Thank you for inviting me to come and speak with you to launch the Australian Women in Leadership Census.
For those who are not familiar with the Census, it is a joint initiative - a very positive initiative - involving a number of organisations.
The Australian Women in Leadership Census and the Australian Census of Women Board Directors clarifies both the status of women on boards in Australia's top organisations as well as women corporate officers and top earners in Australia.
I commend this ground-breaking project as the result of exceptional teamwork and leadership by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (which is a federal government agency) and Catalyst, the north American non-profit research and advisory body which seeks to advance women in business. Expertise Australia Group and Macquarie University are also to be commended for their invaluable collaboration on this project. And then there are those sponsoring organisations such as ANZ and the Office of the Status of Women.
With this great collective effort, we now have, for the first time, the Australian Census of Women Board Directors, and the Australian Census of Women Executive Managers.
At the outset, let me congratulate all those who have been involved in this great initiative. Clearly, substantial work, know how and thought has gone into putting the Census together.
The Census is designed to establish accurate statistics to enable international benchmarking about a remarkable group of women: women who are making it to the top of the corporate ladder.
However what has been found is that while women are making great strides in the board rooms of the country they are still under-utilised, and also that in some areas of the business community appear more prepared to tap into the talents of women than others.
For example, the Census shows that women are better represented as board directors in retail, insurance and telecommunications organisations than they are in the automobile, technology and energy fields.
But, they are still a clear minority, holding just 8.2 per cent of the Board positions in the 152 organisations surveyed. And 46.7 per cent of the companies still do not have any women Board directors at all.
The Census also focuses on Executive Managers which is vitally important because it looks at those women who make major financial and directional decisions, and who are seen to represent the values of their company in everything they do.
As a former partner in a law firm, barrister, and now as a Federal Minister I know that this can place an enormous amount of expectation on one's shoulders. But these are the types of challenges that need to be given to more women .The Census points to the need for conscious decisions at Board and Executive level to allow women to make high level contributions. Promotion of women will be enormously enhanced if it becomes company policy.
I urge all of you who are in positions to do so, to get promotion of women on to your agendas so that it becomes as natural as breathing.
As it stands - the Census will not only advance public debate about women's leadership contributions, by highlighting the number of women at Board level and in Executive Management positions - but it should also encourage and increase the number of women seeking and moving into these roles.
Over time, the Census will also highlight the pace at which change is occurring at the top end of the private sector and the rate at which women are progressively making it into the senior ranks.
The Census is an exciting and positive initiative and will continue to remind us that we cannot just rest on our laurels and assume that women's advancement will happen by effluxion of time.
It will remind us that, as in all facets of business, government and community activity, leadership needs to be actively promoted, it should be encouraged, it should be diverse and it should be representative.
I will not spend time today describing in great detail the findings of the Census but I recommend it as a good read and a timely reminder, if we needed one, that we should not be complacent about our achievements.
I think it is worth noting that although the statistics are, in many ways, encouraging, there is still a long way to go before those of us from Venus achieve the heights in Executive Management and on Boards that those from Mars managed to achieve long ago!
I might just take a few moments to focus on just where we are at this point in time.
Women in the economy
Women are participating in the labour market at the highest rates in Australian history.
Australia was a pioneer country in bringing about the vote for women and we were at the forefront of developing sex discrimination legislation.
Those early legislative measures were crucial to the advancement of women in our society. Women can now expect to have greater economic independence than ever before.
We now expect and get promotions, pay rises, and redress where our rights are infringed.
Since 1978 the labour market participation rate has climbed from around 43 per cent to more than 55 per cent today. And the outlook is for this participation rate to rise.
The economic growth of recent years has created more jobs. Under this Government, since 1996, the number of women in full time and part time jobs has grown by more than half a million.
The gap between men's and women's salaries is narrowing.
Since 1983 average full time earnings for women have consistently grown faster than those for men. Since 1996, this trend towards closing the gap has accelerated, with earnings in some industries growing more than one per cent faster than those for men.
But women are still not as prolific in the public eye as heads of industry, senior public servants or in high profile management positions as we might expect.
Despite the huge leaps forward for women in law, medicine and politics - relatively few women are in real leadership positions. Fewer still have the professional recognition and public profile they deserve. We have covered important ground by getting more women into the workforce, but it has been a long time coming.
It is pleasing to know that the representation of women in the Commonwealth Parliament is nearly double the international average. There are 61 women in the Commonwealth Parliament which represents 27 per cent- an increase from 14 per cent in 1995 - while the international average is 13.8 per cent. In a truly bi-partisan sense, I am proud of the fine contribution our women politicians are making to national debate.
Women are also increasingly contributing to high-level decision making in Government. Women now occupy 33.9 per cent of positions on Commonwealth boards, up from 30.5 per cent in 1995. This is no accident, but rather represents the determined efforts of those of us doing the appointing to identify and promote able women.
In the Commonwealth public service, women are doing well, making up 27.4% of the senior executive service (or senior management) positions and with 25 women having been appointed as Heads of Australian Foreign Missions since 1996. Currently, 9 women hold Head of Mission and 2 women hold Head of Posts positions.
In the private sector, traditionally a male oriented domain, as I mentioned earlier, the Census tells us that women hold 8.2 per cent of Board directorships in the 152 companies assessed. This is still low and compares with 9.8 per cent reported in the Canadian Census and 12.4 per cent in the most recent US Census.
The Australian Census of Women Executive Managers being launched here today found that women hold 8.4 per cent of Executive Management positions in the companies included in the Census - which compares with 15.7 per cent of corporate officer positions in the last US Census.
In small business, where female ingenuity and intelligence pays off, 33 per cent of Australia's small business operators are women. This is a particularly interesting statistic and appears to be a trend that, if anything, will continue to grow as women often choose options that offer them flexibility to meet the needs of family and other priorities.
There is no doubt we have come a long way from where we were 50 years ago. But, clearly, there is still further to go.
I encourage all those here to think about these statistics and the information contained in the Census. We all have a responsibility to think about what they mean and to do what we can to ensure that organisations are open, dynamic and representative environments. That talented women are not stymied and that they are given the opportunities to maximise their potential - for the benefit of the organisations, the economy and themselves.
Leadership
I thought I would also make a few short comments today about leadership. It is one of the reasons why we are all here and why the Census will be such a useful contribution to the debate about leadership.
I think there are few who would attempt to argue in this day and age, in Western democracies at least, that leadership should be the exclusive province of the male agenda.
Leadership is clearly gender non-specific. Or, at least, it should be.
Both men and women can make good leaders. And, of course, both men and women can be ineffective leaders.
Men and women in many walks of life aspire to leadership - in all its different forms. Whether it be leading a community group, a sporting club, a business venture, a school, or a family.
Leading and leadership are well understood concepts. The interesting question, however, is what makes good leaders? What traits, strengths and attributes do we expect of our leaders - whether in business, education, politics or community organisations?
Management material is bursting with ideas on this particular point.
But I think common sense goes a long way in responding to this question.
Having experienced a number of diverse and interesting environments and challenges myself including my currently challenging ministerial portfolio, I think there are a number of important elements to good leaders.
They should seek to recognise the contributions of others, to engage them, to enthuse them, to provide opportunities for growth and enhancement and to challenge and inspire those around them.
But it is also a key role of the leader to create a vision, to chart the course for the organisation, and to take the steering wheel.
Leadership is about vision and direction. It is not about sniffing the breeze and following others. For those who take it on, it is a great challenge, not the least of which is keeping up the momentum.
I find the words of Theodore Hesburgh to be very true:
"The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It's got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion".
A leader must show courage and vision - when times are good and, perhaps most importantly, in times of adversity.
Some might suggest that women leaders are more likely to find adversity in reaching their leadership goals than their male counterparts. Perhaps this is so in some environments where women are still struggling to be accepted as equals with a valuable contribution to make.
It is disappointing to think this may be so - in the year 2002. Thirty five years after the human race managed to fly people to the moon and walk on it - or so they would have us believe!
In the words of Martin Luther King Junior - who had surely observed leadership in adversity at close range:
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy".
In my view, and, I hope, in the views of all Australians, anyone talented enough, committed enough and determined enough to pursue their full potential should have the opportunity - no matter their gender, their religion or the colour of their skin, whether they wear a veil or prefer to work in stilettos!
Women's particular attributes
I'm often asked if womens' particular attributes have qualities that suit them to leadership positions in these uncertain times. There is a current trend to identify womens natural strengths and attributes as being more relevant than ever before to the needs of modern organisations.
There are commentators who express the view that women's so-called natural strengths are well suited to the modern day business environment and the demands of leadership. And the so called business case for maximising the potential of women employees is well established.
It is commonly understood that the work and business environment continues to become more complex, more creative, faster and more interactive.
And we know that best practice leadership styles have changed and are continuing to change to adapt to this environment.
Leaders are becoming more collaborative, more consultative, less adversarial, less dictatorial. They need to empower their staff, to encourage enthusiasm, honesty and truth.
The days of Chainsaw Al Dunlap's `shoot first and ask questions later' style of management are well and truly over.
It is said that this shift moves management and leadership toward the typical, traditional skills of women. Those of embracing the views of others - of nurturing others - use of skills such as persuasion, collaboration, consensus, and affiliation. To be outcome orientated rather than process driven.
I think there is some truth in this. But I also think there are some dangers.
It is hard, in many respects, to disagree with much of this thinking. We do need to analyse the question of why women are still finding it difficult to access opportunities to the same degree as their male colleagues.
It is important to think of general themes that may be helpful and to intelligently understand and acknowledge them.
This is something the Census may, in fact, be able to focus attention on. And to create debate about.
But in focussing attention on women and their climb up the so called slippery pole, I think there is a danger that must be avoided. And that is to assume that women as a group are all the same.
Women are not all the same.
Diversity
We are not all nurturing. We are not all kind and loving. We are competitive. We can be adversarial.
We can be poor communicators, and we can be poor judges of character.
But we can also be brilliant, articulate, dynamic, daring and different.
Women exhibit the same diversity of talent, flaws, brilliance and potential as men. It is a vital and unassailable truth, and we should never allow our contributions to be devalued.
We shouldn't allow women to be packaged. To be simplified or stereotyped.
But in trying to understand the advancement of women - or, at times, the lack of advancement of women, there is always a temptation to make the story a simple one.
There is a tendency to point to some easily explicable reason or set of characteristics that apply to the particular group.
Some of the material on modern management is following this course. It suggests that because all women are collaborative, caring and good communicators they will make good leaders in the modern environment. They will readily fit into the current business paradigm. They are well suited to modern organisational leadership needs.
But I think one can argue that to treat all women as having the same key attributes is too simple. To assume that women, as a collective group, all have similar attributes, goals, the same expectations, the same abilities, is part of the problem.
The age-old assumptions and stereotypes about who women are, and what they can offer, have limited women as a collective group from achieving their potential in environments outside women's traditional roles.
We have managed to move away from the assumption that all women want only to be married, to be home-makers, to play a supporting role, to wear the apron all the time.
There is nothing inherently wrong with that model if that is what people do want. What is wrong is when the model is assumed to apply to all women. Or, of course, all men.
But stereotypes are hard to get away from. As David Morgan, chief executive of Westpac, was reportedly quoted as saying:
"Many women will still tell you that even when they reach the top of their professions, to stand along the corridors of power was to risk being handed a sheet of paper by some passing male and asked to photocopy them."
I think we should all be pleased that in Australia today, women can realistically aspire to be astronauts. They can travel the world, they can have families, they can be doctors and lawyers and firefighters.
They can be stand-up comediennes. They can be politicians. Women can be what they want as well as be partners, mothers and wives.
If it ever was, it is certainly no longer true that one size fits all, or, despite Mel Gibson's efforts, that assumptions can be made about what women want, what they need, what they expect or what they can do. In short, women can walk and chew gum at the same time!
I think one wonderful story that helps to highlight this and is always worth repeating is the story of Dame Roma Mitchell.
Roma Mitchell, one of the great South Australians, was a woman of many firsts. She was born in 1913. An era where equality between the sexes was a far off dream. In 1962 Roma Mitchell was the first woman to be appointed a Queen's Counsel and only three years later, in 1965, she became the first female Supreme Court judge. Almost 20 years later, in 1983, she was the first woman to become the Chancellor of a university when she took up that post at the University of Adelaide and, in 1991, she became the first female State Governor when she was appointed Governor of South Australia.
An amazing array of achievements that set Dame Roma apart as a leader with inestimable abilities.
In any event, one of my favourite stories is that when Roma was appointed to the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice, Sir Mellis Napier, who was in his eighties, seems to have been taken by surprise. His immediate reaction was that all members of the court must be addressed and referred to without distinction.
For that reason, Roma would be known as `Mr Justice Mitchell'.
However, Dame Roma knew that humour was one of the great attributes that women can adopt in responding to challenging occupational situations.
During an interview in her early years of the Supreme Court, Roma Mitchell was asked by a brash journalist "you are not married?" "I am not" replied Roma. "And you do not drive a car?" "I do not" responded Roma. Undeterred by the terseness of the replies, the journalist pressed on: "The Chief Justice, Dr Bray, is also unmarried. Is there any chance that the two of you might get together?" "No" Roma replied, "that would be no good at all. He doesn't drive a car either."
On that note, I will conclude by saying that I think it is important we, as a society, focus on women in leadership. Let's face it there is plenty of talent and it should not be wasted.
Talent - whether belonging to someone from Mars or someone from Venus should be acknowledged and, dare I say it, nurtured. It needs to be given the chance to burst out into our businesses, our schools, our communities and our parliaments.
We are a relatively small nation and we live in a competitive world at perhaps the most precarious time in our history. Unless we make the most of all of our resources, especially the talent residing in 51% of the population, we will struggle to stay in the game.
We need to encourage and value ideas and talent. We need to support those leaders who take the risk to do their best and who are prepared to put themselves out there.
I think the Women in Leadership Census is a wonderful and practical initiative that will remind us of the importance of ensuring that those women who wish to pursue leadership roles are encouraged and that the opportunities are there for them to be considered on their merits.
To take their rightful place as equal contributors to this young and vibrant country of ours.
I hope that the Census plays a part in urging Australian organisations to wake up to the great contribution that women can make in senior roles and that the number of women on Boards and in Executive Manager positions continues to grow.
I am delighted to be associated with launching the Census and to lending my support and encouragement to the greater advancement of our talented women.
Thank you