Gender must stay on the agenda

The federal Minister for the Status of Women has warned business gender quotas are not off the table while launching a CEDA report on Women in Leadership.

The report includes insights from various experts, as well as CEDA roundtables, industry and government.

Ms Ellis told attendees the Government was leaving the quota option on the table because of the lack of progress made in gender equalities within leadership highlighting that since 2008 the number of female board directors of ASX200 companies has increased by only 0.1 per cent to 8.4 per cent in 2010.

When questioned about barriers for women in the leadership pipeline, Minister Ellis said that we need to continue to shine a light on barriers such as unconscious bias in the CEDA report as well as mentor young women to move into leadership roles. Speaking of her own experience as a young female MP, Ms Ellis said: "I had a choice. I could pretend to be someone I wasn't or I could try in a very small way to reshape the mould so more people could fit in it."

When asked if the media were responsible for the bias and cultural stereotypes surrounding women in the workplace she said culture is reflected "in the reaction of people who consume the media", making it the responsibility of the Australian community to "pull them up when they fall behind."

Dr Hannah Piterman, author of Unlocking Gender Potential, business adviser and cofounder of Gender Worx, presented an overview of the report and also proposed changes to increase gender parity in workplace leadership.

Dr Piterman highlighted that 11per cent of CEO's in India are female, while Australia sits at 3 per cent. In addition a pay gap of 17 per cent is costing $93 billion in lost productivity. Women earn 45 per cent less over their lifetime, have 55 per cent less super and can earn 80per cent less if they take time out from work.

In addition to the statistics, Dr Piterman spoke of the hidden, intangible and unconscious biases that lie beneath the surface that exclude women from participating in the workplace. These include contrary views on personal attributes for men and women, like assertiveness and collaboration as well as the perceived authority.

Catherine Fox, then candidly spoke of the seven myths surrounding the inequality of women in the workplace including workplaces are meritocracies and women with children lack ambition.

On meritocracies she said "many of our workplaces, our former workplaces are still very much led by a group that is overwhelmingly male often middle class, middle aged...that tells you it's not a meritocracy."

For the event audio click here.