CEW: ‘Uncompromising’ Grace Tame ‘changing debate about women’ at work

The pair have shifted the debate around the workplace, says Chief Executive Women boss.

Grace Tame, left, and Brittany Higgins at the National Press Club in Canberra. Picture: NCA Newswire/Gary Ramage

The “uncompromising” language and advocacy of people like Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins have shifted the “tenor” of the debate around women in the workplace, according to Sam Mostyn, president of Chief Executive Women.

Generations of women had been neglected and left out of “the national narrative about what success looks like for a country”, she said. But the work of young women in the past year had helped generate a national conversation about respect at work and the role of women.

“We’re now dealing with a broader set of considerations of women’s place in the economy that starts with respect for our work, respect for our contribution,” she said.

Ms Mostyn was speaking as CEW released a report arguing Australia’s economic future is linked to increased participation of women and calling for government to demolish structural barriers – such as lack of childcare – in women’s working lives.

Ms Mostyn was last week named chair of an expert NSW government panel charged with making “bold” recommendations for the state budget in a move that recognises women as key to the state’s pandemic recovery. She has spoken out consistently on the need for structural changes in the care economy where women dominate but pay is lower and jobs less secure and more casualised than in other sectors with a preponderance of men.

Chief Executive Women president Sam Mostyn. Picture: Gaye Gerard / NCA Newswire

The CEW report argues for adequate childcare and for more women in politics and at the “decision-making table”. It says women should hold 40 per cent of federal ministerial positions, and advocates targets to get more women into profit and loss roles in companies.

Ms Mostyn said there was now more “energy” in the discussion about women at work thanks in part to young women who had been explicit about the disregard or lack of respect many women had experienced over generations. She said accessible, affordable and reliable childcare and early education was a priority to remove a structural barrier to the participation of women.

“We’ve got this moment when it’s no longer about these (being) women’s issues,” Ms Mostyn said. “These are the big economic issues of our times.

“During Covid we saw the need for the economy and the society to lean heavily on women’s work and women’s over-representation in the caring professions.”

But the pandemic showed governments could act quickly in a crisis. Investment in childcare offered a higher and faster rate of return than the investment in “so-called hard infrastructure we’ve historically been quite happy for government to invest in”.

“One of the most efficient ways for us to build vibrancy and sustainability into an economy post-Covid is the one that’s available to us,” she said. “We know the drivers, we know what the investments can look like. It will take political leadership and policy leadership.”

Ms Mostyn said Australia had one of the most gendered workforces in the world and had failed to make a link between women’s participation and a vibrant economy. Women had made the case for change but now “we need everyone to invest in that future and everyone to play their role, including very senior policymakers”.

Diversity Council Australia chair Ming Long. Picture: Hollie Adams

CEW member and chair of Diversity Council Australia, Ming Long, said women of colour, First Nations women and women with disabilities must be in the debate because “in this pursuit for equity for women, we expect it to trickle down, but we know it doesn’t”.

Men also needed to find their voice: “I question why it is always left to women to advocate for the children? Why is it that we do not see men step up to advocate for their children? We have to counter the biases in society that we expect women to stay at home.”

The report, created in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group, said the key issues for women were women’s participation and the care economy, climate change, and safety in workplaces, homes and communities. For the wider community, the priorities were climate change, women’s economic participation and economic growth.

 

It urges “intentional policymaking” to provide early childhood education and care; create well-paid, secure jobs in care industries; and ensure safe workplaces.

It calls for gender balance in federal cabinet with at least 40 per cent of women in ministerial roles; and says government should consider diversity when allocating economic portfolios. It also wants policies to increase women in STEM and green entrepreneurship; and advocates targets for women in financial leadership positions.

Organisations should encourage men to take parental and care leave; offer unpaid leave regardless of tenure and performances; provide paid family leave; and pay superannuation to employees during unpaid parental leave.