NBN Co chairman and RMIT chancellor Ziggy Switkowski is feeling optimistic about the future of women’s workforce participation.
He believes we’re on the cusp of significant change, where women hold the promise of out-earning and out-leading the men in their families.
And he believes workplaces will become increasingly more female and family friendly – not only because it’s the right thing to do but also because it will be the best means for staying competitive.
Switkowski told the AFR Chanticleer lunch on Tuesday that with women currently outscoring men at university and graduating in larger numbers to men (he’s quoted as saying women account for 57% of Australia’s 800,000 current undergraduates), as well as what he believes is a trend of men handling more childraising responsibilities, women will soon be on “a more promising career path and will be earning more” than the men in their families.
“I have one daughter and three granddaughters and I think this is a great time to be a woman because I think the promise of leadership in our communities, our nation and our businesses is very exciting for the increasingly large number of talented, ambitious and confident women out there,” he said, according to a piece on the lunch in the AFR today.
The university figures are promising but women have been graduating in at least equal numbers to men for decades now. We’ve long felt optimistic about the future, and yet long found such optimism has resulted in little change when it comes to the actual numbers: a gender pay gap that’s hardly budged from around 17% in 20 years, and major indicators of women in leadership that are still in the single digits – such as the number of female chairs and CEOs at ASX 200 companies.
Meanwhile, as Transfield Services chairman Diane Smith-Gander noted at the lunch, women can hardly feel too optimistic about their own personal futures, given the major gender gap that still exists in superannuation savings.
One positive is that women’s workforce participation featured so prominently during the business lunch. Big business appears to see it as a real issue, and a great opportunity.
Have we waited too long for real change to remain optimistic about the future?