Quotas or targets?  This question dominated last week’s Diversity on Boards conference as speakers and participants grappled with how to improve gender diversity in Australia’s boardrooms. As the 2-day event kicked off, it seemed that quotas were the odds on favorite: Arni Hole, the director-general of Norway’s Ministry for Children and Equality spoke about the success in Norway of introducing a 40% minority gender quota (meaning boards must have at least 40% representation of both women and men or risk being delisted from the Stock Exchange).  Since the legislation was introduced there has been an increase in female directors from only 6 per cent to 41 percent - in just five years!  Our own Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick suggested quotas might instigate the shift in thoughts and actions necessary for getting women into the top jobs. Read More

Have you ever had the feeling you have to work harder and longer just to get the same opportunities as your male peers?  Well the latest ABS data shows you also have to work longer just to earn as much as men do.  About a day extra every week - for free - in fact. Read More

In September I'll be attending the annual Diversity on Boards conference with a group from sphinxx including Jenny Reynolds and a number of other women leaders.  I'm looking forward to catching up with my good friend Denise Aldous at the conference as well - many of you will have met or heard from Denise when she was a guest mentor in our Take the Lead group mentoring program. You've probably heard the great news that Jenny and Denise were recently appointed as the first female directors on the Cronulla Sharks Football and League Clubs - a milestone for women leaders and the role of women in sport.  This is a clever move from the Sharks: with the state that the Rugby League is in, it's high time that clubs introduced a female perspective to their leadership ranks. Read More

Author: Leonie V. Still- The purpose of this paper is to review the current representational position of women in leadership in Australia, using management and board appointments as the relevant domains. The review reveals that despite 30 years of considerable legislative, policy and social change in the equity area, women have not attained leadership positions in any significant numbers in Australia. Their position women in other developed countries is also not at the cutting-edge. There is no one reason as to why this is so, although a lack of line management and profit centre experience is currently being touted as a major drawback. The paper suggests that other factors, such as Australias culture and lack of acceptance of women as leaders, women's ways of communicating in the workplace, overall changes in the workplace, and generational change, also need discussion and debate. The paper recommends that governments, both Federal and State, re-engage in the equity area for further progress to take place in women's representation in leadership. Otherwise, women's leadership representation may continue to have low penetration in the workplace. Read More

The Australian Census of Women in Leadership measures the status of women on boards and women executive managers in Australia's top 200 organisations listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Applying the business principle of what gets measured, gets done, the Census is designed to establish accurate statistics to enable international benchmarking. Read More

Women are judged to be less visionary than men in 360-degree feedback. It may be a matter of perception, but it stops women from getting to the top. Read More