A story of wasted talent and underpaid women. The WGEA report Wages and Ages: Mapping the Gender Pay Gap by Age is downright depressing with the pay gap growing progressively till at age 55+ it is a whopping 31.2%. Understanding how gender inequality is produced provides clues. It’s a bit like jigsaw pieces, you need all of them.
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Creating more gender equitable and inclusive cultures is high on the agenda for many organisations. However there is often a disconnect between existing staff development activities and efforts to create the desired cultures. More explicitly linking individual development to organisational change can make a big difference to the return on investment when developing staff. The ‘bifocal approach’ translates this ideal into reality through clear principles and program design.
Are we there yet?
Men have not been showing up in the gender equity space. And without the engagement of men, change will continue to be paralysingly slow. Yet men in our Partners for Change workshops relished the opportunity to discuss their gender issues with other men and to engage in courageous conversations with women about gender.
I believe men will show up if we stop doing gender equity work without them and if the invitation is to work in partnership to create more humane workplaces for all, workplaces where we can all thrive, without undermining the private sphere of community and family.
Read MoreFlip your perspective on merit
Try flipping the switch. Assume the organisation is not a meritocracy and see how that changes our thinking. What might we do differently?
So what would women, men, minority group members, leaders, and organisations do differently if they based their actions on the assumption that their organisation is not a meritocracy, not even close. Until proven otherwise. Let’s reverse the burden of proof.
Read MoreA better ROI. Spend your unconscious bias training budget on developing your leaders as sponsors →
Many organisations are rolling out unconscious bias training. I have a better idea, based on research and practice, for tackling leadership bias in ways that are positive, actionable, measurable and support good leadership. Putting the spotlight on, and improving the sponsorship practices of your leaders can better support your E and I work.
Read MorePost bronze blues? What follows Athena SWAN bronze award success?
Following hard on the heels of the relief of completion and celebration of success, comes the realities of implementation and still more hard work. Addressing longstanding gender inequality will require new and novel approaches, the application process itself has intentionally pushed institutions into uncharted territory, and concerns flagged in the SAGE evaluation conducted by ACER during the pilot program will have implications for the implementation phase. What institutions do now to ensure appropriate governance will be critical to successful implementation and future award success
Read MoreSponsorship: An equity and diversity game changer?
I am very proud to announce my long awaited report Sponsorship: Creating Career Opportunities for Women in Higher Educationis now available here for free download. This sponsorship guide is a practical publication, based on research examining sponsorship practices and my decades of experience with mentoring and leadership programs within the higher education sector.
I believe sponsorship can be an equity and diversity game-changer. Read on for an overview of why.
Read MoreEngaging men in gender equality work
Are our organisations sufficiently 'gender mature' to move towards implementing initiatives where men (at all levels) are squarely within the frame? It is the next step and here's why.
Read MoreQuotas and Merit
The assumption that quotas undermine merit is a common one. I've lifted two excerpts - quoting Cordelia Fine and Carol Schwartz from the Policy Shop podcast To quota or not to quota to further explore the relationship between quotas and merit.
Read MoreWe need to interrogate merit
Merit, and the idea that we can accurately assess merit, is situated at the heart of academia. The need to preserve merit and a presumed meritocracy is one of the first arguments to be put forward to counter more ambitious gender change initiatives. But what does merit mean? Can we assume that the current system is meritocratic and therefore worth protecting? And can we achieve the desired transformation of institutional culture without a frank re-assessment of merit?
Read MoreSimply Good Practice: A Mantra for Gold
Aiming for fairness & excellence = aiming for Gold. Based on a presentation by Professor Sara Mole at Cambridge in May 2017. Titled Leading the way by simply good practice – cultural change at a departmental level, it reflects on the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology at University College London, journey towards achieving an Athena SWAN Gold in 2016.
Read MoreOnly women need apply
Women only appointments signal strong support for building gender equitable workplaces. But what are the pro's and cons? Several universities advertised women only academic positions in 2016, perhaps with more to follow. I suggest that there are some lessons to be learnt from the affirmative action appointments of the 1990's and ways of proactively working with the inevitable backlash.
Read MoreEnvisaging a more gender equitable workplace; #TomWeltonTour
Tom Welton’s tour has been enthusiastically received by a higher education and research sector keen to learn from a Department and Institution well progressed on the Athena SWAN pathway. Institutions looking at the year ahead, which for many will involve data collection and analysis, compiling action plans and finalising institutional applications, are keen to receive guidance. We are so keenly tweeting the received wisdom that Tom’s tour has been trending in the top ten twitter hashtags in Australia this week (go Sydney!).
Read MoreQuotas and targets for research funding
‘Are there examples of targets and quotas in relation to funding and grants for research elsewhere, and do they work?’ This question arose in a recent discussion on twitter. It was triggered by the latest NHMRC funding round outcomes where women continue to be under-represented. The Science Foundation Ireland provides a compelling example of how a quota can work.
Read MoreMerit: A trump card or card trick?
Merit is one of those words that gets bandied about a lot in regard to gender equity. Opponents of targets and quotas often use it as the final trump card in their argument – ‘we wouldn’t want to compromise merit’.
But what does merit mean? And is it really a trump card or a troublesome concept that is past its use by date?
Read MoreChampions of gender equality: female and male executives as leaders of gender change
I am very proud to present my newly published article Champions of gender equality: female and male executives as leaders of gender change. It draws on my doctoral research and examines in detail what male and female executives say about gender championing. All agree that it is not an easy role!
As readers of my Blog will be aware, I am keen for men to engage with doing the work of gender equality and this research certainly influenced my thinking.
Read MorePlaying the gender card
The phrase ‘playing the gender card’ has been used against women who raise issues of gender bias or discrimination, to discredit their claims. The implication is that by calling gender into play they are not only playing the victim but also directing attention away from their own lack of performance or fault in whatever may have occurred. Perhaps most famously in Australia this accusation was leveled at our former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Read MoreMen's work; Women's work
I’ve worked for about 17 years to help improve Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal relations. Jen de Vries has worked even longer to improve gender equity. In both of these fields we are in a time of transition – about 40 years old and counting – from an era of unambiguous and socially sanctioned disparity in rights, dominance and power, to an era of genuine equity. That transition is hard work. And in both of those fields I’m in the dominant group. I’m white Australian, and I’m a bloke.
Read MoreChallenges for men: The expectation to lead and succeed
‘We (men) are expected to lead’, one of the male participants exclaimed. As a woman so immersed in working with women’s leadership development programs I found myself somewhat taken aback. It was impossible for me to imagine a woman saying anything like it. For women the reverse could be said to be true: we (women) are not expected to lead. It was one of those moments when you are left in no doubt that gendering processes are alive and well. A moment when socialised gender roles, so often implicit become explicit. And, in this case, open for discussion.
Read More‘I never expected to be talking about men’s issues today’
Getting men and women together to talk about gender. Sounds ordinary enough. Might happen around a dinner table but when was the last time it happened at work? Maybe it never has? Tim Muirhead and I recently ran a full day ‘Partners for Change’ workshop where attendees came in male/female collegial pairs. Women mostly did the inviting, asking a male colleague to come to the workshop with them, with the intended focus of strengthening their capacity to work individually and together to tackle gender issues in their shared workplace.
Lean In. You must be joking?
Sheryls Sandberg’s best selling book Lean In: Women. Work and the Will to Lead (2013) created a bit of a stir when it was first released, and the expression, ‘Lean In’ (at least for women) has moved into popular speech.
My response differed from some of my feminist scholar colleagues, with their stinging critique. There are a few things about this book that I really liked.
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