New Strategies for Advancing Technology and Gender Equality

New Strategies for Breaking the Mould: Advancing Technology and Gender Equality

Elizabeth Broderick

Sex Discrimination Commissioner

Australian Human Rights Commission

Women in Circuits and Systems (WiCAS), Young Professionals Program Reception at International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) 2014

Monday 2nd June 2014

** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY **

Good evening ladies and gentlemen and thank you Pamela for such a warm welcome. And congratulations to you and the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society for convening this ground breaking international symposium. It is an incredible gathering of people and minds from around Australia, and around the world, who have come together to focus on issues of technology and innovation over the next three days.

Can I also please acknowledge Elena Blokhina, Chair of Women in Circuits and Systems and Yoko Uwate, Chair of GoLD and Vojin Oklobdzija, the President of IEEE Circuits and Systems Society who are here with us tonight.

Before I proceed any further I would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet, the People of the Kulin Nation, and I would like to take this opportunity to pay my respects to their elders, past and present.

As a community you are at the leading edge of considering the newest technologies and practices, and constantly reforming and developing them into innovative strategies for the future.  Along this vein, I would like to talk to you tonight about some of the innovation and leading practices that have been emerging in the area of gender equality in industry.

Very much how many of you use scientific knowledge to make decisions and generate new ideas and new technologies, similarly we have been working on using evidence and strategies that have been proven to work in other contexts, and adapt them to the issue of gender equality.

Why am I even looking at this issue of gender equality? Primarily, because I have found, that by an large women are still under-represented in many areas of work, including in many male-dominated industries such as engineering, technology, communications, science, mining, utilities, construction etc.

For example I understand that the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society currently has <6% women and ISCAS participants are typically <10% women. 

So the two things areas I want to discuss today is firstly, male leaders creating the change for gender equality, which has been generated through by a group of men called the male Champions of change in Australia. And secondly, an example of leading strategies for increasing women’s representation in male-dominated industries.

I have been fortunate to be Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission for the last six years. It is a job that has taken me from 200 metres under the sea in a submarine to the United Nations in New York, to spending time with young women survivors of acid attack in Dhakka, to camping out with Aboriginal women in the Kimberly in Western Australia, to the White House, the Pentagon and the World Bank. 

That is the tremendous privilege of this role – whether you are working to support refugee women, defence force personnel, sex workers, women with disability or women in low paid jobs – every day you meet inspiring individuals – individuals committed to using whatever influence they have to create a more equal world.

Through my work it has become clear that there continue to be a number of gender inequalities that remain unaddressed in Australia and across many other countries:

• Whether it be in the form of the gender pay gap, which in Australia is currently at 17.1%,

• Or the fact that the majority of unpaid caring work, whether that’s caring for children, or a family member or friend with disability, chronic illness or frailty due to older age  - is undertaken by women;

• Whether its the gender gap in retirement incomes and savings as a result of women moving in and out of the paid workforce due to their caring responsibilities and the inequalities – in Australia women have approximately half the retirement income and savings of men;

• Or whether it’s the under-representation of women in leadership positions, in the community in business, in the board rooms and in parliaments.

What has also become clear is that promoting gender equality not only promotes and protects the rights of affected women; but it also contributes to better functioning organisations and businesses – as a result of diversity of thinking, better financial results, improved decision making, reduced turnover, and utilising the best talent. Thirdly, women’s increased participation in the workforce can make a significant difference to economic growth.

• The Grattan Institute has identified that a six per cent increase in women’s workforce participation could generate an increase in Australia’s gross domestic product by $25 billion. 

Despite the evidence of the benefits of gender equality, we continue to see unacceptably low representation of women in leadership. 

Yes, we have made moved forward in some areas of gender balance in Australia – for example if we take the women on board’s agenda we have moved from 8.3% in 2009 to 17.6% as of February 2014 - a significant increase given we moved only 0.2% in the previous decade!   We do even better on government boards (having achieved the target of 40% across many portfolios).

But, unfortunately, we are not yet seeing the same trajectory for women in the corporate executive ranks.   The numbers are incredibly stubborn.  There was almost no good news on this front in the 2013 Australian Census of Women in Leadership, produced by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency:

In 2012, women held 9.7% of executive key management personnel positions in the ASX 200, up from 8.0% in 2010.

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.  While much of the formal or overt discrimination against women has been removed in Australia, the indirect discrimination that remains is corrosive and more difficult to combat.  It takes the form of “gender asbestos” – attitudes, beliefs and unconscious bias that is built into the walls, floors, ceilings, structures and practices of organisations.  It is often invisible and therefore more difficult to change.

Having been in my role for six years now I have become more and more convinced of one thing.  And that is – to deliver equality for women we actually have to focus on the seat of power – which in Australia, as in many other countries still lies with men - and we must also make the case for change personal.  

Why men? In my view, one reason many initiatives to progress gender equality have not delivered is that they focus solely on engaging and changing women — from the way women network to the way women lead. Too many organisations look to women alone to change the organisational practices that maintain the status quo. Such an approach fails to recognise the site of most organisational power.  The fact is 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. 

Why personal? The second reason that change has been slow is that we have failed to embrace at an emotional or personal level the case for change. We might understand the case for change with our head (that greater gender diversity leads to better organisational performance) but we have not embraced it with our heart.  By that I mean the deeply held beliefs we have about the role of men and women - our gender schema – about who cares and who works – the thoughts we internalised at a very young age when we first placed our feet on the ground and looked around to understand the place of women and men in the world today – those beliefs clash with the case for change. And this is the case for all of us. This makes it difficult for us to accept a new model – a model where leadership is shared between men and women.

We need to stop treating gender equality as if it is just a women’s issue.

Minimising gender disparities requires behavioural changes amongst both women and men. It requires us to transform workplace norms and structures that entrench existing gender inequalities, including those that reinforce the male model of work. 

Without the avid support of men – men who currently dominate the leadership group in most large businesses and control most of the financial and other resources - substantial progress is unlikely. 

Creating change therefore requires men to take the message of gender equality to other men.  It requires men to get on board, to take action and to encourage their peers to do likewise.

So today I wanted to talk about how this idea of focussing on men might work in two very different contexts – drawing on my work in the corporate world and in the Australian military.

About two years ago, I established the Male Champions of Change - a leadership group in Australia.

How did this begin?  I picked up the phone and rang 21 of Australia’s most powerful and influential men – men who lead Australia’s iconic companies like Telstra, Qantas, Commonwealth Bank and Woolworths – men who lead global organisations like Citibank and IBM – men who hold the most senior roles in Government – Secretary of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Treasury and the Army – and I made a personal plea.  Would these men use their power and influence, their collective voice and wisdom to create change for women in Australia? 

I remember the first conversation I had.  This particular CEO had twins – a boy and a girl. I explained to him that in Australia today women hold only 3% of CEO positions of the top 200 companies and only 17% of board directorships. That in every sector in Australia the basic rule is that the higher up you go the less women you see.  That these results exist despite in 2012 women representing more than 60% of university graduates  and are 50.8% of Australia's population.  And finally I told him that while women were excluded from power - economic, political and social - they would be marginalised all across Australia.

Whilst we've been talking about the numbers for decades, what shifted for this CEO was the understanding that without intervention by decent powerful men, this story would become his daughter's story.  His daughter would not have the same opportunities as his son – all because she was a girl.  Not only did he understand the case for change with his head he started to understand it with his heart.  What father wouldn't want his daughter to have an equal chance at a life free from man-made barriers.

As one of the Male Champions explains “Let’s not pretend that there aren't already established norms that advantage men. Men invented the system. Men largely run the system. Men need to change the system." And that's what the Male Champions of Change strategy is all about - men changing the system.

With that in mind, I remember our first get together, 21 A-type personalities and me – some having travelled thousands of miles to attend, came together to take ownership and commit to the difficult decisions that needed to be taken. As one man said “This issue is not beyond our intellectual capacity to solve. Excuses are just that!”

The discussions are serious, they are led by men, and action is taken. 

In late 2013 the Male Champions came together at a public launch to which they had invited Chairmen of Boards comprising no women - CEOs with few women in the executive team and hundreds of men - not just fellow travellers - to report on actions they have taken over the last year. 

Their main message was that gender equality is about leadership. The men have developed a model to examine whether they are living up to their own aspirations in championing women. So they are exploring models of leadership that promote gender equality. As leaders they are analysing four elements of their leadership approach:

• what I say

• how I act,

• what I prioritise and

• what I measure.

Early on through honest conversations they started to understand their leadership shadow. They are 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.  There were breakthrough moments when these leaders recognised that their reality was not matching their intention. 

They have also written to every business leader in Australia urging them to take action. Over 150,000 copies of their letter have been distributed. 

Another area they are working on is making visible the bias and harmful gender stereotypes that prevent the status quo from changing. One of the strategies they are using in this area is to ask: ‘50/50, If Not? Why Not?’. They ask: ‘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 when presented with the list of people selected for the global leadership program asked, ‘why am I not seeing 50 per cent women on this list?”  “ There’s been a mistake” he was told.  The next day the list came back to him and they had found 3 more women.  “No” he said “You’re not hearing me – why am I not seeing equal numbers of women and men?” This led the organisation to re-examine the eligibility criteria for the program, which was excluding women, as the criteria required people to have lived and worked in an international office.  By resetting this one criterion to reflect other types of experience related to international mindset such as experience in managing overseas staff and offshore teams, the organisation was able to increase the number of women in the program from 22 per cent to 35 per cent.

Another bold strategy is the “All Roles Flexible” initiative launched by one of the MCCs in the telecommunications industry.  From 2014 all roles will be advertised as available in a flexible work arrangement. This has the potential to impact over 40,000 employees in this one organisation and other MCCs are looking to adopt a similar strategy.  This initiative changes the starting point of work so that flexible work becomes part of the mainstream, not just a poor relation to full time work.

The Male Champions have also been strong public advocates for gender equality – keeping a high visibility of this issue on the nation’s agenda.  The Male Champions have presented at more than 100 conferences and events over the last 12 months, travelling from Washington, to Rio, to New Zealand and around Australia.  They have also taken a “panel pledge” which means that they will no longer automatically accept invitations to speak at events where there are few women.  Some of the Champions have asked to be replaced at conferences so that their speaking slot can be assigned to a woman, thereby giving her greater visibility.

There are now related groups of Male Champions in Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and New Zealand and sector based groups such as one focused on companies involved in infrastructure, engineering and the built environment, and another commencing in the property sector..  And the model is looking to being adopted in a number of emerging economies across the world, including in Japan.

Another area they are working in is Gender Reporting. 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.  This includes corporate, government and the military! And that’s what they're working towards.

The Male Champions of Change is an action-oriented and results-driven group. They intend to lead, contribute to, and learn from insights, ideas and interventions of others.  They wish to share their strategies and results as widely as possible.

Implicit in this is an assumption that they will deal increasingly with suppliers and partners who also meet an adequate standard of gender equality. This has led to the development of their “supplier multiplier’ initiative.

Under this initiative a number of Male Champion’s organisations have committed to ensuring their gender balance aspirations are reflected in policies such as their Supplier Standards and Codes of Practice. They are also committed to including female owned enterprises in their supply chain.  They have started to communicate with suppliers about the importance of gender balance - encouraging and supporting suppliers to build and present more gender-balanced teams. These commitments have the potential to impact 54,000 suppliers and $30 billion of procurement spending annually across the Male Champions of Change group.

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.  Women’s voices remain critical to advancing gender equality and eliminating violence against women BUT what is also clear is that change will only come when men take the message of gender equality to other men.

What I know is that the achievement of gender equality cannot sit on the shoulders of women alone. When we take shared ownership, men and women, that’s when we stride forward together.

While the Male Champions will change corporate environments, and the military cultural reform is progressing, none of this will matter at all, if we don't change the informal social structures that sit around us and exist within our own families. 

Are we prepared to push to one side the talent, creativity and capability of over 50% of the world's population? Because that's what's at stake!

We have the beginnings of change, a path to a more equal future, but it starts with us – each and every one of us in this room.

The second area I wanted to discuss tonight was that of leading strategies for increasing women’s representation in male-dominated industries.

At one point early in our lives, we all had to consider the question of what our futures would look like.  This included making a decision about where we could develop a career, hopefully in an area where we felt we could make a contribution – where our skills would be valued. These questions arise multiple times in our lives as we consider and pursue career goals and adapt to changing circumstances and commitments.

For many women and girls, the idea that they could make a contribution in technical or operational fields such as mining, construction or utilities, or one day be a part of the senior leadership in industries dominated by male executives, is a completely foreign one.  For one, there is empirical evidence that girls are discouraged from developing their skills in maths and science from a young age, focusing instead on humanities and the social sciences. 

I remember as a young girl loving maths and science Being at an all-girls school, and coming from a highly feminised household I was never exposed to the view that maths was for boys and humanities for girls. My father was a nuclear medicine physician, my mother a science graduate.  In fact it was not until university where I chose to study chemistry and computer science that this reality dawned on me... I turned up to my first digital logic and assembler programming class and there were 100 men and me.  All 100 were much more experienced than me with “and” and “or” gates and coding at the binary level so I traded my essay writing skills for some lengthy computer programs and with my grades underpinned by this symbiotic relationship we all got along very nicely!

But there’s no question that educational choices are in large part associated with gendered stereotypes.  The Harvard Implicit Associate Test, which tested more than half a million people globally, found that 70% of the test takers associated ‘male’ with science, and ‘female’ with the arts.

This stereotyping is reinforced in all aspects of all our lives. This includes at home, where parents have often adopted stereotypical roles themselves, from anything as simple as who does the ironing or takes out the trash to who works full time and who is the primary carer. Within the home it is also rare to see women and girls encouraged to consider careers in mining, construction or utilities. This is compounded by the difficulties women face in finding information about possible career paths in male-dominated industries as the conversation is rarely directed at them.

There are often negative perceptions of these jobs and anecdotal feedback about unfavourable workplace environments that are ‘blokey’ and have a high tolerance for bullying and discrimination. 

Add to this the negative perceptions about women in the workplace, their commitment and the nature of the work they can perform and its not surprising we have so few women working in male-dominated industries.

All of these factors result in a huge gender disparity in certain industries.  Recent figures suggest women make up 45.7% of the overall Australian workforce across all industries, but only 22.6% in utilities, 15.1% in mining, and only 11.8% in construction.

This needs to change. Such under-representation of women continues to undermine gender equality, industry performance and our nation’s economy.

There is a strong business case for increasing women’s representation in these sectors.  According to a Goldman Sachs report, narrowing the gap between male and female employment rates would increase Australia’s GDP by 11%.   The countries overall economic activity could be boosted by up to 20%.

Leaders in male-dominated industries know that there is a major skills shortage in Australia currently as high as 45%.  The hardest positions to fill are in trades, engineering and sales.  This makes women a hugely underutilised and untapped resource.

On the whole, we have not fully harnessed the invaluable contribution women can make - particularly in industries such as mining, construction and utilities.  Such industries represent a thriving part of Australia’s economy, and as they continue to grow, both men and women can make an increasing contribution to their expansion and success.

So last year I launched an online platform to facilitate an interactive dialogue about how to increase women’s representation in male-dominated industries - a complex problem that has been the subject of much discussion over the years

We launched a toolkit that provides an opportunity for employers, employees, government, community, and unions to understand that women are critical to the sustainability of these industries.

The toolkit allows smart organisations to share strategies on how best to attract, recruit, retain and develop the skills of women in traditionally male-dominated fields.

In a nutshell, while male-dominated industries have traditionally been slow to increase female participation in their workforces and in their leadership - this is changing. 

Companies are recognising the need to develop an integrated strategy to increase the number of women in non-traditional roles.

They also understand the benefits of having unique mechanisms to do this.

This is why the Australian Human Rights Commission, with the support of the Minister for the Status of Women and the Office for Women within FaHCSIA, brought together members of these industries to gather information on their experience and knowledge.

Feedback from our series of interviews and roundtables highlighted the barriers to female participation, but also revealed the innovative ways companies are moving forward.

The result is the toolkit – which provides practical suggestions and examples of successful strategies for the attraction, recruitment, retention, and development of women in male-dominated industries.

Let me share with you a little of what is covered in the toolkit.  Firstly, in terms of attraction:

Companies and industries are developing strategies to attract more women to consider and apply for opportunities. 

This includes developing job advertisements that attract women, providing cases and content for their websites and promotional materials that inspire, and the development of engagement activities that broaden the pool of potential candidates.

Some leading companies have made sure case studies of successful women in their industries are highlighted on their websites. This is important because you can’t be what you can’t see.  Others have targeted their advertisements to mothers, friends, career advisers and teachers who influence the career decisions of young women. As influencers we often have an out-dated view about what a career in any given industry will entail so making us another target of marketing and educational material is a smart move.

When I started out in computer science I never imagined that my degree would allow me to investigate the way technology affected people’s lives, ride the wave of the dot com boom or assist me to understand digital equality and its implications in my current role as Sex Discrimination Commissioner.  We are often limited by narrow views about where career choices will take you.

Other companies have targeted girls at school and Tafe to encourage them to consider carers in technical or trade sectors. Ausgrid provides a four-day program that offers female students the opportunity to experience electrical trades.

A mining organisation in North America has partnered with the Girl Guides to encourage girls to study maths and science.

In terms of recruitment, companies are developing strategies for inclusive and rigorous interview and selection processes to help secure women into their workforces.

For example, an energy company increased the number of women in senior roles by 15% by ensuring there was at least one woman on every interview panel and at least one female candidate on every shortlist. By interacting with candidates during the recruitment process, and by giving and receiving feedback, they can ensure the candidate has a positive experience.

A construction company changed their graduate recruitment process by changing the ‘male-oriented’ language, re-developing the selection criteria, making the group assessment process more inclusive, including women on the panels, and training assessors in bias and stereotypes.

Another strategy is to ensure there are diverse and well trained recruitment teams that use merit based processes – processes that have been examined to eradicate any unconscious bias. 

It is also valuable to think more broadly about the skills and experience required for a particular job so as to expand the pool of potential candidates, and to support women to make career transitions into non-traditional roles.  By changing the requirement that you “must have worked in an offshore office” to “must have a global mindset” you are opening up

One mining company has set a minimum target of ensuring 30% of candidates in the final interview stage for a job must be women.  This transparent target encourages selectors to be more innovative in their strategies to recruit women.

For example, a mining company reviewed its recruitment and promotion procedures to focus on skills and experience, including those developed outside the workplace, rather than on length of service.

Thirdly, it is important that women are not only recruited, but also retained, in non-traditional roles.  This involves developing strategies that make traditionally male-dominated environments more gender inclusive.

The Review into the Treatment of Women in the Australia Defence Force recommended holding commanding officers accountable for a health organisational culture, which requires effective management of flexible work arrangements, mentoring, sponsoring and taking corrective action as required.

Working environments need to meet the needs of all employees, including in the physical environment, and workplace cultures must embrace diversity.  Employers are therefore taking active steps to build awareness and provide training about stereotypes and unconscious bias.

Some organisations are developing ongoing support for employees and their families, including on-site and off-site support.  Ensuring the workplace supports a range of flexible work arrangements is key to retaining women, many of whom have caring responsibility for children, or disabled or elderly family members.

For example, a construction company has taken a ‘life transition’ approach to work-life balance – providing support for employees to take a long-term holistic view of their life how their career fits within their broader responsibilities.

One US company has developed a Work/Life Guide to help employees find ways to meet both their personal and professional needs.

In another example, a mining company is shortening its FIFO shifts to 3 days so it can assist women with family responsibilities.

Companies are also conducting regular pay audits for both fixed and variable pay, and the processes being developed are transparent for employees.

Origin Energy has an ‘equal pay for equal work policy’, which it implements through its annual salary review processes, with checks and balances for variations across gender, and at the point-of hire salary decision.

Finally, companies are developing strategies to ensure women get both the formal and on-the-job development required for a strong career in a non-traditional role.  Skills and career advancement opportunities must exist for all employees.

Schlumberger a French oil field developed a succession planning process for both men and women that accelerated the development of leaders in their early career thus strengthening a mobile female leadership pipeline with multi-dimensional skills

Senior leaders are sponsoring key development activities and promoting the importance of development for female employees.

A construction company has ‘Diversity Champions’ who are senior leaders who advocate, organise and sponsor gender –related initiatives.

Structured leadership development programs that still provide flexibility are being offered.  Like the recruitment process, the talent process needs to be merit based and inclusive.

One good example is a construction company that conducts what it calls a ‘one-up conversations’ with all female employees regarding their career strategies.  This increases their exposure to senior levels of the organization and ensures they are not reliant on a single manager for their development.

AGL held an annual ‘diversity Big Day Out’ conference for employees – focusing on gender equity – its everyone’s business.  It was an opportunity for senior leaders to share their stories and commitment to gender diversity. The conference aimed to enrol men as advocates for women in the workplace

We identified these four areas – attraction, recruitment, retention and development - as crucial to addressing the increased representation of women. Successfully bringing more women in non-traditional roles will require continued cultural evolution, strong leadership, focus and holding people accountable for outcomes.

As I mentioned, the toolkit has primarily been designed as an interactive, web-based resource.  By visiting the site, you can download the entire report, or focus of the specific chapters that are of interest.

At the end of each section of the Toolkit there is a hard hat which links you into the discussion forums where users can reflect on which strategies have worked, and which ones haven’t, or share any other ideas for increasing the representation of women in these industries.

The discussion forums are an opportunity for you to join into the conversation – to contribute your own strategies and practices. 

This way the conversation and the development of successful implementation techniques will continue long after this launch.

We are very excited about the rich resource this Toolkit can become and hope that employers, employees and unions will find it of practical use in identifying ways to increase women’s representation in their sector.

I invite all of you here today to take the time to visit the Toolkit online and engage in the discussion forums, so that the Toolkit continues to develop as a resource.

We also hope you’ll take some the practical suggestions and insights away with you, be it to your colleagues, leadership, employment networks, policy makers or union representatives.

Before I conclude I would like to say a few words about on of the issues that I have found to create a significant barrier for women’s equal participation in workplaces, and that is the issue of sexual harassment.

Workplace sexual harassment is a deeply personal issue for me, as it is for many women and men in Australia.  When we launched the Know Where the Line Is awareness raising strategy, I told my story of being sexually harassed when I was a young lawyer starting out in my career.  It was the first time I had ever told my story in public, and I didn’t share my own experience because it was more important than anyone else’s,  I shared it because the features that underpin my story underpin all stories of sexual harassment. That is – a power imbalance, fear, embarrassment and shame, an inability to make a formal complaint and a positive outcome through the intervention of bystanders.

Because this is such an important issue for Australians – and Australian businesses – I’d like to take a few moments to talk to you about our new national strategy that was launched at the end of May in partnership with the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Australian Council of Trade Union. We came together to develop this strategy because all three of us recognise the impact of sexual harassment, not only on individuals but on businesses themselves and we’re determined to work together to create safer and more equitable workplaces in Australia.

This strategy is based on the Commission’s research which shows that the overall prevalence of workplace sexual harassment has not decreased significantly despite our best efforts – just over 1 in 5 people experienced workplace sexual harassment in the last five years. However, what this research also showed is that very few people actually recognise sexual harassment when they experience or witness it. In fact, almost 1 in 5 people who said they hadn’t been sexually harassed based on the legal definition of harassment then went on to describe experiencing behaviours that were likely to constitute harassment under the Sex Discrimination Act.

The Know Where the Line Is strategy is designed to raise awareness about what workplace sexual harassment looks like in 2014 through a suite of posters and videos that are on the strategy’s website. These posters ask people to think about where the line is…and what crosses it. Does saying to a colleague ‘how are you…sexy?’ cross the line? Does asking someone how their weekend was – and whether they got any? Does joking around about how one of the office staff is ‘great with her hands…if you know what I mean’?

Importantly, the strategy is also particularly targeted at bystanders by encouraging people to ‘See. Talk. Support’ if they know that sexual harassment is happening in their workplace. The Commission’s research shows that 82% of people took some sort of bystander action if they directly witnessed sexual harassment at work and almost half of sexual harassment stops after a formal complaint is made. Supporting a colleague who is experiencing harassment can assist them to take this step and feel safe at work again.

As part of this strategy we’ve developed a comprehensive resource for employers to support them in ending workplace sexual harassment, and a practical information sheet for employees. This strategy is designed to complement existing harassment prevention and response efforts being undertaken by workplaces around the country. The key messages – know where the line is and encouraging bystanders to see, talk and support – can be incorporated into policies and procedures around workplace sexual harassment, and the suite of audio visual resources can be utilised in workplace.

To download any of the posters, videos or other resources we’ve developed for employers and employees, you can visit our website, knowtheline.com.au.

I’ve been really pleased by the support of businesses and unions around the country to get on board with our Know Where the Line Is strategy, as it’s imperative that we all work together if we’re going to end sexual harassment in workplaces.

In conclusion can I leave you with this thought:

We need each and every person in this room to be taking concrete actions to improve gender diversity, if we are to see a change.  So I call on you as you consider innovation over the coming days, where can you be innovative in changing the picture of gender equality in your lives, in your workplaces, and in your industries.

Thank you