International Women’s Day - The importance of investing in female leaders

Forget the cupcakes and cliches. The focus of this year's International Womens Day (IWD) is on investing in female leadership, making sure real change eventuates.

There is an emphasis on fostering a workplace culture that supports representation at a leadership level for women.

These leaders are escaping the narrow lens of IWD, which can negate real transformation, and creating a space where women are seen and heard.

Sunita Gloster, non executive director and advisor, Gloster Advisory: “We know that better gender balance in leadership delivers better financial performance, better governance and stronger long-term company value and that there has also never been greater scrutiny on the link between who we are and what we create.  

“Let's start with the fact that women have a right to participate equally in all facets of society. Women belong at decision making tables where decisions that impact women are made. To prosper as an industry, and as a country we need to realise the full and equal participation of women. 

“The Chief Executive Women Census shows us that progress on women reaching the most senior leadership roles is going backwards and at this rate it will take 100 years for women to make up at least 40% of CEO positions in the ASX200. 

"Whilst parts of our industry are taking much needed steps to address key mid-career retention strategies, re-designing roles to enable flexible work and support with infrastructure through life transitions, we must remain vigilant about whether progress on female leadership across the industry as a whole is still stalling. Bold action would be committingto purposeful targets and time bound accountability. 

"Keep asking - what is the percentage of women in leadership? What is the percentage of cultural diversity in leadership and importantly, what is the rate of change in these measures?"

Raj Tapper, chief people officer & board director, Clemenger Group: "For years I’d bought into the story that having children stalls women’s careers. What I learned is that the disadvantage starts way earlier.

"While women and men enter the workforce in roughly equal numbers, men outnumber women nearly two to one when they reach that first step up – the management positions that are the bridge to more senior leadership roles.  

“One big barrier is mindset. The reality is that those who decide who gets to be a leader are the people already in charge, and they tend to be men. Like any privilege, those who have it can tend to believe their success is a result only of their hard work and talents, so this forms a picture in their minds of what makes a good leader.  

“Nothing shifts the dial more than executives making bold decisions to over-invest in female talent and back women in the big roles.

“I’m not just a woman but I’m also from an ethnic minority background, being of Indian descent. I have no doubt that other people’s beliefs hampered my path, but I controlled what I could control, specifically how I put myself out there and how I dealt with the obstacles along the way.” 

Catherine Edghill and Danni Dimitri, managing partners, Hatched Sydney: “IWD is one day of the year and supporting your team to create a culture where everyone can thrive is a 24/7 job.

"At Hatched we do not do tokenistic approaches. You will see no cupcakes in our office next week.    

“People defer to what they know – aka, unconscious bias. If current leaders are middle aged white men, then more often than not young white men get given opportunities because they are familiar.   

“Other chicks need to stop tearing one another down. But also, men perpetuating that it's other chicks. Men need to recognise when bullying is happening from woman to woman and intervene – because junior or victimised women are rarely understood or believed when they speak up.   

“Achieving and maintaining gender diversity should be as important to businesses as breathing. The way you know you are doing it right is by listening to your staff. Don’t sit there with a calculator adding up the stats. Go and ask our people how they feel, what’s working and what’s not.   

“The onus is on all of us to make this industry as diverse and inclusionary as we possibly can.”