News: DIVERSITY COUNCIL AUSTRALIA CALLS FOR INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC TARGETS FOR WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS

The not-for-profit business advisory group, Diversity Council Australia (DCA) has called for the establishment of industry-specific gender targets for women on boards and in executive, senior and middle management.
The demand, which was made in a November 2009 Diversity Leadership Briefing on the review of the Australian Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act and Agency, echoes DCA’s submission to the review where it called for the Act to be re-written.
Speaking at the briefing, DCA CEO Nareen Young said that gender equality in Australia was still a long way from being achieved and that new approaches were therefore necessary.
“In the 20 years since the Affirmation Action Act was implemented, women’s participation in the labour market has changed significantly,” said Young. “However, public policy and supporting regulations have failed to keep pace with these fundamental changes.”
While acknowledging that the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act had improved the position of Australian women to a degree, DCA said that many challenges remained for women at work including industry, employment segregation, a lack of leadership opportunities, inflexible job design and problems combining work and caring. It suggested 18 recommendations to improve the situation of women within Australia, which included the establishment of an office of women’s employment, improving and refining reporting obligations, introducing fines and more public ‘outing’ of organisations that fail to comply, and speeding up the introduction of paid maternity leave.
“DCA believes proving organisations with industry-based goals or targets to aim for when developing workplace programmes will help progress workplace equity for women more quickly,” Young explained.
The suggestions, which were made following extensive research, consultations with DCA members and contributions from experts, were supported by the leading employers that helped formulate DCA’s submission to review.