campusreview. com. au faculty focus commonly discussed – has to do with women. The inequality here, sadly and all too frequently, is in the wages paid to women vis-à-vis men.
It’ s a fact that women earn less than men, and that the wage gap begins immediately upon graduation. It worsens the more senior a woman becomes within an organisation. When you’ re comparing like with like, the data consistently shows, across industries and professions, the existence of a pay gap. That’ s one aspect of gender inequality. Another is in terms of the level to which women are able to progress in their careers. Again, the data shows quite clearly a smaller proportion of women assuming called senior management positions. Similarly, there is a marked under-representation of women in Australia and other countries on boards.
There’ s some interesting research now suggesting that gender inequality exists also in terms of the extent to which the opinions of women are heard in the boardroom, at management meetings, and at discussions about strategy.
Adam Grant and Sheryl Sandberg cite numerous examples in the US of a tendency of male executives to cut off, shoot down or interrupt their female peers when they speak. When women speak up
and make suggestions about what should happen, there’ s a tendency, Grant and Sandberg argue, to see those suggestions as coming from someone who’ s perhaps acting more aggressively than she should, whereas if it comes from a man, it’ s perfectly acceptable – indeed praised. The tendency, then, is for valuable ideas from a woman to be deemed less important and persuasive than when they come from a man.
These are grand generalisations, I know, and we have to be wary of subscribing too readily to stereotypes, but the anecdotal evidence is a cause for serious concern.
If we interpret advice, ideas and suggestions on how an organisation should be run based on whether the advice comes from a man or a woman, then this is yet another example of inequality. As Grant and Sandberg argue, the result is that women at work will say less, and the organisation’ s performance will only suffer as a result.
You’ ve also talked of the cultural ceiling that continues to affect the careers of people who belong to ethnic minorities. Can you explain what this means and how it’ s occurring? This is the other major form of inequality that I think needs research and urgent consideration as part of a business school’ s curriculum. There’ s definitely a cultural ceiling. If you look at the proportion of the Australian labour force that is ethnically Asian and then compare it with the proportion of Asian Australians who are in senior positions, you will see a disparity. Data provided by the Diversity Council of Australia shows that 9.3 per cent of the Australian labour force is ethnically Asian but only 4.9 per cent of that population progresses to senior executive level. If you look at the ASX 200 companies, less than 2 per cent of executives have Asian ethnic origins.
The challenge facing our Australian-Asian students – and I can say this with some confidence because we have a very large number in my business school – is not in
Diversity brings, almost by definition, different viewpoints and perspectives. Diversity helps us question basic assumptions. Diversity brings new ideas. It will lead to a questioning of the status quo.
getting jobs. In fact, they’ re often snapped up by organisations and are recognised for their analytical and quantitative skills.
But there is clearly some sort of ceiling, a barrier that exists that stops them from progressing to senior positions.
This particular phenomenon has been highlighted in Australia by the Race Discrimination Commissioner, Tim Soutphommasane.
He has shown that if you consider the proportion of Asian-born individuals who occupy senior leadership roles in the C-suite in Australian industry, secretary and deputy secretary roles in the Australian Public Service, or vice-chancellor, deputy vice-chancellor and pro vice-chancellor roles in higher education, Asian-Australians are consistently under-represented.
You’ ve said you would like to see diversity included as a fundamental element in all programs delivered by business schools across the nation. How would this fit into the business curriculum and what impact would this have on changing inequality? Yes, I think we need to grapple with this fundamentally important issue. It’ s all about managing diversity. For me, this is an especially important challenge because of the demographics of students in my business school. More than half of our students are female. In fact, of our international students, something like 68 per cent are female.
We also have a high proportion of international students. Many of those are from Asia and many of the Asian students are from China.
For me, it’ s absolutely critical that we are able to create an environment in which there is mutual respect, understanding and admiration amongst our domestic and international students. In addition, I think we need to see trying to help remove both the glass ceiling and the cultural ceiling as part of our mission as a business school.
One way we can do this is by including the issue of diversity in the curriculum.
Just as we talk about globalisation and believe that a global mindset should be an attribute of our graduates, I would like us to be known as a business school that has helped to ensure that our students have an appreciation of diversity, that they celebrate diversity and know how to manage and take advantage of diversity, be it in terms of gender, race or culture.
We need to know how to manage diverse perspectives. But at the same time we need to appreciate the enormous advantages that come with diversity. Diversity brings, almost by definition, different viewpoints and perspectives. Diversity helps us question basic assumptions. Diversity brings new ideas. It will lead to a questioning of the status quo.
What it should also lead to is a situation in which we are better able to innovate, in which we take fewer things for granted and in which we are challenging norms and routines. We can only benefit from that kind of situation.
The benefits of diversity need to be understood, and a key part of providing that understanding is through making it a feature of the curriculum. n
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