Avoiding ethical issues in mentoring relationships

Our time is marked not just by advancements in technology but also by societal expectations in the way we show respect, acceptance and dignity to others. It’s now so important that we display the highest level of ethics, especially when it comes to mentoring relationships.

Mentoring is a vital part of development. That’s because it allows participants to apply their learning into the workplace, change their behaviours and have a sounding board for organisational changes. In fact, this is why IML ANZ includes mentoring as a core element in leadership programs.

To aid the trustworthiness of any mentoring program, leaders and organisations must ensure that reliable structures are in place. This includes the following three components:

 

Robust screening process

Do your program participants undergo an application and screening process before they are matched with a mentor or mentee?

It’s also important to screen for the motivators of both parties. Are they genuinely seeking professional development? Of course, if the mentoring program is kept restricted to members of a professional body, such as IML ANZ’s program, it reduces the risk that ill-motivated people will join.

 

Clear parameters and expectations

Do you provide guidance around acceptable subject matters and realistic timeframes for the formal mentoring relationship? A well-structured program leaves little room for discussing inappropriate topics or showing disrespect for each participant’s time and resources.

Again, all of this has to come from a genuine desire to benefit both in the mentoring relationship

 

Third-party available for feedback or complaints

While no one wishes to hear of any incidents where inappropriate or unethical behaviour is displayed, it’s important to be ready to respond should it arise. An impartial party should be available to receive feedback and complaints. It’s never good if any participant feels they are helpless or won’t be heard if they complain.

Merits of reverse mentoring

When someone says mentoring we immediately picture the experienced and mature mentor alongside the eager and younger mentee. However, some companies have found that reverse mentoring, or putting the younger member of the pair in charge, has merits including fresh insights, better collaboration and breaking age-based barriers.

Traditional mentoring definitely has its benefits. It is a proven way to strengthen professional development and drive leadership success. For both the mentor an mentee, they gain a valuable contact within their professional network because the mentoring relationship, more often than not, continues well beyond the conclusion of the formal program.

Today, more of the younger generation move about from job to job and organisation to organisation. As they seek their next step up, if they see no personal connection between their aspirations and the goals of the organisation, they’ll move on. What that means is possibly valuable insights may be walking out the door, never truly fulfilling their potential within the context of your organisation.

That’s why reverse mentoring could be an effective tool in making your younger workforce feel a closer connection between their career and your organisation’s goals. Beyond retention, here are three additional merits of reverse mentoring:

 

Fresh insights

A different perspective can be invaluable for senior leaders. In a similar way to rotating a puzzle and seeing a different possible solution, so too can reversing mentoring roles provide a fresh look at existing challenges.

Sometimes leaders can get used to arguing up the food chain. With reverse mentoring, they are required to think of things differently, use different tactics in completing tasks and understand how to address a different audience.

 

Better collaboration

A new way of looking at things can prove to be useful when it comes to gaining a sense of cooperation too.

This generation of workers appreciate opportunities to participate beyond their role’s scope. What’s more, this generation of workers is all about gaining the opinions and ideas of their colleagues. So, access to the thoughts of one usually means gaining an idea of what those in that age-group think and feel.

 

Breaking barriers

Companies, such as PwC, have used reverse mentoring programs to support diversity and inclusion. This, in turn, promoted an environment where all employees feel their ideas are valued, not just those of the senior-level executives.

The result is a truly inclusive culture, where age isn’t a barrier for ideas to be heard and acknowledged.

It’s true, no matter what stage of your career you’re in, mentoring can support your development. Don’t shy away from reverse mentoring because everyone – no matter your age, experience or expertise, has something valuable to give and has room to improve.

Is coaching different from counselling?

The merits of effective coaching as part of a leader’s key skill set is undeniable. The ability to guide team members to achieve a higher-level whether that’s in their performance, productivity, knowledge or expertise takes deep understanding and lots of practice. But is the coach also expected to be a counsellor? Should a line be drawn between what constitutes coaching and counselling and if so, how can you tell if you’ve crossed it?

This isn’t a new debate, with some therapists claiming there is no difference between coaching and counselling, it’s just another label to describe the same activity. On the other hand, given the more involved nature of counselling, coaches may be hesitant to claim that they are performing the same practice. After all, counselling as a profession is more formally and heavily regulated.

To be effective in either, knowing what sets each apart is vital. Let’s unpack the similarities, differences and the importance of understanding what each practice entails.

 

Key similarities

Both practices are motivated from a place of care and concern. The goal is the same – improvement or development in some area of the coachee’s life.

Each practice also uses similar approaches and skills. In both forms the following activities feature heavily:

  • Personal communication (whether face-to-face or via phone)
  • Listening
  • Questioning
  • Creating a non-judgemental relationship
  • Uncovering deeper self-awareness

When it comes to workplace coaching the lines may not be as blurred. A coach may simply decide that they are only involved in matters within the context of the workplace. However,  the challenge for coaches is that no one is really capable of separating their ‘work-self’ from their ‘personal-self’.

 

Identified differences

Some of the common differentiators between coaching and counselling have been enumerated in the past. These include coaching’s concern with making future opportunities possible while counselling is limited to developing awareness of how past experiences impact current and future decisions.

Another key difference identified is that often, people who seek counselling do so with the aim of remedying an illness, dysfunction or pathological challenge whereas coachees are not necessarily characterised by these attributes.

There is also the distinction between coaching conversations being more structured versus the free-flowing and undefined counselling style.

 

When knowing the difference matters

When healing is required. In one study, the process of coaching helped participants identify the need for additional help in the form of counselling. If a coach identifies that there is a need to remedy or heal emotional challenges, it is worth considering whether counselling is required.

When a crossover is necessary. As part of effective coaching, it may be necessary for the coach to visit the coachees’ past experiences. Normally this is mainly for the purposes of helping the coachee to move forward with agreed goals. If unresolved past experiences hold a person back from progressing, the coach may need to crossover temporarily into the counsellor space – but only briefly.

When it is healthy to hold the coachee accountable. When a counsellor is required, it is often because the client is not in a state to reach goals and overcome hurdles on their own. This is when getting the difference right between coaching and counselling matters the most. In a coaching arrangement, the coachee is usually responsible for achieving the desired outcome, the coach is simply there to guide – not to provide the answers. There will inevitably be situations where a clinically-trained counsellor must take-over.

Reference: Semantics or substance?  Preliminary evidence in the debate between life coaching and counselling

How managers can become good coaches

Managers are placed in positions of influence and responsibility on the basis of skills and abilities. However, being accountable for the performance of others makes people management a larger component of the manager’s role. It’s then important that managers are equipped to guide their people. Effective coaching is key.

If coaching is not a feature of your team, it should be. And if you are already coaching, is it time to assess how effectively you’re doing it?

Ask yourself these three questions:

Is coaching expected of managers?

Hitting targets and meeting KPIs are all expected in most roles, managers included. In the hustle and bustle of taking care of business, coaching often falls quite low on the list of priorities. This is one of the reasons why managers do not have effective coaching skills. It’s not treated as a priority and an integral part of a manager’s role.

But doing so could have real benefits. A recent Gallup report notes that focusing on employee performance development (instead of waiting for poor performance and then ‘managing’ it) improves the quality of work, productivity and leads to better business outcomes.

Ongoing and effective coaching plays a huge role in the continuous improvement of employee performance.

 

Do managers know what coaching involves?

There are many misconceptions about coaching. Some think of it as maneuvering people. Others believe it’s the same thing as teaching. But coaching should really be about helping the coachee to find their own way.

Tennis is an interesting lens to view coaching from. The all top players have coaches. Tennis, in contrast with other sports, lacks coaching interaction during the match. There are no pep-talks, the athlete is left to perform and the coach simply looks on in encouragement. What’s the point? Coaching isn’t about telling someone how to do their job, it’s about empowering and guiding them to make the right decisions come crunch time.

In fact, Sir John Whitmore, a leading figure in executive coaching, defines coaching as, “unlocking people’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them”.

Coaching can be done externally, where a consultant is brought in to help the coachee, or internally, where the direct manager of the coachee supports their improvement. It can also be conducted informally, not following a set structure or schedule but still demonstrating coaching skills in the way the conversation is carried out.

 

Are managers equipped with the skills to coach?

Because coaching isn’t weaved into the fabric of expected managerial duties, it’s likely that most managers lack the skills needed to be an effective coach.

Managers do well to invest in training on skills that support coaching. Tips include:

  • Active listening
  • Asking effective questions
  • Assist employees to set clear goals
  • Aim to instil accountability based on fair and accurate evaluations

Improving team performance through people analytics

We live in an era of data-driven insights, a time when new and innovative ways of collecting, analysing and organising information pique our interest on a regular basis.

In the modern workplace, a common HR practice is to use people analytics to answer critical questions about an organisation’s operational environment. Psychometric tools, in particular, can provide insights about team dynamics and when used properly, support the development of individual leadership capabilities that positively impact team performance and outputs.

But how do we extract maximum value from people analytics? Can psychometric feedback provide a roadmap for performance improvement and team effectiveness?

There is a clear need for people analytics to visibly and measurably linked to performance outcomes.

Diverse perspectives deliver

Diversity is a key element that enables effective teamwork. According to Team Management Systems Learning & Development Director, Chris Burton, “The power of a good team-based psychometric is in its ability to integrate into the operational environment and clearly illustrate the benefit that diverse perspectives deliver. To match the current environment, there is a growing need for teams to become ‘intelligent’, that is to exhibit inclusive, relational and context-aware traits. The capability to understand and harness diversity should be pre-requisite for modern leaders.”

Team awareness matters

As an example, it is easy to imagine the contribution of a colleague who is meticulous and detail-focused being under-appreciated in a fast-paced operational team. In an environment where the value added by this kind of activity is well understood, the same team member could be celebrated for their commitment to maintaining quality standards.

Prior to exploring a team’s different perspectives and approaches to work, it is important to establish a baseline for current team performance and identify other critical elements. For example, how do we describe the culture in our context, how effectively do we deal with change, and what are trust levels like?

This is where managers and HR practitioners have an opportunity to shift their thinking beyond team workshops being a one-off training event. Burton explains, “Sharing feedback from psychometric profiles is a good way of generating awareness that a colleague is more concrete or more abstract in their thinking, but if you don’t incorporate their insights to revise and improve your process, you’re missing an enormous opportunity. Understanding differences in a team is an important step, but it takes an additional, ongoing effort to include diverse contributions and maintain high performance”.

The Institute of Managers and Leaders Australia and New Zealand has a suite of diagnostic and evaluation tools developed to improve the effectiveness and productivity of your organisation. If you would like to like to know more about the range of People Analytics tools available, please call 1300 362 631 or email corporate@managersandleaders.com.au or visit managersandleaders.com.au/people-analytics.

The Info: Women in leadership must-read books

By Sarah McDuling

 

We are living in a time of great change and challenge; a time when people are being encouraged to examine gender biases and work towards gender-balanced leadership.

The goal, of course, is to create an environment of inclusivity and equality – a culture which not only allows women to achieve their goals, but one that actively encourages young girls to succeed professionally in the same way that young boys have always been encouraged. The question is how do we get there and, perhaps more importantly, how long will it take?

Currently, 47% of the Australian workforce is female, but only 13.7% of chair positions in the country are held by women and only 16.5% of Australian CEOs are women. In fact, 70.9% of reporting organisations in Australia have a male-only team of key management personnel.

Meanwhile, internationally, only 25 of the CEOs in the Fortune 500 are women. When can we expect that number to rise closer to the 50% mark? It has been estimated by the World Economic Forum that the gender gap won’t close entirely until the year 2186. As a single professional woman, I find these numbers deeply concerning. Do we really need to wait that long?

Knowledge is power and when it comes to women in leadership, empowerment is key. As a woman there are two questions I find myself constantly contemplating: How? And who? Firstly, how can I achieve my professional goals in a culture that is intrinsically skewed in favour of men? And secondly, who are my role models?

Luckily, I happen to work in the book industry and so when seeking knowledge, I don’t have to look very far. Here are two recommended reading lists titled How to Lead and Who to Follow. The first is a list of books by successful women in leadership roles, full of valuable advice for women who aspire to become leaders themselves. The second is a list of powerful and thought-provoking memoirs by female role models. Read these books. Read them, not only to learn how to become a great leader, but also to discover what kind of leader you want to become.

 

HOW TO LEAD

 

DARE TO LEAD BY BRENÉ BROWN

How do you cultivate braver, more daring leaders? And, how do you embed the value of courage in your culture? Dare to Lead will answer these questions for you.

 

HOW WOMEN RISE BY SALLY HELGESEN & MARSHALL GOLDSMITH

Do you hesitate about putting forward ideas? Are you reluctant to claim credit for your achievements? Do you find it difficult to get the support you need from your boss? If your answer to any of these is ‘Yes’, How Women Rise will help get you back on track.

 

LIVE LEAD LEARN BY GAIL KELLY

The first female CEO of one of Australia’s big four banks, Gail Kelly is celebrated as one of our finest, most innovative thinkers on leadership and workplace culture.

 

WOMEN LEADING BY CHRISTINE NIXON & AMANDA SINCLAIR

Women Leading smashes tired prescriptions that women should lead like men, highlighting a long history of innovative female leadership.

 

THRIVE BY ARIANNA HUFFINGTON

As the cofounder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, Arianna Huffington is by any traditional measure, extraordinarily successful.

 

HOW REMARKABLE WOMEN LEAD BY JOANNA BARSH, SUSIE CRANSTON & GEOFFREY LEWIS

How Remarkable Women Lead explores provocative issues such as whether feminine leadership traits (for women and men) are better suited for our fast-changing, hypercompetitive, and increasingly complex world.

 

WINGING IT BY EMMA ISAACS

CEO and entrepreneur Emma Isaacs believes that you can’t plan every detail in life; instead, take action now and figure the rest out as you go along.

 

LEAN IN BY SHERYL SANDBERG

Sheryl Sandberg is chief operating officer of Facebook and co-author of Option B with Adam Grant. In Lean In, Sandberg reignited the conversation around women in the workplace.

 

WHO TO FOLLOW

 

UNFETTERED AND ALIVE BY ANNE SUMMERS

Anne Summers’s story has her travelling around the world as she moves from job to job, in newspapers and magazines, advising prime ministers, leading feminist debates and writing memorable, influential books.

 

200 WOMEN BY RUTH HOBDAY & GEOFF BLACKWELL

Two hundred amazing women answer the same questions about life, happiness and regrets.

 

FIGHT LIKE A GIRL BY CLEMENTINE FORD

Clementine Ford is a beacon of hope and inspiration to Australian women and girls. Her incendiary debut Fight Like A Girl will make you laugh, cry and scream.

 

WOMEN KIND BY DR KIRSTIN FERGUSON & CATHERINE FOX

Dr Kirstin Ferguson joins Walkley award-winning journalist Catherine Fox to examine how women’s shared clout is transforming communities, workplaces and leadership.

 

ANY ORDINARY DAY BY LEIGH SALES

In her powerful book, journalist Leigh Sales examines what people fear most and why? And when the worst does happen, what comes next?

 

EVERYWHERE I LOOK BY HELEN GARNER

Including Garner’s famous and controversial essay on the insults of age, her deeply moving tribute to her mother and extracts from her diaries.

 

MY LIFE ON THE ROAD BY GLORIA STEINEM

From journalist, activist, and international icon Gloria Steinem comes an all-new memoir of a lifetime of listening and learning from people, travelling America and the world.

 

NOT JUST LUCKY BY JAMILA RIZVI

Jamila Rizvi exposes the structural and cultural disadvantages that rob women of their confidence, helping women fight for a more inclusive, equal workplace for all.

 

THE GOOD GIRL STRIPPED BARE BY TRACEY SPICER

When Tracey Spicer was sacked by email after having a baby, this good girl turned ‘bad’, took legal action against the network for pregnancy discrimination. (Spicer will be MC at IML’s International Women’s Day Great Debate in Sydney on 8 March. Details at iml.eventsair.com/international-womens-day)

 

BECOMING BY MICHELLE OBAMA

In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerising storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, telling her full story as she has lived it – in her own words and on her own terms.

AVAILABLE FROM BOOKTOPIA

All these books are available at booktopia.com.au

Sarah McDuling is the Senior Content Producer for Booktopia and the Editor of the Booktopian Blog.

Mind the gap

By Anthony O’Brien

The latest IML Gender Pay Report reveals that if you’re a female working in a C-Suite role, you could be earning as much as 15% less than your male colleagues.

The report presents findings based on an analysis of pay differentials from 2014-2018 between male and female full-time employees within the Australian workforce. The research considers different employment levels and job families ranging from administration to general management. The analysis uses IML’s National Salary Survey, updated in October 2018, and data collected from 460 organisations across Australia, covering more than 250 job roles.

The research doesn’t reflect casual or part-time workers, or maternity leave which explains differences between the IML report and the gaps reported by government organisations such as Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), according to report author, Sam Bell FIML, General Manager, Corporate Services and Research, IML. The full-time total remuneration gender pay gap based on WGEA data is 22.4%, meaning men working full time earn, on average, nearly $27,000 a year more than women working full time.

WHY THE GAP PERSISTS

According to the IML report, the C-Suite pay gap fell to 9.8% three years ago after a high of 14.7% in 2014. But over the past three years, the gender pay gap for C-Suite roles climbed steadily and is now approaching the levels of five years ago. Bell explains that isolating the reasons for the widening gap at the C-Suite level is challenging. “There are probably more female managers in lower-paying industries. However, our research measures like-against-like job levels and job families, so more female executives working in lower paid industries doesn’t explain the C-Suite gap thoroughly.

“That there is a 14.6% difference in like-against-like general manager salaries is certainly an eye-opening statistic that organisations need to review.”

Libby Lyons, Director of the WGEA, says, “The gender pay gap is a symptom of a broader issue. It reflects the fact that women’s work is traditionally undervalued, and women are often paid less than men.

“As a nation, we need to be talking about what is behind the gender pay gap – the barriers women face in the workplace that cause the gender pay gap.”

WHERE THE GAP IS CLOSING

If you’re seeking work in an industry with closer to equal pay, then look no further than information technology (4.6%) and engineering and science (4.8%). That said, in 2014 the IT pay gap slightly favoured women (-0.1%), and the difference was only 0.3% for females working in engineering and science. On the flipside, the salary gap for women in finance and accounting improved from 13.7% down to 7.1% over the past four years.

IT continuously rates well for women’s pay rates because it’s a result driven industry that typically doesn’t differentiate between male or female employees, notes Bell. “The salary gaps in finance and accounting have dropped because there is greater awareness of gender diversity issues in that profession because of CEOs such as former Westpac boss Gail Kelly.

“That industry was heavily male-dominated, but with high-profile CEOs like Kelly championing the issue and taking it head-on, the pay gap almost halved in the past four years.”

ADDRESSING THE GAP

Paul Jury, Managing Director of Australia for global HR executive search firm ChapmanCG, resolutely believes there should be no excuses for gender pay gaps. He elaborates, “Moreover, there’s plenty of research indicating that up to 70% of employers report they have policies in place to support gender equality.

“With the gender pay gap, it is all heading in the right direction, but the speed of improvement is still too slow.”

Personal biases can come into play particularly where objective measures of performance are deficient and create incidences of gender gaps in promotions and pay, reasons Jury. “For senior roles, some managers without access to objective data may tend to promote and reward people they like and whom they perceive are more like them.

“While unconscious bias is hard to rewire, more training, education, and awareness within an organisation can help to mitigate its impact on gender diversity, promotion and pay. This includes putting in place guidelines, along with checks and balances within a business to minimise the gender pay gap.”

Bell agrees more investment in educating managers about gender equality issues is required. “Educating managers who hire staff that pay gaps are not acceptable is a start,” he reasons. “And the fact that skills, experience, and qualifications should be paid for, irrespective of whether a recruit is male or female.”

From a leadership perspective, Bell believes an organisation should have a gender pay gap policy or statement in place that all managers “understand and take seriously”. WGEA research indicates that actions to correct like-for-like gender pay gaps are three times as effective in reducing overall pay inequities when combined with reporting to executives and boards. Bell says, “There’s a lot of large Australian companies that are certainly taking all these steps. All of them probably have a statement from a leadership level, whether it’s CEO down, saying that pay gaps won’t be tolerated.”

ACCOUNTABILITY COUNTS

Using market data such as IML’s National Salary Survey is another prudent step towards minding the pay gap says Bell. “Employers must understand what the market is paying for a C-Suite role or line manager and it shouldn’t matter whether someone is male or female.”

Another critical way to strengthen employer accountability would be to end pay secrecy, according to Alice Orchiston, an Associate Lecturer in Law at the University of Sydney. To this end the federal Australian Labor Party announced in September last year that, if elected, it will legislate for the introduction of publicly available company-specific gender pay gap data. In an opinion piece for academic journal The Conversation, Orchiston wrote: “If women discover they are earning less than their male counterparts for the same jobs, their legal avenues for pursuing equal pay are limited. It’s difficult to prove and costly to litigate.”

Orchiston continued, “Requiring employers to make their pay records publicly accessible or accessible to employees across the same organisation would create greater transparency and a basis for women to assess their pay, which in turn could facilitate negotiation or legal action.”

READ THE FULL REPORT

The IML 2018 Gender Pay Gap report can be purchased at managersandleaders.com.au/national-salary-survey

Why balance is better: for women and men

By Tori Cooke

To me, International Women’s Day is important because it recognises the full spectrum of women’s contribution to the world. In such diverse ways it brings ‘balance’ to the world in which we live, work and play. Part of bringing much needed balance is challenging structural conformity to male privilege. Diversity and inclusion makes so much sense when we consider what women have achieved historically – and it makes sense for men too.

 

Barriers: internal and external

Women’s achievements are rarely appreciated within the context of unequal access to higher education, employment and advancement opportunities. This means that overall, women are likely to work harder to overcome internal and external barriers to achieve success in the first place. Sometimes, the external barrier is, ‘the glass ceiling’ and unequal pay. It can also be that the structures are designed for a dominant paradigm that excludes the needs of women.

Then there are the internal barriers, the ‘soundtracks’ women are taught to play in their minds that prevent some women from believing they can achieve the full extent of their potential – leading to under achieving and high levels of stress. These are the ingrained social messages.

For some of us who grew up in lower middle class families, the soundtrack focused on working in a meaningless service job until you found your prince, got married and lived happily ever after. In my family, the women’s role was to take care of your husband, the home and the children.  Any employment was usually part time with your pay considered ‘pocket money’.

But listening to the men I work with, tells me too that these social messages can be stressful for some men to live up to. For example; the provider, the protector, the hero are socially constructed masculine roles that play a part in driving the need for financial and social success for men. The pressure of not living up to or not being able to participate in these roles can lead to a sense of listlessness and despair because access to the economic fortunes deemed socially acceptable and their associated status remain unachieved.

The key difference is these barriers do not impact on men’s access to opportunity or their thinking that they deserve opportunity to the same degree as women. 

The fact is, gendered forms of social status were enshrined in legislation. Women who sought to contribute in the same way to society were considered highly problematic, simply for challenging the social norms of the day with ideas of inclusiveness and equality.  The few men who shared and collaborated in raising a family were considered ‘not real men’.

But without these inspiring influencers, both men and women, we would not have the ongoing discussions, research and movement about the need for gender equity today.

Getting a university degree required overcoming barriers that most men do not have to experience because of what we now know and call structural male privilege. Having worked with victims of family violence and now also with the men who perpetrate abuse, it is clear to me that the attitudes and beliefs inherent in male privilege continue to heavily influence the drivers of violence against women. This violence is also a further barrier to women’s access to income equity and long term financial security. Conversely, these same issues become a cage that lock women into violent relationships.

It is a cycle that is all too often deadly.

 

Diversity and inclusion

This is why diversity and inclusion are important to me – to stop striving for this as an abiding social norm is simply dangerous. Violence against women is now a serious and widespread problem in Australia, with enormous individual and community impacts and social costs (Our Watch, 2019).  Recently, the National Community Attitude survey (NCAS, 2018) results indicate concerns that a substantial minority of Australians do not believe women’s reports of violence. Of even greater concern is the view that this large minority believe the problem of gender inequality is exaggerated (NCAS, 2018).

Women have made many significant contributions within their families, communities and across societies. While, these alone are praiseworthy, when you consider them in context of the many visible and invisible social barriers they had to overcome, I realise that it may take more than one International Women’s Day to fully appreciate their achievements.

For inclusivity to become a valued social norm we simply must address these barriers and work hard to challenge the ingrained ideas that have no relevance for the kind of futures our daughters and granddaughters will be living in the next 100 years.

I grew up at a time when it was a challenge to finish high school and have access to higher education. My grandmother’s words often echoed as motivation in my heart, “education will be your liberation” she used to say. I am the first woman in my family to finish high school and will be the first to complete a post-grad qualification. However, the cost at times of moving past limited ways of viewing women were at times, desperately hard.

Today women are more highly educated than men, yet still earn less.

International Women’s Day continues to tell the story of why ‘balance is better’, why our collaborative work to focus on better access and celebration of diversity is absolutely critical to society’s success and an enriched life for each one of us.

References:

Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety. (2018). Are we there yet? Australians’ attitudes towards violence against women & gender equality: Summary findings from the 2017 National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey (NCAS) (Research to policy and practice, 03/2018). Sydney, NSW: ANROWS.

https://ncas.anrows.org.au/findings/

Our Watch. (2019). https://www.ourwatch.org.au/

Tori Cooke is currently the Practice Specialist Family Violence & Child Safety at Relationships Australia Victoria. She is a highly regarded conference presenter, senior clinical practitioner and specialist trainer in the field of family violence in Australia. She is a White Ribbon Advocate, a current member of the Victorian White Ribbon Committee and a current Board director for the Society for Professional Social Workers. Tori is a trainer and program designer of men’s behaviour change programs. Currently, she works with clinical teams in Relationships Australia Victoria to reduce violence against women and children.

The past, present and future of maternity leave

By Andrew Fenlon

As a society it’s really important for us to have a steady stream of ‘the next generation’ coming through. The alternative is a society which is steadily aging – and as a result contracting. Governments understand this and have given various incentives to assist in the cost of having children over time.

Currently, the largest financial burden relating to child birth and child caring is carried by women. It is estimated that women having children earn 20% less than the average. Conversely men having children, with their partner undertaking the primary caring for the children get a premium of 15% (not really sure why!) compared to the average.

There are some programs which aim to help women through maternity – such as paid maternity leave and the option for 10 ‘keeping in touch’ days. Unfortunately, these are often not enough – or lack promotion, awareness and consistency.

The position is made worse by some terrible employment practices such as:

  • Making pregnant women redundant either before or during maternity
  • Making the ‘keeping in touch’ days either unknown, difficult or impossible to use
  • Not holding the person’s role open for them so that they cannot return to their previous job
  • Not providing any return to work program for returning mothers
  • Not supporting flexible work – often by requiring a role to be filled 100% by one person working nine-to-five.
  • Upon returning to work should the woman request to do the role part time, often no one is hired to fill the other days, thus the woman does the entire role, in fewer days and is paid a pro-rata salary

Hopefully your organisation is better than this – but we see many instances of the above!

It is no surprise, then, that many women, once having children, do not return to their previous employer. They either look for part time work which might support their caring responsibilities, or they decide to set out on their own.

Caring doesn’t finish when the maternity period stops. Children need support and assistance for many years after being born (in fact many parents still have children living with them into their 20s!) This support includes regular care – but also the unexpected demands when a child is either sick or had an accident. In many instances (personal and professional) the assumption is that the mother will continue to cover the bulk of these duties.

The negative impacts on women because of this approach are significant:

  • They can lack confidence (because they have been out of the work environment for an extended period)
  • They can get caught in a ‘poverty trap’ – the net earnings are less than the cost of child care – so they stay at home or are in a ‘break-even’ scenario
  • They earn less – and this continues throughout the rest of their career
  • They are more likely to work in part time jobs that are below their capability
  • They are often overlooked for promotion into management roles
  • They accumulate less superannuation
  • There is an increased chance of homelessness in older age

Society suffers too. It is estimated that if women could be fully engaged in the workforce, then there would be a 20% increase in GDP. This is larger than any other single sector – it’s three times the size of mining!

As Australians, we need to reconsider where the burden of birth and child-caring lies. The main economic beneficiary is society (children grow up, consume and pay taxes!) – so society should bear more of the cost.

If we want to continue to have a vibrant country where the creation of the next generation of Australians is supported – we need to change things. Fortunately, there are examples from overseas and some forward-thinking organisations that we can use to help us.

A start could include:

  • Recognising that the financial burden of bringing up a child should not all fall on the shoulders of the mother. The father and society need to bear more of the effort and cost
  • Having more open-minded workplaces that allow men to look after their child. Removing the stigma around a man asking to be home with their child
  • Working to the point where child care is substantially funded by the public purse – just like childhood education
  • Providing realistic and enforceable (on the manager) options for the ‘10 keeping in touch days’ (which might well be part days to assist the mother with her caring duties)
  • Ensuring that men are supported by their organisations to be more available for their children – two weeks of paternity leave doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface
  • Ensuring women cannot be retrenched just because they become pregnant
  • Ensuring mothers have the right to a reasonable return to work plan (which might need to be over a period of years) to their previous job
  • Ensuring flexible working options are available to everyone as a default
  • Ensuring organisations offer management positions either as flexible roles or as job shares

I’m not saying that these changes will totally address the current maternity chasm, but if we can start to make these changes, we’ll all be better off!

Andrew Fenlon is the director and co-creator of Women into Leadership. He has over 20 years of international experience in public and private sector organisations. After doing some analyses on what was impacting women and their ability to become leaders, he saw a need to help women – organizationally and individually – thus Women into Leadership was born. As a brand of Fast Track Leadership, Women into Leadership has a range of programs that implement systemic and lasting change at an organizational level so more women can achieve leadership roles. It also provides leadership development programs for individuals.