WORK3203: Gender, Diversity & Inclusion at

Work
Lecture 4: Women in Leadership
Lecturer: Daniel Dinale, PhD

The University of Sydney

Acknowledgement of Country

I acknowledge the tradition of

custodianship and law of the Country on
which I live and work - the Gadigal Lands
of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation. I
pay my respects to those who have cared
and continued to care for Country.

Map of Indigenous Australia:

https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/map-indigenous-australia

The University of Sydney

Agenda

– What did you learn last week – breakout

– Ideal worker norm
– Gender in Organisations: Women in Leadership
– Women on Boards – Guest Speaker: Adam Hegedus, MD of
Educating the Future (pre-record)

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What did you learn last week? 7-minute breakout

In breakout groups, discuss your key takeaways from last week’s

lecture

– What are your key takeaways from last week? Why are these
important to G, D&I?
– How do they impact on peoples experience of work?
– How can this content support you with your assessments?

Complete your key learnings document!

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Ideal worker norm

The ideal worker norm refers to an expectation that an employee

should prioritise their job above all else, often involving long hours
and constant availability.

This norm can lead to issues like work-life imbalance and

disadvantage certain groups, especially those with caregiving
responsibilities.

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Ideal worker norm

Main notions of the ideal worker norm:

• Full-time availability
• In office presence and limited remote work
• Long working hours
• Constant availability
• Prioritising work over personal life
• Uninterrupted focus
• Limited use of flexible working arrangements
• Sacrificing health and wellbeing
• Career advancement focus

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Lecture 4: Gender in Organisations – Women
in Leadership

The University of Sydney

Inequality markers (Baird & Heron, 2019)
• Working Hours Gap: More
women work part-time hours
than men

• Gender Pay Gap: Australian

women earn less than Australian
men

• Superannuation Gap:
Australian women retiring with
less Superannuation than men

• Leadership Gap: Women are

underrepresented in leadership

Photo by Wesley Tingey

The University of Sydney Page 8

Women in Leadership

Leadership: “The process of interactive influence that occurs when, in

a given context, some people accept someone as their leader to
achieve common goals” (Silva 2016, p. 5)
– CEOs, Executives, Senior Management, Board Directors, Board
Chairs

Women underrepresented in leadership all over the world,

including in Australia

94% of ASX-200 company CEOs are men (Chief Executive

Women, 2021)

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State of Women in Leadership in Australia (WGEA 2022)
Women in Leadership 2021 vs 2022 (Data from WGEA 2022)
40

34.5
35
32.5 33.4

30 28.1

25

19.4
20 18.3 18.2
14.6
15

10

0
Key management CEOs Directors Board Chairs

2021 2022

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Women in Leadership is Good for Business (Cassels
& Duncan 2020)
An increase in 10 percentage points or more in female
representation in ASX-listed companies:
– On BOARDS leads to 4.9% increase in company market value
– In KEY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL leads to 6.6% increase in
market value ($104.7 million)
– Having a female CEO leads to 5% increase in market value

Reducing number of women in top management led companies

to underperforming over time.

“Women in leadership positions perceived just as – if not more

– competent than their male counterparts” (Zenger & Folkman
2019)
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Barriers to Women in Leadership

– Glass ceiling: Invisible barrier preventing people from rising to the

ranks (Marilyn Loden 1978)
– Gendered organizations and the Universal or Ideal Worker (Acker
1990)
– Conscious and Unconscious Bias around who should be a leader, male
breadwinner, female caregiver (WGEA 2021)
– Maternal Wall: Women with children finding their commitment and
competence questioned (Acker 2021, Evans & Maley 2020)
– Women’s disproportionate share of unpaid domestic work, and taking
time out to care for children
– Lack of Role Models: You can’t be what you can’t see (WGEA 2021)
– ‘Old Boy’s Club’: affinity bias and social capital (Maley 2020)

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The Double-Bind - ‘Damned if you do, Damned if you don’t’
(Catalyst 2018)

Catalyst, The Double-Bind

Dilemma for Women in
Leadership (August 2, 2018).
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Barriers to Women in Leadership – Office Housework
(Babcock et al 2018)
“Office Housework” Women more likely to be assigned and
accept ‘Office Housework’ – work that’s important to the
organization but is not promotable

Examples of office housework:

– Taking minutes in a meeting
– Committee membership
– Filling in for a colleague
– Organizing an event/celebration
– Taking on ‘routine work’

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Barriers to Women in Leadership – Office Housework
(Babcock et al 2018)
Experiment 1: Mixed-gender teams:
• Most participants were reluctant to volunteer
• But, women were 48% more likely to volunteer for the task than men

Experiment 2: Gender-segregated teams

• Volunteer rates were identical – ruling out women’s ‘risk-aversion’ or
‘altruism’

Experiment 3: Adding a manager to the mix

• Women were 44% more likely to be ASKED by manager to volunteer,
regardless of manager gender
• Women were also more likely to say yes: 76% of the time, versus 51% for
men

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Barriers to Women in Leadership – Office Housework
(Babcock et al 2018)
Conclusion: there is a shared expectation that women will take
on volunteer tasks.

What to do?
– Managers should be mindful of who they ASSIGN work to
– Managers should be mindful of who is VOLUNTEERING
– Put office housework on a ‘rotation’
– Include office housework as part of performance evaluation

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Barriers - The Manager’s Role (Colley, Williamson &
Foley 2021)
Managers play a key role in progressing gender equality at work
They are tasked with translating policy into practice
Literature tells us that there is often a disconnect between policy and practice

Through a study of Middle Managers in the APS, researchers found:

– Managers lacked a deep understand of how organizations and HR practices are
gendered
– Gender neutrality: ‘attempts to address gender inequality but in ways that seek to
equate men and women, and not be seen to advantage women’ (p. 288)
– Gender suppression: ‘failure to acknowledge women or gender as important’ (p.
287)
– This ‘resistance’ prevented them from being able to transform practices into action
– Managers need support from the organization if they want to be able to implement
GE initiatives
– HR Managers, D&I professionals and leadership have a role in supporting this.

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What should organizations do? (McKinsey, WGEA,
Business Council of Australia, 2017)
1. Build a strong case for change
2. Role-model a commitment to diversity, including with business
partners
3. Redesign roles and work to enable flexible work and normalize
uptake across levels and genders
4. Actively sponsor rising women
5. Set a clear diversity aspiration, backed up by accountability
(targets/quotas)
6. Support talent through life transitions
7. Ensure the infrastructure is in place to support a more inclusive and
flexible workplace
8. Challenge traditional views of merit in recruitment and evaluation
9. Invest in frontline leader capabilities to drive cultural change
10. Develop rising women and ensure experience in critical roles
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Break – 10 Minutes

The University of Sydney Photo by Tetyana Kovyrina from Pexels Page 19

To Conclude

– In addition to inequality markers of working hours gap, gender

pay gap, superannuation gap (Baird & Heron 2019), we also
have a leadership gap in Australia
– Australian women underrepresented in leadership at all levels
(WGEA 2021)
– There are a number of contributing factors, including the glass
ceiling and ‘office housework’ (Loden 1978; Acker 1990; WGEA
2021; Maley 2020; Babcock et al 2018)
– Managers tasked with operationalizing GE policies, but
sometimes face barriers (Colley et al 2021)
– Women on boards in Australia
– Organizations, Managers and Leaders all have a role – to be
explored further in Tutorial
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Questions?

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 Thank You!

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