5 Reasons to Attend

Interested in attending the conference this year? Here are 5 reasons why your boss should send you!

1. Team Building: Ideas are created, alliances are established, and lasting bonds are formed through this shared positive experience. Attend with your team - See team discounts here

2. Networking Value: Build your professional network and relationships with professional women at all levels of government who share a common interest.

3. Increase Productivity: Stepping outside the confines of our normal work routine can help re-focus your drive. A day spent surrounded by a community of professional, passionate people, will offer refreshing new perspectives.

4. Benefit From Outside Experts: This is an opportunity to absorb a wide range of leadership advice from a panel of celebrated experts.

5. Get Inspired: The Women Leaders in Public Sector Roadshow will inspire you both professionally and personally.

The Problems Facing Women in Leadership, and what to do about it

Last year the Women in the Workplace study, by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Co. surveyed 132 companies employing more than 4.6 million people. This one was of the largest studies conducted, here are some of the statistics from that report and others here in Australia.

Women who negotiate are 67 percent more likely to receive feedback that their personal style is “intimidating,” “too aggressive,” or “bossy,” and they are likely to receive that kind of feedback than men who negotiate.

Women are still underrepresented at every corporate level and hold less than 30% of roles in senior management.

Although most companies track the gender breakdown of their hiring and promotions, fewer than 35% set targets.

Top Australian companies with at least 25 percent female boards perform more than 7 percent better than those with all-male boards.

The public sector is still lagging behind. Ahead of the Women in Leadership Summit, we’ve taken a look under the bonnet at some of Australia’s most diverse organisations to identify some ingredients for success. Here’s the top six:

Listen to concerns

Here’s one for all the male leaders out there who feel like they are doing as much as they can. Are you genuinely listening to the issues, concerns, and workplace issues of your female employees?

How long has it been since you took a female co-worker for coffee and asked what sort of experience she’s having at work? You’ll need to form close relationships with your female colleagues if you want to get to a point where they can talk to you openly about their difficulties in the workplace.

By understanding your female colleagues’ experiences better, it will be much easier to recognise and correct gender bias as it occurs.

Inclusive Groups

Women's only leadership support groups may be counter-intuitive. The first hurdle to overcome is the reasoning from both men and women that it's a women's problem to sort.

By allowing men to participate in the conversation, it builds a force for change. You may also be surprised by the amount of male employees in the office who are keen to bridge the gaps and lead initiatives.

Develop diverse talent

It starts with school, whether it’s female leaders or encouraging a more diverse workforce across the board - unfortunately, it doesn’t always ‘just happen’ without some commitment.

Increasing the ‘pipeline’ of women studying in school and college will have positive impact on the future. However, this shouldn’t overlook retention. Companies are currently failing to retain the female employees they have largely due to progression opportunities and flexible working options.

Flexible Working

Having an occasional work from home policy doesn’t quite cut it. Variable start and finish times, working from home, or the option to work fewer days are slowly becoming the norm, but there is still a long way to go.

For mothers returning to work from maternity leave, in particular, those few hours of leeway can be the difference between career confidence and a career abandoned.

Previous research conducted jointly by Bain & Company and Chief Executive Women (CEW) in 20114 showed that, along with “visible and committed leadership,” women believe “creating working models that support men and women with family responsibilities” to be the most important action to overcoming barriers to women’s progression into leadership roles.

Celebrate achievements

Lead the way, promote the culture, eventually the word of mouth benefits will do a lot of the leg work for you.

Companies need to make a stronger case for gender diversity, explaining why it matters and how it benefits everyone. Organisations should encourage everyone, from entry-level employees to leaders, to talk openly about gender stereotypes and provide women with more leadership opportunities.

Victoria pledge investments for gov tech talent

Code for Victoria II to place female tech talent in government departments to improve public services

Promising women designers, programmers, and user experience experts will be given the opportunity to effect change within Victoria’s public sector thanks to a $450,000 investment from the state government into Code for Australia.

ABC Land in hot water for Women’s day stunt

The ABC is kicking its men off the airwaves because it wants to promote equality of the sexes.

The national broadcaster announced it will bring female presenters to the fore, removing high-profile hosts and replacing them with an all-female line up.

The move has been called out as a "token gesture", who are asking why the ABC is only promoting its female talent one day a year.

See what you think

Fewer large Australian companies are run by women than are run by men named John

The ABC reported that there are fewer women in top roles than there are men called John, Peter or David

Consultant Conrad Liveris gathered the data on CEOs and chairs at Australia's largest 200 companies for the third year running, and released it to coincide with International Women's Day.

"To be a captain of Australian business you are 40 per cent more likely to be named Peter or John than to be female," he said.

Check out the stats

International Women's Day: the women leading local government

The Guardian have been speaking to council leaders across the UK to explore the benefits of a diverse workforce.

“Local government has such a fundamental impact on people’s life chances as well as day-to-day life, it’s important that it represents the huge varieties of experiences and needs of the people that it serves.”

Take a look at the video

Childcare workers to strike on Women's Day

More than a thousand childcare workers are set to walk off the job on International Women's Day in protest of their pay rates.

Early childhood educators from every state and territory will stop work from 3.20pm on Wednesday afternoon.

Read the story

Our favourite from around the world - Italy gives all women free entry to museums to celebrate International Women's Day. 'A day of celebration will see free openings with a gallery of exceptional women, whose fame has crossed the centuries thanks to art and culture,' states Italian ministry of culture

PSN & PwC Key Insights 2016 - Women Leaders in the Public Sector