Achieving gender equality will take a very long time. It’ll require persistence and commitment, and absolute optimism and belief that change is possible.
My optimism grew considerably at a lunch in Sydney today, offering a progress report on the Male Champions of Change initiative, which includes 24 of the country’s leading male CEOs.
With up to 750 people in the room, 430 of them male and 120 or so with the job title CEO and representing a combined workforce of more than 1.1 million people, it’s hard not to believe a good segment of corporate Australia is taking gender equality seriously.
After all, even if they were in the room for the sake of making an appearance or for the publicity — of which there were plenty of reporters and television cameras on offer — they must believe supporting women in their workplaces is priority enough to merit putting in the time and effort.
What is even more encouraging is how this massive group came together. It started with one woman, with one very big ambition to disrupt everything we know about instigating change.
That woman is Elizabeth Broderick, whose term as Sex Discrimination Commissioner officially ends next week.
Five years ago she had the very good idea of calling up a bunch of male CEOs and asking them to join a new and innovative campaign to support gender diversity. She knew that real, meaningful change could only happen by engaging those who were already in power – the men.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce remembers getting the phone call. Already a passionate advocate for diversity, he said Broderick opened the door to learn from other large corporates on how to move the dial on women in leadership. There were no more excuses, and no options to hide from their commitments. He said Broderick has always been an inspiration, pushing for change in a subtle and collaborative ways, and disrupting everything we know about how to equal the playing field for men and women at work.
His comments were later backed by CBA CEO Ian Narev, who said that all excuses had to be left at the door when entering a Male Champions of Change meeting, including claims the ‘pipeline’ of talented women was too narrow to support meaningful change. “The idea that you have to compromise on quality to get women into leadership roles is simply fanciful. So we left that excuse at the door,” he said.
Today’s lunch was not a celebration. Far from it, the numbers are still dire when it comes to gender equality, particularly on the number of women in leadership positions and the disturbing rate of domestic violence.
However, the lunch was an opportunity showcase some of the measures that corporates have made to produce quantifiable improvements, as well as the willingness these organisations have — many of them direct competitors — to collaborate on ideas that work.
Following the opening address from CBA’s Narev, four male champions shared a different item they’ve changed in their organisations that has produced results.
The first came from Telstra CEO Andrew Penn, who spoke about his organisation’s major shift to flexible work. In the last 12 months, Telstra’s female employee base has grown by 6%, while the number of men taking parental leave has increased threefold, positive results Penn believes have been supported by the ‘All Roles Flex’ policy. “It’s been one of the most significant and profound initiatives that has made a difference to our diversity program today,” he said.
The second came from ASX CEO Elmer Funke Kupper, who shared his experience of ‘targets with teeth’. The ASX has recently introduced a 40% target for all teams across the organisation, a measure tied to key performance indicators and bonus systems. Funke Kupper said all teams are on track to achieve the 40% target by the end of the year (aside from his own team, which he conceded is embarrassing). “We set ambitious targets – unreasonable targets even – for where we were at the time,” he said. “But when we did this we found the organisation moved much faster than expected.”
The third came from former IBM managing director Andrew Stevens, who spoke about the ‘Panel Pledge’ which all 24 Male Champions of Change have signed. He said women’s voices must be heard in order to achieve meaningful gender balance achievements, and that the panel pledge forces people to confront their personal role in contributing to gender equality. In recent weeks he’s spoken on panels that were initially all-male when he was invited to participate, but became gender balanced when he spoke up about the need for women.
And the fourth came from former Lieutenant General David Morrison, who said that leaders can make a big difference to women affected by domestic violence. “I’ve come to understand that the terrible things that happen in war zones – murder, rape, assault – they’re just as much present in our own country,” he said. “They just happen behind closed doors, away from the lens of a war correspondent.”
Eight years ago Broderick was given a mandate to promote gender equality in Australia. As she said during an address a couple of weeks back, she could have spent her time in the role simply reacting to things — responding to every inopportune sexist remark and simply talking about the issues that came up day to day.
Instead, she made a commitment to take a proactive response, and disrupt our then approach to achieving gender equality which had largely been left to women to sort out.
The turnout today proved that this is no longer a women’s issue alone. As Broderick said, it’s not a “battle of the sexes” but rather the unfinished business of the 21st Century that’s in everyone’s interest to sort out.
We’re seeing that with some of these initiatives: with policies that declare all roles across an organisation are flexible, pledges from male CEOs will refuse to appear on panels unless women are included, targets that are tied to key performance indicators, and the active role some in corporate Australia are taking in addressing domestic violence.
Broderick received a standing ovation after addressing the audience today, and was personally thanked for her work by former Telstra CEO David Thodey. “She’s kept us going,” he said. “She’s kept us on the straight and narrow.