Sex discrimination commissioner calls for editors to commit to 30% target of female faces on their business pages
Sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick has called on Australia’s business newspapers to commit to a target of featuring a minimum of 30 per cent of women’s voices on their pages by 2015.
The call from Broderick came during a debate on representation of women in business media organised in Melbourne by ANZ bank’s brand journalism arm Blue Notes.
ANZ this week launched its Notable Women project designed to groom the organisation’s female leaders and others in the business community to take a higher profile in the media. ANZ boss Mike Smith is among the business bosses who have pledged to decline invitations to speak at conferences and events unless women are among the speakers.
The launch saw a debate asking the question: Who is more to blame for the lack of women in business media – men or women?”
Wooo, more mandatory quotas
How would a quota achieve anything?
“We want them their on merit – not as a token gesture.”
hit the nail on the head
Quotas are by their very nature sexist.
You don’t fight sexism by more sexism
Quotas on females and males are wrong. The job should go to the best person for the job, not what gender they are.
Even if you’re not in favour of quotas, there is no doubt that they bring into play the ‘black and whiteness’ of a situation. 9%, 14% and 17% in mainstream business media is clearly not proportionate representation, but without someone saying the word “quota”, I doubt anyone would’ve bothered to crunch the numbers.
Affirmative action addresses entrenched company behaviours and helps to highlight institutional hiring biases. Watch out guys, it’s not just us women who want a fair go, the gays and non-whites are all out to ruin your boys club too!
Where a company is primarily male-dominated, if two candidates are equally employable, the employer usually favours the one most like themselves. Over time this creates imbalance.
Shout me down all you like, you’re just proving the point that women are often expected to just shut up and hope they get a fair go out of the goodness of men’s hearts.
Broderick didn’t call for quotas, she called for voluntary targets. Big difference. And seeing as those of you who are “skeptics” appear to have no idea what this really means, educate yourself before you shoot down a mechanism that even the BCA supports: http://theconversation.com/the.....bias-18876
Remember the old saying “What Johnnie says about Mary says more about Johnnie than of Mary”? I was reminded of this proverb when reading Damon Kitney’s comments above. Really? He certainly can’t be looking very hard.
The fact is that businesses owned and operated by women are one of the fastest growing segments in Australia. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there has been a substantial increase in the number of Australian women who run their own businesses (a 21.7% increase since 2000, compared to 8.2% for men). In a 2013 report by Women in Global Business it was found that over a quarter (29%) of women-owned organisations have grown internationally and earn more than 50% of their sales revenue outside of Australia. Further, it was found that there is an increasing number of women in senior decision making roles right here in Australia.
I am lucky enough to be surrounded by talented “high quality” female business leaders as well as those just beginning their business career. 52% of business school students at UNSW are female, 40% of business school academic staff are women and AGSM has averaged around 30% female participation in our full time and part-time MBA programs over the past 5 years.
My congratulations goes to ANZ boss Mike Smith who reportedly declines invitations to speak at conferences and events unless women are among the speakers.
Perhaps Mr Kitney and our declining newspaper industry should look internally and ask why these women are not recognised in the media. What they will see is a dominance of male editors and business writers in Australia. Maybe the only way to achieve Elizabeth Broderick’s goal is to support up and coming female business journalists and the emergence of a new media industry where there is a high proportion of female writers and editors.
What I see is a well-educated pool of smart, innovative women in a wide variety of markets. With a little effort they can be found.
How unfortunate it is that we still have to have this debate.
A “target” is a quota by any other name.