Financy’s most recent Women’s Index (FWX) is positive for women in senior leadership roles, with the number of female ASX200 board directors at an all-time high at 35%.
The timeframe to achieve equality in this space is closing, with a 6.1-year wait. That timeframe is even shorter for board-level leadership equality, and the gap in underemployment is shrinking. This is an exciting sign that more Australian women feel supported to invest in their own professional lives.
Despite many reasons to celebrate, the overall stats are still shocking as women face an astounding 26-year wait for equality in employment!
While boards might be slowly catching up, executive positions are not. Women executives often dominate people-based roles such as HR and customer service, rather than other core executive roles with P&L responsibility. A survey in HR Director’s recent APAC report found that 73% of HR professionals are female[1]. However, according to the employment analytics site Visier, male HR Managers earn 40% more than their female counterparts.
Further exacerbating this gap, women disproportionately carry the majority of emotional labour, both at work and at home. According to McKinsey & Company’s annual Women in the Workplace report, 31% of women managers provided emotional support to their direct reports, compared to just 19% of male managers[3]. Despite working the same hours in the same role, while bearing the brunt of emotional labour, women are still not compensated at the same rate as men.
It’s time to flip this!
Organisations need to work with leaders across all industries to recognise the contribution of more female and non-binary employees.
We will not see the gender equality gap closed until we change ourselves and challenge existing norms, processes and institutions.
Working from home, adding flexibility and better leave options is just the start – but we must focus more on evolving our leadership and communication skills to deliberately develop and support women, recognising their unique challenges and contributions, and set quotas where appropriate.
Putting this into practice, at Wisr, we have no gender pay gap. We have three women on our executive team and our Board of Directors is comprised of 40% of women.
Our leadership growth initiatives take into account the personal responsibilities of our female employees. We’ve made it a priority to focus on learning and emotional development at work, and have built it into our products, including our new psychology and behavioural science-based app, Wisr Today which aims to solve money stress through healthy everyday habits and psychology.
We hope to see other businesses following suit, creating the infrastructure, policies and products to provide female and non-binary employees with a platform to excel. That’s what everyone needs and deserves!
Financy is a fearless believer in equality and using data insights to accelerate organisational progress in diversity, equity & inclusion.
