It seems like every week I am attending a different event on women, gender equality or diversity. There has been an increase in activity lately. and that’s a good thing.
However, yesterday’s event with the Committee for Perth was very striking. There was one speaker, a male academic.
In a field dominated by women it was an interesting change. Dr Terry Fitzsimmons outlined a few things that were particularly interesting.
He started by quoting a male CEO: “If men were mothers, there would be a world of female CEOs”. It is salient to remember that business still struggles to support those employee who’re also primary-carers at home.
There is a lot of data around women in the workforce. However, Fitzsimmons noted that the more than 2300 different pieces of research available all broadly say the same thing: women are great for business and the economy.
That’s a lot of information.
Most of us who are interested in this area wouldn’t be too surprised that the research concerning it has been done to death. The missing gap is not knowledge but a lack of genuine leadership.
There is a need for leadership that informs, challenges and builds inclusion. Genuine leadership on gender equality is about looking beyond short-term disruptions and issues in business functions, it goes to the medium and long-terms.
Indeed, the conversation about gender equality is similar to that of climate change. The overwhelming data is clear and obvious – we should act now before we lose more in the future. The difference is that we are currently already losing so much given the lack of women participating in economic leadership.
Instead of thinking about the benefits that can be brought about through the increased engagement of women in leadership we need to focus more on the costs of not having such women participate. While benefits are bonuses, costs are losses. Business acts on costs faster than anything else.
Every manager is focused on productivity and minimising costs. Women represent a haven of human capital that can innovate and transform businesses and economies. What is being lost by not striving for gender equality?
Often CEOs will say that they are stuck when it comes to gender equality and diversity and that the challenges are beyond their capacity.
I really do have to question this. Last week a senior corporate man said to me that if his company wanted to change the game on gender equality that they would have acted by now.
It was a disappointing comment to hear from a man who showed me that he gets gender equality.
Dr Fitzsimmons reminded us that we need to engage the logic of men who don’t realise the benefits of gender equality. Lay out the data that has been well presented time and time again.
We all need to remind them that this is a business issue and that the bottom line is what their bosses are looking at – and women can help attain better results.
So, if we’re going to get serious on gender equality, we need to start directly informing our leaders about what we’ll lose if we fail to get engaged.