What’s missing when it comes to gender diversity in the workplace?

Now I have to say before you start reading my blog, it is based on working female and male parents and I completely appreciate relationships and families are varied, so in advance I wanted to clarify to   ensure there is no offence to anyone – that’s not what my blog is about.

What my blog is about is gender diversity, by this I mean encouraging females into (or back into) the workforce or around the boardroom table.  With this we automatically think of ensuring a flexible workforce to enable women to better balance home and work life and to therefore fulfill work commitments and still be there for the family.

BUT…. how can this be achieved if their partner’s employer doesn’t allow them (as males in this instance) that same flexibility to share in managing home life?  Remember the OLD saying ‘Behind every great man is a great women’, well the same goes for women!  But do they have that?  I think this could be the forgotten part of the gender diversity puzzle.

I think it is still difficult for some people to understand that males (particularly fathers) can and do take carer’s leave, – but if women are expected to return to work and / or climb the corporate ladder they need to.  Often when males do exercise their right to take carer’s leave some employers have difficulty understanding and treat them as though they are taking a ‘sickie’. On that point anyone who has looked after young children will agree that it is far from restful! (particularly when you are trying to respond to emails, answer phones and do what you can due to feeling guilty that you had to leave work to care for your children).

I believe that most males would feel like it is not anticipated that they would need or ask for flexibility to support their partner to be able to meet their work commitments and therefore they do not ask, or not to the extent required or if the shoe was on the other foot.  In cases where they do my belief is that is can be career limiting to them.  So quotas and flexibility is good but a culture to genuinely support women in the workplace will support men too.

So, if the government wants to reach their committed target of reducing the gender gap by 25% by 2025 then this part of the forgotten part of the puzzle needs to be addressed. .

Recently when Gail Kelly finished in her role of CEO at Westpac she was asked about getting more women at the top.  Gail responded, “I think the biggest single factor here that will support women in their goal and in their objectives to become CEOs of top, leading Australian companies is driving a more flexibility-at-work agenda – a more inclusive agenda and a more flexibility-at-work – and what I mean by that is companies and environments that support women to live a whole life and support women through the various stages of their lives when they have young children, when children are starting out at school, they may have aged parents, have other responsibilities, but support women actually balance all of those elements. Now that requires companies to redesign workplaces for everyone – not just women, but for men as well” And she’s right, making the point that men need flexibility equally for various reasons but also so they can support their partners in the workplace.

At HR Business Direction we are able to assist with developing an organisational culture that supports gender diversity.

 

Leisa Messer BBus(HRM); GradDipIR; CAHRI; IRSQ
HR Strategist
leisa.messer@hrbd.com.au
07 3890 2066
www.hrbd.com.au