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WORKFORCE of Technology, Sydney; as well as the universities of Canberra, Newcastle, and Western Sydney.
UNSW’ s student-run organisation, Arc, along with Macquarie University’ s student support service, Campus Life, were also amongst the 2014 citation holders.
Bolstering the results for the sector was the release of the agency’ s latest national report card on workplace gender equity, which revealed that education and training was the second most successful industry with regard to advancing women from key management personnel to chief executive level.
Women make up more than 62 per cent of the entire education and training workforce. The report states that 35.8 per cent of education institution chief executives are women – double the national average of 17.3 per cent – whilst 44.3 per cent of all other executive and general manager positions in the sector are held by women.
Support for women advancing their careers whilst taking breaks from fulltime work for family is key to further improvements in workplace gender equity, and Conway stresses that supporting men at doing the same is crucial to genuine equality.
“ Achieving gender equality depends on men taking a more active caring role and this necessarily requires more active support from employers to change norms so flexibility and caring is not a career killer for women and men,” she says.
Meanwhile, in response to their citations, University VCs have noted the various strategies they took to be included in the list; however, all agreed that despite progress much needed to be done before true gender equity and representation could be achieved.
Deakin VC professor Jane den Hollander says she takes great pride in the work her university had done to retain its citation under the new system. But she says the inclusion of just one female MP in the federal Cabinet and the relatively small number of women at the helms of large ASX-listed companies highlighted the imbalance that remained.
“ Before we start popping champagne and dancing, we have a long way to go to get equity in the senior academic levels and in the senior professional level,” she says.“ So we are on a journey and we are getting there – and we are absolutely delighted that we have done this because it is a good test that allows you to ask: Where are we and what have we done?”
For its part, she says, Deakin has increased it focus on reviewing and reducing gender pay gaps as well as ensuring promotion pathways take appropriate account of career opportunity.
“ It is not that women are more clever than men or the other way around – it is just that they bring different perspectives and different points of view,” she says.“ But the biggest thing they do is they represent our society. If you go out in the street, it is a 50 – 50 split gender-wise, so for example when you have a board making decisions you should be wanting to hear from a balance of that community.”
Hollander says her own council’ s structure features a 60 – 40 split in favour of female membership and that the university’ s executive is evenly split on gender lines.
UTS VC professor Attila Brungs, meanwhile, says gender equity has been a focus of his since he joined the university as deputy vice-chancellor more than five years ago. Whilst he believes the citation is important in setting UTS apart from its competitors, he hopes this is not a point of differentiation that will continue long term“ because of course that would mean most people weren’ t approaching this area very well”.
Brungs says placing gender equity within the core role of his university’ s provost has been an important step in ensuring the issue is as visible as possible. He’ s proud of a range of research-based gender equality programs he has helped promote and initiate.
“ We spend a lot of time doing things on the research side and we [ were ] one of only two universities [ given an award ] by the National Health and Medical Research Council for our policies around equity, in particular women’ s involvement in this area,” he says.
And whilst he supports the NHMRC’ s recent proposal to link research grants to demonstrating base standards with regard to workplace gender equity policy as a“ sensible start”, he hopes that over time all stakeholders can work with organisations to devise a more sophisticated approach. Academia traditionally has a slow workforce turnover, and Brungs says it’ s important not only to break down any lingering element of discrimination, but also to make sure staff understand that inclusion and equal opportunity are core elements of university philosophy.
“ One of the things we have in our universities is a fresh, vibrant realistic group of academics and as long as we can create the right environment such that they don’ t feel disadvantaged or discriminated against, they will be very quick to help change the culture for the better,” he says. Griffith University VC professor Ian O’ Connor says that as prominent social institutions, universities had a great responsibility to model the best values – as well as the diversity – of society.
“ Universities seek to be, and very much need to be, inclusive environments,” O’ Connor says.“ They are important not just in terms of educating the next generation but also in creating the next generation of scholars – so it is pretty important that you model that in your own classrooms and your own campuses.”
Griffith principal adviser equity Alarna Lane-Mullins says the university’ s policies already reflect a push to support men in taking the leave required to more evenly share family responsibilities – and so reduce the burden on women.
“ All of our flexible work arrangements are written in terms that are non-gender biased so that anybody can access those and we have made a very conscious effort to ensure that is the way we deliver that message,” she says.“ For example, paid parental leave we do on the basis of who is the primary carer. We have examples of where male staff become the primary carer and have taken the longer-term leave to provide support for their families. In fact, of all the parental leave taken at Griffith University, one quarter of the people who accessed that leave were our male staff.
“ Through developing a culture of flexible working policies and procedures that support these things – and communication mechanisms to say to staff that it is OK and that it is quite a common practice here – we have developed a culture of both genders accessing that leave and taking a carer responsibility.”
Hollander says she believes that with the gender gap being slowly narrowed, the next major challenge – one she says Deakin has already begun addressing – is that of cultural diversity within leadership teams. Like gender balance, she says, cultural diversity in leadership is also crucial in representing community perspectives during decision-making processes.
“ Cultural diversity is something we still [ are yet to achieve nationally ],” she says.“ We have still a very Anglo-looking country as you go up the ranks. Some places have been fortunate but my big ambition at the moment is to foster cultural diversity and we are doing very well with regards to our heads of school – next is our executive and our council.” ■
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