Engaging male leaders for gender equality

Sex Discrimination

Wednesday 6 March, 2013

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‘Engaging male leaders for gender
equality’ UN Global Compact Office and UN
Women 5th Annual Women’s Empowerment Principles
Event: Inclusion: Strategy for Change Deloittes, 30
Rockefeller Plaza Wednesday, 6 March 2013, 9.00 – 9.40am

** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY**
Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Let me acknowledge my fellow panelists,
Madame Bachelet and Ms Sung-Joo Kim, as well as the speakers we have just heard
from, Mr Georg Kell, and Mr David Pearson. Thank you for the
opportunity of speaking at this opening session of the 5th Annual
Women’s Empowerment Principles Event.
In my role as Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner I have worked
closely with business and the corporate sector to advance gender equality. This
requires multiple and complex strategies - there is no one solution.
Rather, a range of strategies must be employed. Progress requires the
involvement of all sectors, including very importantly, the corporate sector.
The Women's Empowerment Principles<a name="fnB1" href="#fn1">[1]</a>
provide a vehicle to do just that.
Let me give you a quick snapshot of where we are at in Australia in terms of
women's workforce participation and the progress in increasing women’s
representation in leadership. 
The workforce participation rates of women in the age group 15 to 65 years
are almost 12 percentage points below
men.<a name="fnB2" href="#fn2">[2]</a> Not only that but in most
industries women are not well represented at decision-making levels. With this
in mind, in 2011 the Australian Securities Exchange's Corporate Governance
Council introduced reforms that required all listed companies to establish
gender diversity policies<a name="fnB3" href="#fn3">[3]</a> and
report against them. 
This initiative saw a seismic shift occur in women’s representation on
corporate boards, with the number of women on ASX 200 Boards increasing by
almost 50 per cent from 2010 to
2012<a name="fnB4" href="#fn4">[4]</a> – and currently women
sit on 15.4 per cent of ASX 200
Boards<a name="fnB5" href="#fn5">[5]</a> – which is a
significant increase, given we moved only 0.2 per cent in the previous decade!

For those of you who attended my colleague Mairi Steele's presentation at the
WEPs reception yesterday the Australian Government has also introduced strong
workplace gender equality laws requiring all organisations with more than 100
employees to provide detailed information about women's progression and
empowerment in paid work.<a name="fnB6" href="#fn6">[6]</a>
While these initiatives have been welcomed, one area where Australia is doing
poorly is in the number of women at senior executive levels. Part of the reason
for this is that to achieve a critical mass of women in senior positions, most
organisations must experience significant cultural evolution - the structures
and conventions that prevail still function as a barrier to women’s
progression, which in turn perpetuates a cycle of absence. In my work
with business I have particularly focused on how we can use the principles
underpinning the WEPs to compel male leaders in business to create cultural
change - to promote women's leadership and gender equality.
Why men? Well it has become apparent that to deliver equality for women we
must focus on men - we must recognise the site of organisational power - the
fact that in most businesses both the human and financial resources are
controlled by men. 
Placing the onus on women to ‘fix the problem’ of women's
under-representation means that any failures will be laid at the door of women,
rather than identified as systemic deficiencies. 
This is why, about two years ago, I established the Male Champions of
Change - a leadership group in Australia – a group that has brought
the WEPs to life in Australia through collaboration and innovative strategies.
I want to share some of this work with you today. 
The Male Champions are 24 of Australia's most powerful and influential men.
They are CEOs, Chairpersons and government leaders from Australia’s most
influential public and private sector organisations - men who lead
Australia’s iconic companies like Telstra, Qantas, Commonwealth Bank and
Woolworths – men who lead global organisations like Citibank and IBM
– and men who hold the most senior roles in Government from the
Departments of Treasury, Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Public Service and the
Military. 
The Male Champions see gender equality as both a human rights issue and a
business imperative. 
When I first started the group I rang each man and made a personal request.
Would they use both their personal power and their collective influence to
advocate for gender equality at both an organisational and a country
level. The group meets regularly. In line with their Charter, aside from
driving change in their own organisations they have been strong public advocates
for gender equality – which also aligns with Principle 6 of the WEPs,
‘promote equality through community initiatives and advocacy’. They
have presented at more than 80 conferences and events, travelling from
Washington, to Rio, to New Zealand and around Australia. 
For instance, the Chief of Army who is one of the Male Champions of Change
has accompanied me to CSW 57 this year to talk at a number of events about his
experiences in transforming the most hyper-masculine culture - the military
culture. 
There are now related champions groups in Western Australia, South Australia
and New Zealand and sector based groups such as one focused on companies
involved in infrastructure, engineering and the built environment. And the
model is being adopted in a number of emerging economies across the world. 
One of the first things the Male Champions did was to write to every business
leader in Australia, making the case for change and reflecting on their own
experience in increasing the representation of women in leadership. They
launched this letter at an event that was attended by hundreds of their male
peers from around Australia – which was a historic moment - all these
powerful men on the stage advocating for women's leadership. Over 150,000 copies
of the letter have been distributed since it was launched. 
This year the Male Champions of Change have begun working on a series of
monitored experiments to see what kinds of things can be done to seriously shift
the gender inequalities - have developed a number of game changing ideas.
What I find interesting is how many of the areas the Male Champions of Change
are working on align with the WEPs.
The first area reflects Principle 1 of the WEPs - namely, ‘establishing
high-level corporate leadership for gender equality’. There is a
realisation amongst the Male Champions that they have levers of power and
influence that only they can use. So they are exploring models of leadership
that promote gender equality - as leaders they are analysing four elements of
their leadership approach: 
<ul>
<li>what I say</li>
<li>how I act, </li>
<li>what I prioritise and </li>
<li>what I measure. </li></ul>They are mining and analysing their diaries,
conducting consultations with employees on their leadership approach and
developing the most effective leadership model for a CEO that’s doing this
well. They are then devising a transition plan to migrate their own leadership
practices to the new model and they are cascading this model through their
organisations. Another area they are working on is making visible the bias
and harmful gender stereotypes that prevent the status quo from changing. This
aligns with Principle 2 of WEPs, ‘Treat all women and men fairly at work
– respect and support human rights and non-discrimination’. One of
the strategies they are using in this area is to ask: ‘50/50, If Not? Why
Not?’. For example, ‘If women make up over 50 per cent of
Australia's population why am I not seeing 50 per cent of women in
......’.
By posing this question these leaders confront old norms and ask ‘why
not?’ instead of ‘why?’. When you apply this lens to all areas
of the organisation you elevate the discussion and challenge long held
assumptions - assumptions which can either be ‘de-bunked’ as myths
or addressed as significant barriers to women’s progression. 
To give you an example of this in practice, one of the Champions asked the
question, ‘why weren’t there 50 per cent women nominated for a
leadership program they were offering in their organisation?’. This led
the organisation to re-examine the eligibility criteria for the program, which
excluded many women who had not had the opportunity to work on international
programs. By resetting the criteria to reflect other kinds of experience related
to international programs such as experience in managing overseas staff and
offshore teams, they were able to increase the number of women in the program
from 22 per cent to 35 per cent.
They are also having the hard conversations within their organisations. Over
the last two months they have held 30 focus groups within their organisations.
They have buddied up with each other - two CEOs holding the conversations within
each organisation. This sends a message that the CEO is serious about changing
culture. As one CEO told me - he was asked: ‘So what I'm hearing you say
is that from now on it will be more difficult for me as a man to get a
promotion?’. The Male Champion responded, ‘That’s right, but
just think about this, how hard it has been for women for the past 200 years to
get a promotion’. Another area they are working in is Gender
Reporting, which reflects WEPS Principle 7, ‘measure and publicly report
on progress to achieve gender equality’. The Male Champions are determined
to take the lead on gender reporting in Australia by going beyond what is
required by law. They will report on an expanded set of detailed measures
annually. As a collective they have taken the view that if we are really serious
about this - every leader in Australia should have some sort of gender balance
target in their scorecard, ideally tied to a remuneration outcome where
possible. This includes corporate, government and the military! And
that’s what they're working towards. 
The Male Champions of Change has been a controversial strategy. Some thought
I was suggesting that we women were waiting to be saved by corporate knights in
shining armour galloping paternalistically into territory we’ve occupied
for years?
This couldn’t be further from the truth. As one of the members
explained ‘the rules of work have been invented by men for men’. I
believe that if we want to reshape those rules we need to work with men to do
so. 
So although it is clear to me that women’s voices remain critical to
advancing gender equality and eliminating violence against women, what is also
clear is that change will come when men take the message of gender equality to
other men.
In conclusion I want to make a couple of comments on the role of the
corporate sector in the elimination and prevention of violence against women,
the priority theme at the Commission on Status of Women this year, and one that
aligns with Principle 3 of the WEPs, ‘Ensure the health, safety and
well-being of all women and men workers’. 
It is often assumed that domestic and family violence and the workplace are
mutually exclusive; that one has nothing to do with the other. 
But the statistics show us that domestic and family violence does impact on
workplaces.
An estimated 1.2 million women in Australia over the age of 15 have
experienced domestic or family violence, usually at the hands of a male
partner.<a name="fnB7" href="#fn7">[7]</a> Almost two-thirds of women
affected by domestic and family violence are in some form of paid
employment.<a name="fnB8" href="#fn8">[8]</a> Based on Australian
Bureau of Statistics estimates, this equates to around 800,000 women in
Australian workplaces, who are experiencing domestic or family violence.
That so many individuals affected by domestic violence are in paid employment
means that domestic violence is therefore very much a concern for workplaces.

In addition to which there is the cost to business. It has been estimated
that the production-related costs of domestic violence will cost $609 million by
2021-2022 unless effective action is taken to address it, with employers
expected to bear 39 per cent of those
costs.<a name="fnB7"></a><a name="fnB9" href="#fn9">[9]</a>
Encouragingly, in Australia we have started to see a real willingness by
businesses to tackle the impacts of domestic and family violence as a workplace
issue. 
One of the most significant developments, I think, has been the number of
workers who now have access to dedicated leave for domestic and family violence
through their industrial agreements. There are now over a million workers in
Australia who can access such
leave<a name="fnB10" href="#fn10">[10]</a> — leave to attend
court hearings, to obtain protection orders, to move into shelters, to receive
medical or other forms of assistance. 
Secondly, the Australian Government has announced it plans to extend the
right to request a flexible working arrangement for workers experiencing
domestic or family violence as well as workers who care for individuals
experiencing violence.<a name="fnB11" href="#fn11">[11]</a> 
Let me end by sharing a story with you that hopefully demonstrates the
importance of businesses role in addressing these issues. 
Last year, I delivered a speech on domestic violence in Sydney. The next day,
I had a call from a woman I had known for many years who is a senior manager for
a large bank who had attended.
She said that, following my speech, she had called her staff together and
told them that she wanted to talk about domestic violence, the prevalence data
and what it means for business. 
She started by recounting her own story – a story she’d never
told before. The story of growing up in a violent household, of wiping the blood
off her mother’s face, of taking her to hospital – of the shame and
silence. She concluded by saying to her staff ‘Now I want you to tell this
story to everybody in this bank, because by telling my story I hope it will be
easier for others to tell theirs’.
Thank you.
<hr><a name="fn1" href="#fnB1">[1]</a> United Nations Women,
‘Women Empowering Principles’. At <a
href="http://www.weprinciples.org/">http://www.weprinciples.org/</a><a href=""> </a>(viewed
7 March 2013). <a name="fn2" href="#fnB2">[2]</a> Australian
Bureau of Statistics, Table 18 Labour Force Status by Sex 15-64 years’,
Labour Force, Australia (6202.0) (2012).
 <a name="fn3" href="#fnB3">[3]</a> Australian Securities
Exchange, ‘Improving gender diversity’. At <a
href="http://www.asx.com.au/resources/listed-at-asx/gender-diversity.htm">htt…;
(viewed 7 March 2013). <a name="fn4" href="#fnB4">[4]</a>
Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Australian Census of Women in Leadership
Summary of key findings (2012). At <a
href="http://www.wgea.gov.au/Information_Centres/Resource_Centre/WGEA_Publica…;
(viewed 7 March 2013). <a name="fn5" href="#fnB5">[5]</a>
Australian Institute of Company Directors, ‘Appointments to ASX 200
Boards’. At <a
href="http://www.companydirectors.com.au/Director-Resource-Centre/Governance-…;
(viewed 18 February 2013). 
 <a name="fn6" href="#fnB6">[6]</a> Australian Government,
Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs,
‘The Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012’. At <a
href="http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/our-responsibilities/women/programs-services/…;
(viewed 8 April 2013). <a name="fn7" href="#fnB7">[7]</a>
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Table: ‘Experience of Female Victims of
Violence’, 2 March 2011 (based on Australian Bureau of Statistics,
Personal Safety, Australia, 2005 (Reissue), Catalogue No. 4906.0 (2006),
unpublished. <a name="fn8" href="#fnB8">[8]</a> Australian Bureau
of Statistics, Personal Safety, Australia, 2005 (Reissue), Cat. No.
4906.0, 35. At: <a
href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4906.0Main+Features12005…;
(viewed 12 October 2011). <a name="fn9" href="#fnB9">[9]</a>
National Council to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, The
Cost of Violence Against Women and Their Children (2009),
pp45-46. <a name="fn10" href="#fnB10">[10]</a> Ludo McFerran, Safe
at Home, Safe At Work Project, Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearing
House, UNSW, ‘When domestic violence becomes a workplace problem’,
ABC The Drum Opinion 13 February 2013. At <a
href="http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4516492.html">http://www.abc.net.au/unl…;
(viewed 8 April
2013).<a href=""> </a> <a name="fn11" href="#fnB11">[11]</a>
Australian Government, ‘Fair Work Act amendment broadens right to request
workplace flexibility’, 13 February 2013. At <a
href="http://deewr.gov.au/news/fair-work-act-amendment-broadens-right-request…;
(viewed 28 February 2013).

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Elizabeth Broderick, Sex Discrimination Commissioner