Women are having a moment. Over the last three months, we’ve seen the forces of Taylor Swift, Barbie and the Matildas dominate our collective consciousness.
By some measures, Taylor Swift has helped Australia avoid a recession. Barbie has become the first movie directed by a woman to gross $1bn dollars. And the Matildas match against England in the FIFA Women’s World Cup became the most watched TV event in modern Australian ratings history.
What these women have shown is not only their exceptional talent, commitment and spirit, but also that they are valued. We want to use our (increasingly limited) discretionary funds to see Taylor Swift and Margot Robbie and Sam Kerr. Because we value their contributions to their chosen fields.
This is important. It’s important because too often decision makers live under the false pretence that women aren’t as valued. And that leads to biases from the inception of a woman’s career that can affect whether or not she can become a film director, or a surgeon or a CEO, or a World Cup winner.
For the Matildas, those biases were that organisers (wrongly) thought the event wouldn’t be as popular as it was, and so charged less for the broadcast rights to the Women’s World Cup than the men’s, and less for the tickets. Then they claim that women get less of the prize pool because they bring in less money.
We see these biases play out across industries and occupations. Biases that influence who’s right for the job, who’s salary negotiation is more acceptable or who deserves a bonus. Judgements that determine who gets parental leave and the career penalty for taking it. And stereotypes that shape our perception of what makes a good leader.
Some will argue that gender equality is about providing equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome. But what they miss is that sometimes ensuring equality of opportunity will require looking at outcomes. This is necessary and does not disadvantage anyone.
Take for example the legal profession. Approximately 67 per cent of law graduates are women. But 33 per cent of partners in law firms are women. That means that currently, men are four times more likely to become a partner at a law firm than women.
Focusing only on the opportunity in this situation is not enough. Law firms need to uncover the disconnect between becoming a lawyer and reaching partnership.
As a result, many law firms are de-biasing pathways for women to become partners. They are looking at the old boys’ club culture and putting in place systems that equally reward men and women.
They are not disadvantaging men. Even if they managed to get to a 50:50 men-to-women ratio at the partnership level, men entering the firm would still be much more likely than women to become partners.
Today is Equal Pay Day. That means that it took until today for women to earn, on average, as much as men since the end of the financial year. An extra 56 days.
This Equal Pay Day we’re asking employers to stop and think about the biases and stereotypes in their workplaces and consider the potential of what they could achieve when they take these barriers away.
As Matildas captain Sam Kerr said when she called for more funding for women’s soccer in Australia, “hopefully this is the start of something new.”
In the last few months, Taylor Swift, Barbie and the Matildas have shown us what it feels like when women have a moment in the spotlight. Let’s make the moment a movement, a light that burns brightly forevermore.