Opinion piece by Joycelynne Scutt
"Mentoring is in the news. Businesswomen say nothing will change in top levels of management without it. Women need mentoring to gain board appointments, to become government department heads and CEOs, to succeed at any higher post. Now, with mentoring such a byword, even businesses are told that their boards are obsolete, that they require mentors instead. In that scenario, boards are out. Mentors are in".
hange is afoot with reforms to the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act demanding organisations address inequitable pay and deliver tangible equality outcomes, with the first reports to be signed off by CEOs in 2013. But will the new legislation tackle the underlying cause of women's glacial rise into senior roles in Australian corporations?
LILIANE Bettencourt, heiress to L'Oreal and the world's second-richest woman, savoured her return to grace after a year of torment as she was re-elected last night to the board of the French cosmetics giant founded by her father.
Ok, so talking about gender on boards...should we also be looking at age? Is 89 too old to be re-introduced back to the boardroom? They may have age and experience but really, do they have anything left to give?
At a Wall Street Journal conference, business and government leaders examined what's holding women back in the workplace- and set out an action plan for creating new opportunities..
Australia's sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick "first went out hard publicly, talking about introducing quotas - 'the Q word' - for women on boards...Then she approached 12 powerful men she knew had a strong commitment to gender equality...She never mentioned the Q word again.
though this report above is contradicted here - "women sidelined by boardroom boys" - http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/06/3030429.htm "Ms Broderick says the pace of change so far has been glacial and if it does not change she will push for quotas."
Australian business needed to do more to promote women into senior corporate roles, Macquarie Group director Diane Grady said yesterday.
While more than 50 per cent of university graduates in Australia were women, she said women made up only 10 per cent of senior executive roles
The successful Australian woman is passionate, driven, focused, determined and resilient - but she has had to make a number of sacrifices in the name of success, and while regret might be too strong a word, she is fully aware of these sacrifices and is striving to ameliorate them.
These are the findings revealed in 'Long Way to the Top' a White Paper authored by Melbourne financial planner, Charmaine Curtain from Global Partnerships Financial Consulting.