The Glass Ceiling in Australia

By Heather Chapman (New York City)

Living in New York, it’s easy to forget—especially in this economy—that women everywhere are struggling to break through the glass ceiling. As hard as it may be for women here in the United States, it turns out that it is even harder for women in Australia. A recent study, supported by the Australian government, has recently found that Australia is trailing the United States, Great Britain, South Africa and New Zealand in regards to women breaking into the ranks of senior management.

This survey had a number of interesting comparisons, highlighting that while 54.5 percent of Australian ASX (Australian Stock Exchange) 200 companies have at least one woman in an executive position, this compares poorly to the United States, where 85.2 percent of companies have at least one woman in an executive position. In Canada, that figure is 65.6 percent; in Great Britain, it is 60 percent; and in South Africa, 59.3 percent.

In a 2006 census taken by the Equal Opportunity for Women Workplace Agency (in Australia), it was found that 39.5 percent of companies did not have a single woman executive manager; in 2008, that number has risen to 45.5 percent.

Anna McPhee, director of the agency, said that “At the 2006 census we described the pace of change as glacial, in 2008 the results show that women’s progress is melting away … The dearth of women at the top levels of business is the result of fewer opportunities, hostile cultures, and outdated work practices that haven’t kept pace with women’s increased education levels, experience, and ambition to be among the people influencing Australia’s future.”

The survey also found that some directors, despite women’s experience and expertise, continue to see the presence of women as symbolic, and hold them responsible for only ‘soft’ issues.

That, says Helen Lynch, former director of Westpac, is part of the problem. In a letter she wrote to Business Spectator, Helen says that “I think the reason women get into so many roles in HR, marketing and so on is that quite often the leadership skills that are attributed to men are, in women, called ‘people management skills’.”

She goes on to add that she is, “[I’m] personally absolutely against quotas, because if someone mandates that we’ve got to have 20 per cent women on boards or 20 per cent at the executive level, it just doesn’t work because one size doesn’t fit all. And the other thing, as Anna McPhee and her colleagues from EOWA (Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency) know, you can tick the box and you can win awards, but unless you can change the hearts and minds and the culture of organizations the numbers are going to stay pretty much as they are now.” (The full text of her letter can be found here.)

As bad as things appear to be in Australia though, there are some spots of light. For instance, ANZ’s new appointment—one of four—was Alison Watkins, who some have described as the new Helen Lynch. Her appointment to ANZ’s board, following her appointment at Woolworths and Just Groups, highlights her status as one of the women company directors to watch in the coming years.

Additionally, another recent study in Australia has found that many women executives are able to be so successful at their demanding positions because their husbands are the ones taking care of the kids, cleaning, and cooking. The husbands are putting their own professional careers on hold while they support their wives. Souha Ezzedeen and Kirsten Grossnickle Ritchey, the authors behind this study, have published their in-depth analysis of twenty senior women in the September 2008 issues of Journal of Family Issues.

While their research showed that women executives generally did not get as much support from their husbands as men get from their wives, it did highlight the fact that many women advanced—or believed they did—because of the support of their husbands in areas like emotional support, household help, help with family members, esteem support, career support, and their husbands’ decisions to choose a supportive career and lifestyle. (The full analysis of their study can be found online here.)

So, while it can be said that things are rough for women all over, and particularly in Australia, it does appear that that women are still making strides in breaking through that glass ceiling, although slower than any of us would like.