‘Futile’: Backlash against problem at JB HiFi, Baby Bunting, Nick Scali, Reese
A “disturbing” issue present at major Aussie brands including JB Hi-Fi and Nick Scali is creating a “hostile” environment, which could see little change made.
A phenomenon that sees a stark “resistance and backlash to gender equality” is playing out in Australia right now and it can’t be ignored, according to a leading expert.
A recent story on news.com.au that revealed gender equality for chief executive roles at Australia’s top public companies is still a staggering 100 years away for women attracted more than a hundred comments with many labelling it as “absolute rubbish” and “nonsense”.
The “striking” findings came from a report released last week by Chief Executive Women, which showed that just 14 ASX 200 companies were led by women in 2022.
It also revealed that there were 46 public companies, including a number of well known Aussie brands, which had no women in their executive leadership team.
These included the likes of retailers JB HiFi, Baby Bunting and Nick Scali, home appliance manufacturer Breville Group, materials company James Hardie and plumbing supplier Reece, alongside a number of mining companies.
But calls to address the “disturbing” trend and set gender balance targets, among other initiatives, were hit with a slew of comments criticising the moves.
‘It’s called discrimination’
The comments described the initiatives as discriminatory, claimed companies would be less profitable if led by women, accused females of only wanting “cushy” roles and alleged that if the gender pay gap existed then women would be hired more to save money.
“Yet more BS about hiring someone based upon gender. It is called discrimination. As a share holder of any company I would expect them to hire the best person based upon their skills and merit rather than choosing second or third best due to their gender,” one person wrote.
“Probably why they are still solvent. No wasted money on diversity programs and promoting poor staff based on gender/race,” another claimed.
“All quotas do is saying you’re deliberately going to hire a worse candidate than you have the opportunity to,” wrote one commenter.
“Probably has something to do with a lower percentage of women that are prepared to put in the sacrifices to climb the corporate ladder,” said one man.
But Dr Leonora Risse, an economist who specialises in gender equality from RMIT University, said the comments were not “unexpected” as men felt under threat.
“When we have initiatives that are about advancing not just gender equality, but equality and diversity more generally, you do see this expression of resentment or resistance or backlash,” she told news.com.au.
“It can be subversive, it can be people just being cynical about it or outright hostile and when you analyse these comments a lot of the perspectives are coming from a place where men are seeing this as an injustice from their perspective.
“Partly because we have these norms about what is to be a man, the social identity of being a breadwinner and to work in these fields and when women encroach it can be threatening to men’s identity, role and purpose in society.
“It creates backlash … and retaliation spills out as they are under threat.”
‘Go woke, go broke’
Many of the comments were adamant that people should be promoted based on merit rather than gender coming into play.
“Maybe they know “go woke, go broke” and prefer to promote based on talent rather than race or gender,” one person wrote.
But Dr Risse said many men see the quota as “shifting” the playing field to favour women and disadvantage men.
In actual fact, many men are “blind” to the privileges they have been afforded, she added.
“It’s not appreciating the fact that there are all existing inequalities and barriers and biases that women disproportionately are up against … for decades,” she said.
“The historical ripple effects don’t go away overnight.
“The current system is not merit based. There are research examples where you can give a CV that is identical with a male and female name and the identical CV rated more favourable with a male name, rather than one with a female name, because of unconscious biases.
“Even though people want to believe we have a merit based system, the reality is we don’t.”
However, most women don’t want to be the “token” hire either, she added, but often it takes interventions to shift norms and achieve critical mass of female representation.
Female leadership increases company value by $104.7 million
A number of comments also claimed that the companies are performing well because a man is in charge.
“You want to give these companies a kick in the guts because they were made successful and continue to be successful because of male leaders. And it is no coincidence that these companies are well run and profitable,” one man said.
“This nonsense won’t seem to go away. There’s no evidence that having women (what ever that is anymore) in a senior leadership role instead of a man is beneficial,” wrote another.
But research from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency in 2020 showed that more women on boards and in senior leadership positions drove better company performance, alongside greater productivity and profitability.
It found that an increase in the share of female top-tier managers by 10 per cent or more led to a 6.6 per cent increase in the market value of Australian ASX-listed companies, worth the equivalent of $104.7 million.
It also revealed that in ASX-listed companies, having a female CEO led to a five per cent increase in their market value, worth the equivalent of $79.6 million on average.
Dr Risse added there was no research to back that companies were more successful because females weren’t in charge.
Mediocre men
There is also a phenomenon called the “glass cliff” which impacts women, Dr Risse said.
This is when an organisation or political party is in crisis and women are more likely to be appointed into leadership roles, just as former UK prime minister Boris Johnson was recently replaced with Liz Truss.
Blokes “step aside” as they don’t want to be associated with the “crumbling” company, she added.
“Disproportionately women find themselves in leadership position when organisations are under strain and are under performing as men didn’t want to put their hand up for the job under those circumstances,” she explained.
Women also face greater scrutiny when stepping into executive and leadership roles, she added.
“You will often find women have to lift their game and be super at what they do as they have so many hurdles to get over, but you’ll have a mediocre man and he wouldn't be under so much scrutiny and he would get away with more stuff ups and still maintain his position,” she said.
“But female CEO’s are under a lot more scrutiny and women can’t lapse … It’s really hostile environment and it’s the double standards that prevail.
“Society gives men permission to fail and they are allowed to be bumbling, to make stuff ups and charm their way through it and that’s associated with good leadership, but for women even if they show the same characteristics, it’s associated with a mediocre level of performance.
“Female CEOs are publicly humiliated, that’s part of the culture and it happens frequently.”
Former Australia Post boss Christine Holgate was called to resign by Prime Minister Scott Morrison after it was revealed she gave Cartier watches to executives as a reward for performance. He told parliament she could stand aside or “or she can go”.
Ms Holgate has previously claimed she was “roadkill” for the Prime Minister in the 2020 political furore that erupted.
‘Disturbing’ trend
The CEW analysis showed that across the broader ASX 300, the number of companies with no women in executive leadership teams jumped to 47 in 2022, up from 44 last year – a “disturbing” trend, according to President of Chief Executive Women, Sam Mostyn.
She has been announced as chair of the government’s new Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce.
Dr Risse warned there’s been a “big oversight” in gender equality policy and that’s changing men's perspectives.
‘There’s lots of focus on supporting and empowering women, but not enough focus on supporting men to embrace this social change and not feel threatened by it,” she said.
“The women’s economic equality taskforce really needs to be focused on this.
“You can roll out a women scholarship scheme or more women in STEM or increase childcare affordability but it’s not creating a workforce that is going to support and be inclusive of women.
“It’s setting women up to be even more challenged and that has to be within the remit of the taskforce to deal with men’s attitudes and men’s awareness of bias and how it operates.
“All these other initiatives will be quite futile and could actually generate more backlash and retaliation.”
‘Cushy jobs’
Other comments claimed women can’t hack the tough jobs and suggested they want to sit in offices earning the big bucks.
“I’ll love to see the day when everyone is up in arms that there are not enough women as plumbers or brickies labourers or riggers. It’s only a gender imbalance when the cushy, high paying jobs are out of whack,” wrote another.
“Want more money, do the filthy jobs that pay well and require some toughness about you,” one man said.
Dr Risse said these assertions ignore the fact that female concentrated jobs are right up there in terms of being dangerous, hazardous and incredibly high pressure, such as nurses.
“This other part claiming that women want these cushy executive jobs, it’s saying executive jobs are cushy but they cover an intense amount of responsibility,” she added.
Quotas can backfire
But Dr Risse added quotas are complex.
“The research shows that quotas can backfire or be sabotaged if people don’t understand the need,” she said.
“If it’s a workplace that is quite hostile to having a quotas then chances are when you implement, it will have a negative impact on morale and productivity might wane and it might take a toll, as it isn’t authentic and genuine appreciation for quotas.
“Often organisations that have quotas are generally quite progressive in other ways and are creating culture that is embracing seeing women progress and is a way of solidifying the commitment, support and investment in women.”
Another recommendation from the CEW research was government procurement prioritising organisations with gender-balanced leadership and Dr Risse said this would be a “powerful incentive” to lead cultural change in organisations.
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