LeadershipHQ Magazine February 2015 1st Edition | Page 13

Gender
Diversity
HOW MEN CAN
BECOME CHAMPIONS
OF CHANGE
Gender diversity has become a hot
topic over the last couple of years,
particularly since the release of
the Catalyst report which shows
that “Fortune 500 companies with
the highest representation of
women board directors attained
significantly higher financial performance, on average, than those
with the lowest representation of
women board directors...”
Things are slowly changing but not
fast enough. Women are still under-represented in leadership and
executive positions in Australia.

Mummy,
those boys
won’t let me
play football
with them
12 | © LeadershipHQ 2015

Perhaps the problem has been
that gender diversity has been
seen as a women’s issue, rather
than a business one. Women have
been talking about it and pushing
for change for quite some time but
it has been a lonely job.
Rather than trying to push our
way into the men’s football team,
we need men to come and create
a team with us.

HOW CAN WE GET MEN MORE
INVOLVED IN BUILDING
GENDER DIVERSITY?
Fortunately we have a head start.
The Australian Human Rights
Commission has brought together
some of Australia’s most influential male CEOs and Chairpersons
to form the Male Champions of
Change group. This group has
seen gender balance become a
key issue in the leadership of some
of Australia’s major companies.
These men have committed to
proactively improving gender balance within their own companies.
In addition, the global campaign
He For She is pushing attention to
the broader issues of violence and
discrimination faced by women
and girls around the world.
It’s a start, but it isn’t enough, and
the Male Champions of Change
agree with me on that. So what
else can we do to encourage men
to support