Left : Lyn Lewis-Smith |
There was a bit of a backlash from the findings of this report . Why was that ? It ’ s a bit of a disquiet . I would presume that is because we see so many women in the industry , we immediately dismiss that there ’ s an issue and we ’ re not actually reading the report when we ’ re talking about women at CEO , Board and Chair level .
A lot of people would look on the surface and say that we don ’ t have a problem . However , they need to read the report to see that there ’ s a significant problem with pathways to leadership .
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that are ambitious and then help them manage . I ’ d love to see a global mentor programme established . We see initiatives running like 20 under 20 and 30 under 30 , but there ’ s nothing specific around mentoring women . I ’ m mentoring a wonderful woman who was in our San Francisco workshop . She worked for George P . Johnson and I ’ ve been mentoring her since March last year and , although she ’ s now moved outside of the industry , we ’ re working on her coming back in at a higher level ? |
Are there any existing initiatives in place that do have these kinds of programmes or support groups to identify and help support women to more senior positions ? There are many industry sectors out there doing this type of thing that we could copy : the Champions of Change Coalition is one . There ’ s Chief Executive Women , which is another service . Being Sydney-based , these I ’ ve just mentioned are Australian , but there are international organisations that do exist , which are highlighted in the report . |
“ A lot of people would look on the surface and say we don ’ t have a problem , but there ’ s a significant problem with pathways to leadership ” |
What are the challenges ? What are the obstacles that are keeping it from progressing ? And what can we do to change that ? A lot of that has to do with the individuals and imposter syndrome . There is a stigma attached to women in that they need 100 % of the competencies to apply for a job , and men probably only need 50 %, and they go in all guns blazing . So , it ’ s a confidence thing , being confident and competent . And , you know , having role models to aspire to as well . I would love to see more men talking about this , and recognising that an 80 / 20 is not good enough . Should we be striving for 30 % by 2030 ? Or even 40 %? Set a target and then collectively work out what are the best strategies , and then implement them . We need to sit down and set some targets now and then discuss what are the strategies that sit under that . Now we have the report in full we can look at the data holistically , and then maybe benchmark that and do it again in a couple of years . In the meantime , we should put those strategies in place and measure those strategies along the way . It ’ s all about being bold enough to talk about it , that it is an issue and not being scared of the backlash . n |