To mark International Women’s Day, being celebrated today, Telstra Business Women’s Awards Alumni community surveyed more than 300 of Australia’s leading businesswomen and asked how they felt we could reach gender parity in Australia.
In 2014, the World Economic Forum predicted that it would take more than 80 years to achieve global gender parity. In 2015, they estimated that a slowdown of progress would push this date out to 2133.
The report* revealed there is still action to be taken, so the survey looked to ascertain what action was required to speed up this process.
The survey found 96% were taking some action to achieve gender equality within their business, with the most common way of doing this being through introducing flexible ways of working, followed by providing mentoring opportunities and having targets for leadership positions.
Of the women surveyed, 80% believe gender equality will help them achieve their business objectives. Able to select more than one option, the women said that gender equality would do this by:
- producing stronger or more innovative business outcomes – 62%
- becoming an employer of choice – 47%
- more effectively understanding and anticipating customer needs – 39%
Other responses included ‘attracting and retaining new business’, ‘giving staff satisfaction’, ‘having a balanced perspective’ and ‘introducing greater innovation’.
Almost four in five – 78% – respondents say that women do not have the same opportunities as men in business, and three in four – 75% – have experienced gender inequality throughout their careers.
The most important factors for achieving equality were listed as representation at leadership – 44%– followed by flexibility in the workplace and workplace bias – both at 22%.
This year’s theme of International Women’s Day is #PledgeforParity, marking a call to action for accelerating gender parity. The day marks a global day of celebration of the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
Today’s focus is on gender-balanced leadership, respect and value difference, recognising the significant changes required by men and women to achieve a goal. More information is available at: http://www.internationalwomensday.com/.
To find out more about Telstra’s own commitment to gender parity visit Women at Telstra.
* Source: The Global Gender Gap Report 2015
