self-management


5. Acknowledging effort

The results strongly suggested that the participants felt that parenting skills were relevant and tranferable to leadership in the workplace. Participating in the study was also observed to have a positive impact on those involved - many of the participants were empowered by thinking about their parenting skills in this way and there were tangible changes in confidence and reported self-image.

The findings of the study are being used to develop a set of resources for engineering parents and organisations, to assist with the return from a family break - "The Parenting Pack". It is hoped that this project can demonstrate the useful leadership skills that are gained and enhanced by parents in their time away from the workplace rather than being on a break with no identifiable professional development.

We look forward to further updates from Helen on the progress of this great idea!

Tools for Tackling Pay Inequity; New "On the Horizon"...

EOWA tackling Pay Inequity in Australia

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As discussed in last week’s post on the Pay Equity breakfast seminar held at the MBC featuring Mairi Steele and Philippa Hall from EOWA, EOWA are undertaking a number of projects to increase understanding of and provide solutions to the pay equity problem. Thanks to Margaret for sending this information through to us.

1. Development of a standard on gender-inclusive job evaluation
Working with Standards Australia, with stakeholders and engaging public consultation, EOWA plan to develop a standard on gender-inclusive job evaluation, building on the New Zealand Standard on Gender-inclusive Job Evaluation (P8007/2006).

The standard will provide an analysis of gender bias in job evaluation, and guidelines and checklists for minimising it. It will cover job description and analysis, job evaluation, and review and monitoring. The standard will enable users to check that job evaluation is conducted according to best practice in gender equity, and is for use with any job evaluation system.

2. An online course on pay equity
A one-hour interactive course, aimed at human resource practitioners and other interested people, will build understanding of pay equity issues and remedies. It covers legislation, statistics, pay equity histories and case studies, and checklists and tools for use with components of remuneration and techniques of valuing work and setting remuneration.

These projects will certainly provide managers and practitioners with some practical tools and frameworks for raising awareness of, identifying and addressing pay equity issues within their organizations. EOWA are keen to engage with managers, human resources practitioners and other interested people about these projects. See the EOWA website for contact details.

New On the Horizon

A new event for your calendar… thanks to Judith for this information.

On 7th and 8th February 2011, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in Auckland, New Zealand will host the 4th Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Conference.

The theme of the conference is “Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: Views from the Edge”. The conference is seeking diverse views and challenging conversations around this theme and submissions that bring the margins to the centre or views from the edges of our knowledge and understanding of EDI are encouraged.

Submissions are invited from experienced, emerging researchers and practitioners and doctoral students are especially encouraged to present their work. There will be academic and doctoral sessions as well as presentations relevant to practitioners and policy makers.

For further information and key dates please visit the EDI Conference website

On the Horizon - Women as Leaders Program 29 September - 1 October 2010

Curtin University are pleased to host "Women as Leaders", a residential program for women in senior and executive management roles.

The highly regarded Women as Leaders program is based on 20 years of research and has run successfully at Cranfield University, UK for over 10 years. This year the program will be offered for the first time in Australia by Cranfield University UK’s International Centre for Women Leaders in partnership with the Maureen Bickley Centre for Women in Leadership, a centre within the Curtin Graduate School of Business, Curtin University.

Designed for experienced women professionals and managers that are ready to accelerate their careers, this program provides women with the knowledge and attitudes to overcome barriers and help to develop winning strategies that will increase promotional opportunities. It focuses on thinking positively about ambition, power, impression management and career success. A very participative approach is designed to help participants develop insights about their assumptions, beliefs and behaviours.

For further information and registration details please follow this link

Pay Equity with Your Porridge

Pay Equity with Your Porridge Breakfast Seminar: Mairi Steele and Philippa Hall, EOWA.

Mairi Steele and Philippa Hall were guests of the MBC for a well attended breakfast seminar on July 2nd.

Recent research undertaken by Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) has highlighted the misconceptions about pay equity which exist in the business community and Mairi’s focus was on how to overcome that. While the research showed that overwhelmingly there was awareness that men earn more than women (94% of business), only 37% of EOWA contacts believed that a gender pay gap existed in their own organisation. The research showed further, that while there was overwhelming support for something to be done, under 40% of reporting organisations conduct any gender pay equity analysis. The data suggest that only 10% of reporting organisations have an action plan to improve gender pay equity.

Mairi noted that for many businesses the argument is that gender pay inequity is ‘not our problem’; it is the result of the award system or of the job evaluation process. Mairi highlighted the steps that EOWA is taking to respond to these perceptions. These include changing the Employer of Choice criteria so that these now include a requirement for a detailed analysis of workforce remuneration and gender equity pay issues. Other highlighted actions include promoting Equal Pay Day - which will be on 4 September 2010, provision by EOWA of an on-line pay equity course, and developing standards for gender inclusive job evaluation.

Philippa, who is the former Director, Pay and Employment Equity, NZ Dept of Labour and now working with EOWA, shared her views on more inclusive approaches to evaluating work and enabling preparedness to implement the remuneration implications. This included the development of resources for business which are accessible on-line.

There was a lively discussion around the issues of causation of and remedies for gender pay inequity. This resulted in some interesting observations (including questions of unionisation and the ‘reluctance’ of women to push the issue) from the diverse audience, which included HR practitioners and union officials.

Women, Power and Politics

A new era for Australia! First Female Prime Minister
Few people will be unaware that Australia now has its first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Gillard was Deputy Prime Minister (the first female Deputy Prime Minister). She was elected unopposed after the Kevin Rudd stood down from the leadership when it became clear that he no longer had the support of the party. It will be interesting to watch how the media and the population at large react to our first female Prime Minister. We wish her well in her new leadership role!!

Staying on the political theme – Women Power and Politics
A series of new plays ‘Women, Power and Politics’ is currently running at the Tricycle Theatre in north London. The series is part of a wider program examining UK women’s absence in positions of political power, their activism and issues such as pornography and the impact on families of war.

Part One of the series titled ‘Then’ consists of four plays that look at surviving in a man’s world and the choices or lack of choices available to women wanted to engage in political processes. Elizabeth 1, the Suffragettes, the Greenham Common protests and the relationship between Margaret Thatcher and the Queen were all explored. The second series of five plays is titled ‘Now’ and looks at Tony Blair’s rise to power over the Acting Leader of the Opposition Margaret Beckett, student politics and how much people are prepared to compromise (or not) to win an election, pre-selection decisions, the impact of pornography and why people engage or disengage from political processes.

It is a powerful series of plays that have moments of great humour and insight. I think what is the most interesting aspect is that this was a specially commissioned series of plays by the Tricycle Theatre to examine the complexity of women and political power in the UK.

Some books that have caught our attention


‘Women’s Leadership’ (2009) by Valerie Stead and Carole Elliot explores women’s accounts of becoming leaders. Stead and Elliot show the critical importance of the relationship between gender and leadership and how women are perceived and treated differently to men. The book is published by Palgrave McMillan.




Donna Ladkin asks us to rethink leadership in her book titled ‘Rethinking Leadership A New Look at Old Leadership Questions’. The book was published this year (2010) by Edward Elgar.



And finally some shameless self promotion!
“Self-Management and Leadership Development” edited by Mitch Rothstein and Ronald Burke published this year (2010) by Edward Elgar contains a chapter titled ‘Learning from Life Experiences: A Study of Female Academic Leaders in Australia’ by Linley Lord from the Maureen Bickley Centre and Susan Vinnicombe from the International Centre for Women Leaders at Cranfield University, UK.

Aspiring Political Leaders, Test Case for Equal Pay

Political Leadership – what does an aspiring Labour Party leader look like?

In the UK, the ‘race’ for leader of the Labour party has begun. One woman Diane Abbott is standing for the leadership. She is the first black person to contest the leadership of the party. Abbott is contesting the leadership with four other candidates, all of them male and all of them white. It was one of the contenders David Miliband who ‘helped’ Abbott get the required level of support to run for leader. Barbara Ellen in an article in The Observer (13 June) stated that his actions, whilst helping Abbott secure the votes she needed, were "patronising in the extreme". If actions speak louder than words, then what this is saying is loud and clear: “No skin off my nose: she won’t win.” Ellen goes on to make the point that Abbott is being positioned (by some at least) as the candidate who can make others feel better about the leadership contest – with Abbott they can tick the gender and ethnic diversity boxes – but as Ellen states "since when were black or female or in Abbott's case black and female, politicians there to make the white guys look good?" A great question!

Harriet Harman, the stand-in Labour party leader, has stated that Diane Abbott will give her rivals ‘a good run for their money.’ Harman nominated Abbott to prevent the leadership race being an all male affair. Let’s hope she is right and that the contest for leader focuses on who will be the most effective leader, including serious consideration of leaders who are female and black.

Pay Equity Test Case
The Australian Services Union (ASU) launched an equal pay test case with Fair Work Australia under the new Federal Fair Work Act in March this year. The ASU's case is focused on 250,000 mainly female community sector workers, in particular those who work in the care and community industries. They state that ‘the case sets out to prove that Community Workers wages have been set and kept so low because the work of the sector has been traditionally considered as Women’s Work. The test case is supported by the Equal Pay Alliance – a group of over 150 representatives from business, unions and government.

In a press release coinciding with the lodging of the claim the Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick stated that “A positive outcome in this test case will be a triumph for workers in this area, and will have important future implications. Australia is not alone in its challenge to close the gender gap in pay. We need to use all the tools available to us to ensure that this occurs. I warmly welcome the filing of the ASU case today.”

Hearings and/or inspections are expected to occur in October this year. I’d like to feel optimistic about this case as I believe that so many jobs in the caring sectors are undervalued and under rewarded. There is a real chance to do something about closing the gender pay gap. I wonder if they will be ‘brave’ enough to do it? We’ll keep an eye on the progress of this case!

On the Horizon
We have added a new section to our blog... "On the Horizon" which will provide links to upcoming events, seminars and conferences in the women in leadership space. Take a look on the right hand column of the blog and you will find it.

There are a number of events coming up in the next few months that might be of interest to you:
- “Getting Women off the Bench – A Gender Equality Blueprint for 2010” - National Press Club Address (Australia) by Elizabeth Broderick, Sex Discrimination Commissioner on Wednesday 23 June 11.45am-1.30pm (EST). At the address Commissioner Broderick will launch her 2010 Gender Equality Blue Print for Australia. The event will be fully televised. Click this link for more details.

- The Maureen Bickley Centre for Women in Leadership in association with the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA), are hosting a Breakfast Seminar on 2 July 2010 at 7:15am for 7:30am start on Gender Pay Equity with Mairi Steele, Acting Director, EOWA.
Mairi will discuss the research which suggests that HR specialists need a better understanding of pay equity issues and how to address them. She will talk about how to raise awareness of the problem and drive change in this critical area. For further information contact Lucy Cowcher-Guthrie at the MBC.

- The International Conference for Women Engineers and Scientists (ICWES) will be held in Adelaide, Australia from July 19-22, 2011. This global conference is run every three years and is a forum for the exchange of information and ideas for women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

The 2011 conference theme is Leadership, Innovation, Sustainability an will explore the following:
* Attracting, developing and retaining women engineers and scientists.
* Outstanding practice models of industry commitment to diversity and equality in the workplace.
* Achievements, innovations and research in the various fields of engineering, science and technology
* New ideas and solutions to contemporary problems including climate change, water, energy and sustainability.

Abstract submissions have opened, closing 1st December 2010. Submissions from both academics and industry practitioners are strongly encouraged. For more information visit www.icwes15.org

Part-time Managers: A Rare Breed

At the recent EURAM conference, a paper by Jennifer Tomlinson and Susan Durbin from the UK really resonated with us. The paper "Female Part Time Managers: work life balance and careers" presented research exploring the transition to part-time work of a group of female managers in the UK and the impact of this career decision on mobility, future career aspirations and work-life balance. The paper commented that part-time work is commonly requested - with 49% of working women seeking a permanent or temporary reduction in hours at some point in their career. However, women working in part-time managerial roles is very uncommon. In the UK, it sits at ~ 4% of women working part-time.

Part-time work at a managerial level enables women to continue to occupy challenging, high-status and well paid roles. However, the study highlighted a number of challenges for the women working in part-time managerial roles:

- a reduction in hours is accompanied by the perception and acceptance that career prospects are put on hold;

- women working in part-time managerial roles feel that they are overlooked for role and promotions despite having the experience and qualifications for the job;

- persistant negative perceptions of part-time workers exist, despite the women in the study being productive and highly focused at work and frequently working on excess of their contracted hours for no extra pay.

Image: www.delawareemploymentlawblog.com

Some connected issues are emerging in some research currently in progress by our group at the Maureen Bickley Centre on women engineers and their journey to management. Feelings of frustration, of invisibility and of being discounted are experienced by highly talented and practiced women managers who shift to part-time work, often following the arrival of children. These feeling are exacerbated by company policy that, for example, does not offer management roles on less than four days per week, a culture of long hours and presenteeism that creates a sense of needing to be in the office for 50 hours a week to do the job and a lack of creativity in job design of management roles that discounts job share or formation of alternative look management teams. This results in part-time managerial roles being difficult to obtain and to sustain.

It is disappointing that organizations retain the inflexible mind-set of manager = fulltime / long hours. The number of women in part-time management roles and the feelings experiences by women seeking and occupying these positions indicate that organisations are severely limiting their choice of managerial candidates by not offering sustainable, well designed part-time management roles. What are your thoughts? Is your organization innovative in the design of roles at management level? Do you have examples of part-time or flexible contract managers that are successfully operating in companies?

An International Take on Women in Leadership

EURAM

We recently attended the European Academy of Management (EURAM) Conference in Rome. Perhaps not surprisingly but always disappointing the issues relating to women’s lack of access to leadership roles are remarkably consistent across geographic and cultural boundaries. The problems resulting from masculinist cultures was a fairly common theme as were the popular misconceptions about women’s choices regarding their careers (e.g. opting out of senior roles as a ‘free’ rather than a constrained choice). However, the solutions, or possible solutions, to the issues varied widely depending on ideology and political will. Some papers, amongst the many that were thought provoking, really resonated with us:

Faiza Ali from Macquarie University speaking about working to achieve equality in Pakistan – incredible challenges and courage in the face of political and religious systems that place little value on gender equity. Research undertaken by Anne Bardoel, Helen De Cieri and Tracey Shea from Monash University, Australia on the impact on work-life initiatives of the GFC. On one level there is the pleasing finding that there had been relatively little impact (little or no change to policy or established practices – fine tuning of current practices was reported) – but then it was also revealed that most of the companies participating in the research didn’t provide direct funding to the initiatives, therefore maintaining something that’s not directly costing the organisation suggests that such initiatives may not be as embedded as we had hoped!! We also heard from Pia Hook, Anna Wahl and Charlotte Holgersson from the KTH Institute of Technology, Sweden about their research regarding women as a power resource in organisations and women’s initial reluctance to see themselves as powerful - despite Sweden’s well entrenched gender equity culture and legislative framework.

Women in Science

Our thanks to Anna who alerted us to this editorial on science and gender in Nature Immunology (2009) vol 11 no 2, February. The editorial highlights that gender stereotypes prevent women from reaching their full potential and from gaining appropriate recognition for the research they undertake. Women are lost to the system at the completion of their postdoctoral fellowships – this transition point to academic faculty is seen as a critical first step for women wanting to build a research career. For those who do make this transition, challenges remain. The editorial notes that women scientists have slower rates of promotion, less recognition through research awards, hold fewer academic administrative roles such as departmental chair (relative to the eligible pool), are paid less than their male counterparts (as much as 30% in some cases!!!) and receive less research funding.

Another interesting point made is that women publish fewer papers, something that has shown across a number of studies since the early 80s. This might be seen by some as explaining the different career outcomes for women. However, it has also been shown that there is no difference in the number of citations for women or men scientists. The article notes that women are seemingly more consistent in producing good quality work, whereas men produce a greater quantity of more variable quality.

What remains disappointing is that it still a case of quantity over quality and shows that we need to keep questioning so-called merit based systems to ensure that systemic practices are examined for implicit gender bias and when bias is uncovered it is exposed as a first step to changing practices that disadvantage women.

No Surprises! The Gender Pay Gap

No surprises!
A recent OECD report showed not unsurprisingly that women in OECD countries earn 18% less than men and only around one-third of managerial positions are held by women. This data won’t surprise too many but it does make you wonder what data is needed before we actually start to see concerted efforts to close the gender pay gap and to increase the number of women in senior decision making roles. It is clear that the data on its own doesn’t create a compelling case for change. The report is available at this link.

Closing the gender pay gap
Another case of sex discrimination – maybe we need more cases like this one to address the gender pay gap!!!

Around 50 female workers at Birmingham City Council in the UK (the UK’s largest local authority) have been told by the Employment Tribunal that their claims of discrimination are valid – but over 4000 more women could be affected by the ruling. The cases relate to bonuses or rather the lack of bonuses paid to the women. Men who were on the same pay grade had earned bonuses up to 160% of their basic pay - the women didn’t get bonuses! It could cost the Council 600 million pounds in back pay. Now that would be money well spent!!!

Some interesting reports this week
Goldman Sachs and JB Were have recently released a report titled Australia’s Hidden Resource: the Economic Case for Increasing Female Participation. The report highlights (again!) that women are an underutilised and undervalued resource in the Australian labour market and are overrepresented in the caring professions and underrepresented in science and technology. The report also comments on the persistence of the gender pay gap across a range of industry sectors. To download the full report, click here.

Our colleague Therese alerted us to the Productivity Commission (2005), “Economic Implications of an Ageing Australia, Research Report”, Canberra which reached similar conclusions. The full report can be downloaded from the Productivity Commission site. Again it’s a case of the data is there (and has been for some time) but change isn’t happening!!! So if the business case doesn’t appear to be winning the hearts and minds of those in senior decision making roles – what will? We are interested in your thoughts of what is needed now to make change happen. Please feel free to leave a comment or drop us a line: mbc@gsb.curtin.edu.au

Classrooms and Class actions

Our colleague Troy at the Graduate School of Business has sent through a couple of really interesting stories that we thought were worth sharing. Thanks Troy!

Why business schools are failing women
Forbes.com has an interesting article on why business schools are failing women. We wrote about the Catalyst report in our first blog which had looked the value or lack of value for women in gaining an MBA when compared to their male counterparts. The Forbes.com article by Selena Rezvani and Sandie Taylor looks at the underrepresentation of women in MBA programs (around 30% in the US) and the lack of action taken by business schools to address this issue. As they point out, having a few women featured on promotional posters isn’t enough to change recruitment practices or to necessarily encourage women to undertake further study when the rewards for doing so can be substantially less than their male counterparts. They also argue for the need for gender specific leadership training to address many of the issues that women will face both in their course and in the business world.

Sex Discrimination – Class action
The second article that captured our attention was the sex discrimination case against the pharmaceutical company Novartis. The Novartis class action covers 5600 women employed at Novartis. The claims included that the women were:
- being promoted less often,
- being encouraged by their male managers not to get pregnant, and
- earning less.
Also included in the case was exposure to:
- gender hostility,
- a hostile work environment, and
- sexual harassment and retaliation.

There are also allegations of sexual assault, being exposed to pornography in the workplace and lack of action by HR staff when complaints were made by the women. This is pretty amazing given the company had been listed regularly by Working Women Magazine as one of the best places for women to work.

I think the Novartis case raises some very interesting issues. Organisations can and do have great policies in place and can be recognised as great places for women to work. Yet there can be a major disconnect between the policies and the practice. This maybe only in parts of the organisation but that is enough particularly when it means that it creates an unsafe working environment. Much more needs to be done to make sure that the practice throughout organisations mirrors good policy and that when complaints are made they are dealt with effectively regardless of who the complaint is against!

Another American class action lawsuit, this time against Walmart – the largest lawsuit in US history - is also getting some attention. The case was first lodged in 2001 by one woman employee Betty Dukes and the recent court decision means that more than a million current and former Walmart employees can be considered together in the claims of discrimination against women (less pay, fewer promotions, gender stereotyping and discrimination). Regardless of the final outcome of the case its an amazing story of one woman’s courage and what can happen when women work together to bring about change. You can read more at about this case here.

If you have stories that you would like to share with us - please leave a comment or drop us a line by e-mail.

Women on Boards: What should Boards and Governments do?

The Maureen Bickley Centre for Women in Leadership is hosting a roundtable with senior managers and board members on this issue in the first week of May. What advice should be given to Boards and to the Government if we are serious about increasing the number of women on corporate, not for profit and government boards?

There has been considerable press in Australia over the past few months regarding the lack of women on the country’s top listed boards. The 2008 Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) Census (the full report is available at the EOWA website) showed that the very modest gains that had been made were disappearing. Perhaps even more disturbing is the data from Western Australia where women comprise 2% of board positions!!!

Maybe it’s not surprising given the action by other countries such as Norway, Spain, France, the UK and the US that we are starting to focus on women’s underrepresentation at senior and board level. The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) announced in a media release last December that it intended to expand its corporate governance principles so that organisations listed on the ASX would be required to report on the diversity composition of their board in their annual reports and any action they are taken to improve women’s representation.

A further media release (available here) on 18 April this year detailed the establishment of a leadership group of male CEOs and Chairmen who have committed to using their collective influence and personal commitment to progress gender equality in the Australian corporate sector. The CEOs and Chairmen are drawn from a wide range of Australian companies and are working with the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick. The group was formed in response to the ASX Corporate Governance Council recommendations on diversity and comprises:

* Glen Boreham, Managing Director, IBM Australia and New Zealand

* Gordon Cairns, Non-Executive Director, Westpac and Origin Energy Ltd

* Robert Elstone, Managing Director and CEO, Australian Securities Exchange

* Stephen Fitzgerald, Co-CEO and Managing Director, Goldman Sachs JBWere

* Michael Luscombe, Managing Director and CEO, Woolworths Ltd

* Kevin McCann, Chair, non-Executive Director of various Boards including Origin Energy Ltd, Macquarie Bank Ltd and Australian Institute of Company Directors

* Stephen Roberts, CEO of the Citi Institutional Clients Group, Australia and New Zealand

* Giam Swiegers, CEO, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Australia

* David Thodey, Managing Director and CEO, Telstra Ltd.

Coinciding with the ASX focus on women on boards is the newly launched Australian Institute of Company Directors mentoring program for women aspiring to board appointments. The initial twelve month program will involve 56 chairmen and senior directors who have agreed to mentor 63 women with an aim of helping the women connect with key business leaders and to learn more about how boards operate and how new board members are selected. More information including the list of mentors is available at the AICD website.

These initiatives are great to see but we do wonder whether is it is a case of women needing further support to ensure that they are board ready or is it that we have plenty of women who would relish the opportunity to become a board member and they are in fact ‘bored – and ready’ for this next challenge? What do you think?

For reports and thought-provoking research on women on boards see:

* Cranfield University’s Centre for International Leaders for reports on the UK, including 100 Women to Watch. Available on-line at the Cranfield University website.

* Catalyst for reports on the US and Canada.

* European Professional Women’s Network

Some interesting books on women on boards:

Doug Branson who is a Visiting Professor at the University of Washington and also teaches Corporate Governance at the University of Melbourne has written two books on this issue:

No Seat at the Table – How Governance and Law Keep Women Off Boards of Directors (NYU Press)

The Last Male Bastion - Gender and the CEO Suite at America's Public Companies (Routledge).


Another book is Women On Corporate Boards Of Directors: International Research and Practice
edited by Susan Vinicome and Val Singh at the International Centre for Women Leaders, Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University, UK; Ronald J. Burke at the Schulich School of Business, York University, Canada; Diana Bilimoria at Case Western Reserve University, US and Morten Huse at the Norwegian School of Management, Norway.

(Image sources: playtable.jp and e-elgar.co.uk)

New Books and Recent Reports

Some newly published books and recently released reports have caught our eyes at the Maureen Bickley Centre...

New Books
I was delighted to see that Fremantle Arts Centre Press has just published Lekkie Hopkins (a colleague from my previous university) and Lynn Roarty’s book about Pat Giles.


Pat Giles is known to many in Australia for her commitment to improving the lives of the disadvantaged. Among her many contributions and achievements she was elected as an Australian Labour Party Senator a role she held for twelve years. She was also an organiser with the Hospital Employees Union of Western Australia, a founding member and inaugural convener of the Women's Electoral Lobby (WEL) in Western Australia, the first woman on the executive of the West Australian Trades and Labour Council, Chairperson of the first Australian Council of Trade Unions Women's Committee and completed three terms as President of the International Alliance of Women.

Recently Released Reports
Three recently released reports caught our attention. The first is Changing Cultures Changing Attitudes - A National Survey on Community Attitudes to Violence Against Women released on April 7, 2010 by the Hon Tanya Plibersek, MP, Federal Minister for the Status of Women. Although the report noted some gains in that attitudes about violence against women are changing for the better significant challenges remain and violence against women remains a major issue. The full report is available here. I also think we need more research to show the impact of violence on women’s work and their careers. Let us know if you are aware of research being undertaken in this area or any relevant reports that have been released.

A second major report is Women in Science in Australia: Maximising Productivity, Diversity and Innovation by Professor Sharon Bell which was released by the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies in October 2009. The report shows that women’s progress in science over the past 15 years has stalled despite improvements in their participation rates at undergraduate and post graduate levels. The report highlighted persistent structural barriers to women in senior positions in science and technology, female professional scientists earning less than their male counterparts and harassment and discrimination continue to be major issues. The full report is available through the FAST website. This report is particularly timely given Australia’s focus on skill and labour shortages. However, one wonders how many research organisations and funding agencies will rise to the author’s challenge to change their practices including the need for improved flexibility and a range of career paths that have as a central focus the attraction and retention of women. It will be an interesting space to monitor for change!!

The third report that captured our attention (perhaps no surprise we are located in a graduate school that has an MBA as one of its major programs) was Catalyst’s report Pipeline’s Broken Promises - a second report from their longitudinal project, The Promise of Future Leadership: A Research Program on Highly Talented Employees in the Pipeline.

The project surveys graduates of leading business schools in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia and highlights the differences in women's and men's career experiences and satisfaction. It challenges the myth that women just haven’t been in the pipeline long enough and that this is what explains their absence in senior roles and the persistence of the gender pay gap. Of concern for women is that despite women’s increased participation in education and employment inequality remains entrenched and that women from elite MBA programs lagged men in terms of career advancement and salary from their first appointment following graduation. Perhaps not surprisingly women were also less satisfied with their careers. The full report is available from the Catalyst website. What are your thoughts on how organisations and for that matter universities teaching MBA programs might address this issue of gender inequality?

Welcome to The Bickley Blog

Welcome to The Bickley Blog! We hope that you will enjoy reading about the activities of the Maureen Bickley Centre for Women in Leadership as well as the things that inspire and encourage us, and what continues to frustrate regarding women’s representation in leadership roles, in decision making and in positions of influence.