Vc’s cOrner
campusreview.com.au
The University of Southern Queensland,
like many organisations, is trying to make
a difference in this area by introducing
parental leave arrangements and flexible
work conditions that allow for a greater
sharing of parental and domestic
responsibilities. However, I know that few
male employees take advantage of partner
leave provisions put in place to enable
parenting and career arrangements to be
shared and balanced in the first year of a
child’s life, even though the evidence is
that more men than we might think would
like to do so.
Part of this can be explained by
entrenched gender roles that tend to be
accepted as cultural norms. However,
workplaces themselves are also complicit
in creating these outcomes that ultimately
have a negative impact on women. The
continuation of the gender pay gap tends
to make it more favourable economically
for the male rather than the female partner
to spend more time in the workforce. But
other factors intrinsic to the prevailing
workplace culture also come into play.
For example, while parental leave policies
and flexible workplace arrangements may
provide opportunities for partners to share
the responsibility and burden of parental
care, it is common for men to feel that they
will be disadvantaged career-wise, if they
opt for these arrangements.
Clearly, the attitudes of employers
need to change dramatically to generate
workplace cultures supportive of
employees achieving an effective work-life
balance, in general, and shared out-of-work
responsibilities, in particular.
In Australia, there is a tendency to
consider as the norm workplace cultures
that put all the emphasis on traditional
ideas of commitment to the workplace
and aggressive ambition as indicators of a
worker’s worth. However, it is important to
appreciate that not all workplace cultures
operate in this way. At USQ, a major focus of
our efforts has been in developing positive
attitudes towards equity across every sector
of the university. A detailed review and
analysis of our remuneration arrangements
for both men and women is regularly
made to ensure equitable arrangements
across both genders and also against sector
benchmarks. We also have a long history of
established pathways to support women in
achieving their career aspirations, including
training and development opportunities
specifically for women.
Gender equality is taken seriously. All
USQ governance committees now have in
place formal Terms of Reference requiring
neither gender makes up more than 60 per
cent of membership.
USQ is a family-friendly workplace, and
has in place many policies and strategies
to support flexible work arrangements for
both female and male employees. What
we now need to focus on is how to better
embed and implement that flexibility in
practice at all levels of the university to
be able to attract and retain a diverse and
talented workforce.
A new flexible working arrangements
procedure was developed to formalise the
options and arrangements for both men
and women in relation to working flexibly to
suit personal and work circumstances. Our
provisions for working from home, or other
locations, are also under review to provide
greater flexibility for all our employees to
work remotely.
USQ is also active in supporting women
in the community and, in particular,
encouraging and inspiring the next
generation of female leaders. In late 2015,
the university sponsored the Aspiring Young
Business Women’s Award and Empowering
Young Women’s Award at the Women in
Business Awards of Australia.
Improving the understanding of students,
parents and educators about the impact
of stereotypes and unconscious bias on
the education choices of women and the
longer-term impact on potential career
opportunities is also critical to driving
sustained change in gender equality.
To sum up, gender equality in the
workplace requires changes in workplace
attitudes, policy and culture. Getting on
top of gender pay gaps through regular
analysis that is followed up on, investing in
women’s career development, leadership
and mentoring programs, providing
flexible workplace arrangements for both
women and men, and being proactive
in promoting gender equality in the
wider community are key activities for all
universities and businesses.
But changes in the workplace alone will
not be sufficient to achieve gender equality
in the workplace. In our rapidly changing
society, nothing less than cultural change
across society is required – changed
attitudes to cultural norms for both men
and women, in particular. Gender equality
is not a women’s issue and achieving it is
not a question of “getting men on board”.
Men and women must be equal partners in
this process.
We must all ask ourselves what kind of
society we want to create. Do we want a
society, and for that matter an economy,
where half of our human capital is insecure,
disadvantaged and underused? What
does it say about Australia when it ranks
first in the world for women’s educational
attainment but 52nd for women’s
workplace participation and 36th on the
World Economic Forum’s Global Gender
Gap Report due to relatively poor scores
for economic participation and political
empowerment?
As vice-chancellor, I see flexibility as
a core part of the workplace for both
genders, and I am acutely aware of my role
in modelling this and in normalising flexible
working arrangements. n
Jan Th