Fiona
Krautil
Thank you for the opportunity to provide a statement to your important forum. I regret not being able to participate personally as I know how crucial it is for women in a particularly male dominated field to share our experiences and work together to find solutions to the advancement of women in science.
It wasn't until after studying Science at Melbourne University and joining the workforce that I realised that women were not given the same opportunities as men to develop their careers.
In 1978 I was employed in my first full time job as a Microbiologist at the Attwood Veterinary Research Laboratory in The Victorian Department of Agriculture. At that time there were no senior female role models to aspire to or to seek out as mentors. I can remember aspiring to be a Scientist Grade 3 – the highest level that any woman I had met occupied at the time.
In the early 80's I can still remember discussing whether we would employ our first female stock inspector (who was the best candidate on merit) and management's concerns that she would need to stay overnight with the male stock inspectors and that "she might lead the men astray."
In 1988 I worked on a team to provide a more effective promotion process for scientists and this lead to me successfully applying for the EEO Manager role in Agriculture in 1988. In participating on the Scientist Promotion Panel I saw that although the process was fair and open the barrier to advancement for female scientists was their comparative inability to "sell" their abilities. This is still a problem I encounter when sitting on selection panels in recruitment processes in the private sector.
One of the highlights of my time at Agriculture was the opportunity to attend the Mt Eliza Management School's Executive Management for Women course at which I met the most wonderful female role models – including women who were working in demanding careers with small children. The course inspired me to continue to build my career and showed me that it was possible for women to succeed in senior roles.
To further my career I completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Management at RMIT and then decided that the appropriate next step for me was the private sector. At this time I also gave birth to my first daughter and experienced at first hand the work and family balancing challenges.
In 1991 I joined ESSO. Working with line managers, I learned how to market and implement diversity within the business context. Although continuing to be idealistic, I became more realistic in terms of practical outcomes that could be achieved within a given timeframe and business environment.
In 1995 I gave birth to my second daughter and put into practice a range of flexible work practices available to me as well as the work-based child care!
One of my EEO goals at ESSO was to provide every line manager with the experience to attend a workshop to assist them to value difference – which we finally achieved in 1997 – it took me 3 years to achieve – but was ultimately won and led by the CEO!
Why is it so hard to achieve such an important goal, when the benefits to employer and employee alike are just so obvious?
The barriers to recruitment, retention and advancement for women in engineering are similar to the barriers faced by women everywhere in Australian science but are exacerbated by the fact that it is a discipline that has been historically and still is dominated by men and male ways of operating.
A US Catalyst study on the barriers to advancement for women in engineering reflects my own experience as a scientist and working with female engineers at ESSO. The research found that:
Catalyst's recommendations for overcoming these barriers included:
I would add to this comprehensive list the need to link the retention and advancement of women to the outcomes for your organisations. Holding on to female staff and utilising their talent 100% is the way Australian science is going to be able to compete locally and in the global economy.
As Equal Opportunity Manager at Esso I saw the turn-around in the retention rate of graduate female engineers from half that of their male peers to the same rate. How much did that save? $80,000 to $100,000 per person – the cost of recruiting each female grad, plus another $80,000 – the cost of replacing her with an experienced hire if she left.
Unlike many workplace initiatives, that are either good for the organisation or good for employees, effective diversity outcomes mean a win/win situation for employee and employer alike.
Recent research has shown the competitive advantage that diversity can bring. For example:
It is true that women are not getting the experience they need in project leader, taskforce and management roles and this is because of all the issues cited in the Catalyst research - the inappropriate assumptions and perceptions and exclusion from the informal networks. So when women are not getting the same opportunities as their male peers and the workplace culture is not inclusive of their needs, they don't feel that their contribution is valued by the organisation and leave. The lack of supportive female role models in senior roles is another factor in Australia that makes it difficult for women aspiring to the top.
The strategies used by best practice organisations to achieve effective outcomes are diversity strategies which have built upon sound EEO foundations. Successful diversity programs must be tailored to the organisation and address its individual needs.
For effective diversity change to occur, initiatives must be based on:
Because the valuing of diversity usually requires significant culture change, it cannot happen overnight. There are no "quick fix" solutions – a long term culture change process is required. The difference between successful organisations and those that fail is not so much what they did but how they did it. This links back to the critical role of the leader in the diversity implementation process.
We need to create more opportunity in Australian workplaces for safe, open dialogues between the senior management group and their female staff to improve the understanding of the issues. This will enable us to gain the necessary leadership from the top of all Australian workplaces to take the necessary actions to lead the realignment of the workplace culture so that all people can fully contribute.
The Agency is but a handful of people. We cannot change the mindset of every manager in Australia – we all need to work together to "rattle the cage" of equity.
Women can take advantage of our role as an educator to raise awareness of the issues. At the Agency we have access to excellent data to help women identify those organisations that are achieving equity for women in the workplace.
I encourage you to use our website (http://www.eowa.gov.au), our publications, such as the annual report and Action News, and our advisory service to find out which companies are achieving best practice in equal employment opportunities for women – and, indeed, which companies are not progressing. It's time for women to vote with their feet and target the 'women-friendly' organisations that provide the best opportunities and avoid those with a poor EEO record.
I hope the dialogue, networking and mentoring that will be an integral part of this important conference will inspire you to help each other make the changes necessary for women in science, technology and engineering to reach their potential to the benefit of all Australians.
Fiona Krautil is the newly appointed Director of the Affirmative Action Agency.