Download the full report here.
Just over three months since International Women’s Day, which called on us to “Be Bold for Change”, we’re still seeing the same story when it comes to the numbers on women in leadership and business.
In some areas, we’ve actually gone backwards in the first half of 2017. Just take a look at the number of female CEOs now leading ASX 200 organisations, which has now dropped to just seven following a number of resignations.
The fact is that women are more educated, ambitious and experienced than ever before. And yet measures designed to shift the balance on women in leadership in some of our largest organisations, are simply not working – or not working fast enough, or in a sustainable way.
What’s needed are bold, innovative ideas. New initiatives and cultural adjustments that require courageous leadership to implement, but will ultimately inspire sustainable change.
Recently, we partnered with law firm, Baker McKenzie to get a number of leaders around a table to workshop ideas designed to shift the dial on women in business– now, not in the next century.
All our participants had some kind of connection to the legal industry – a sector where many of the challenges confronting women and their career progression is particularly acute.
We asked our participants to suggest and to help workshop ‘bold’ ideas: New initiatives, programs and ways of thinking that could disrupt the status quo, but are also relatively simple for willing organisations to implement.
As Baker McKenzie partner Anne-Marie Allgrove said, “You can tick the boxes on a number of things, but if we can’t change the culture, we’re not going to see much change.”
The conversation started through exploring some of the career ‘turning points’ that had ultimately put those sitting around the table on track to where they were today. These unique moments ranged from having kids, to working overseas, to meeting a sponsor, to being diagnosed with cancer, to experiencing blatant discrimination, to having a life partner step back from their own career to take care of things at home. These experiences underpinned our discussion on the measures that can ultimately help accelerate women’s careers.
Those in the room agreed that there’s no silver bullet for shifting the numbers on women in leadership. What’s needed is a number of ‘shifts’ that can, in collaboration, promote significant and sustainable change.
Some such ‘shifts’ require significant budgets, others simply require effort, others a change in process and procedures.
Shifting the dial is not beyond our collective ability, but it does require leadership. It requires individuals to break with long established traditions, to take significant risks and to change what they can within their own sphere of influence.
The shifts we came up with ranged from:
- Shifting cultural expectations of both genders through conversations, especially conversations that can help end the assumptions made about colleagues at work
- Shifting the corporate culture, by applying pressure and influence on clients and suppliers
- Shifting the numbers, by setting meaningful targets and KPIs on leaders responsible
- Shifting the gender gap, by doing a pay audit and rectifying it
- Shifting the profile of women, especially to give ‘mid level; women a voice and the confidence to use it
These ideas are outlined in our full report, including the specific role both individuals and organisations can play in making them happen.
Check out the full report here, and watch our highlights package from the roundtable discussion below: