For the women and men engaged in the gender diversity space it can often seem like we are taking one step forward, two steps back.
Our federal government looks like Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull gave out cabinet seats as door prizes at the Australian Club. Women earn 16.2% less than men, and are more likely to retire in poverty. The Australian workforce is 46.2% female yet women comprise just 5% of Chief Executive Officer roles of our top 100 companies.
Sometimes, the pursuit for basic gender equality can seem overwhelming.
So I want to share some exciting news about the progress that we are making.
Firstly, from UCA Funds Management, which wants to invest only in companies that have female representation on their board, and if otherwise would work as an activist shareholder to achieve change. If the company after engagement refused to add females to their boards, then they would divest. How fantastic is this! The research has demonstrated for a long time that companies that have women on their boards financially out perform those that don’t. Now companies like UCA Funds are moving beyond profit motivators and making significant investment decisions based on the ethics of an organisation. Benjamin Pedley, Director of Investments, UCA Funds Management told Bloomberg today “We are the only fund manager that I am aware of that does not invest in companies that do not have female board representation.”
What a terrific way to wear your values on diversity. I congratulated Ben and he further added that “UCA Funds is not saying it will never invest in companies with male only boards, but it would only occur if we could see there was a genuine commitment to improve from those companies.” A good start of pushing for social change.
So which ASX companies could be excluded from such an initiative? Well let’s take a look at those that have no women on their boards. Start with these: TPG Telecom Limited; Investa Office Fund; Evolution Mining Limited; Qube Holdings Limited; Northern Star Resources Ltd; Aveo Group Limited; Independence Group NL; Regis Resources Limited; Mineral Resources Limited; Mayne Pharma Group Limited; ARB Corporation Limited; Mesoblast Ltd; Flexigroup Limited; Altium Limited; Australian Agricultural Company Limited; Monadelphous Group Limited; GWA Group Limited; Western Areas Limited; National Storage REIT; Austal Limited.
Some other organisations are doing a lot better.
Firstly, the big banks.
ANZ has pushed for 50:50 mix for all first layer of management roles and also linked achievement of women in management targets to the Executive Committee, and CEO-2 level remuneration. NAB offer twelve weeks paid leave during a child’s first year to fathers, which helps enable mothers to return to work quicker. It is on track to meet its target of 35% women in executive leadership by 2017. Westpac has the target of 50% women in leadership by 2017 and CBA have a target of 40% by 2020. The big four banks have all used their considerable resources and media presence to make gender equality the status quo.’
In the public sector, the Victorian State Government last year introduced a quota of 50% women to Victorian courts and paid government board positions. As Premier Daniel Andrews said during the announcement last year “I’m sick of walking into meetings and seeing a room full of blokes sitting around the table.” One of his leaders demonstrating inclusion is the Department of Environment, Water, Land and Planning Secretary Adam Fennessy (also a male champion of change). Twelve months ago I praised his office for achieving 44% women in his senior leadership team and he responded “there is still much work to do,” Today Adam has 51% women in his executive team.
Meanwhile, the Male Champions of Change has pledged to not sit on any panels that do not have female representation. This is significant. If you have ever come back from a week long conference and not heard a single female voice (as happened to my husband recently) you have to ask yourself how much as a society do we value women’s experiences. When you have events like the upcoming one from the Supernova Tribe that promises to reveal the answers to “whether women like being victims of the system” and “Is it time women stepped up?” you understand why men in positions of power using their influence to take a stand against discrimination is a very welcome addition to the landscape.
We go forward, we go backwards, but we continue to move decisively, determinedly in a direction to ensure that it will be a person’s work ethic, not ones gender, that determines career success.
