Calling out Financial Bias and Imbalance
As part of CEDA's Women in Leadership series, WISE Coordinator Allison Selman took a cohort of subsea industry leaders to 'Calling out financial bias and imbalance' , CEDA has kindly availed the recordings to the WISE Community.
The following presentations were recorded at Frasers Kings Park, on Thursday, 15 June 2017. They are reposted here with permission.
On 15 June, representatives from the subsea industry demonstrated leadership in supporting the initiative led by the Women in Subsea Engineering (WISE) professional network, to work towards achieving gender parity in the industry, by attending the CEDA Women in Leadership series lunch on the topic of Calling out Financial Bias and Imbalance within Australia.
Joining WISE Founder Allison Selman at the WISE corporate table was Frances Eaton (Executive Officer, Subsea Energy Australia), Morgan Harland (General Manager Subsea and Pipelines, Woodside), Mark Donnelly (ABU FE Pipelines Team Lead, Chevron Australia), Helena Forsyth (Principal Subsea Operations Engineer, INPEX), Dermot O’Brien (Project Delivery Manager, Atteris), Elizabeth Lindahl (Wood Group Studies Director, Wood Group), Peter Mann (Executive Consultant, Advisian and IntecSEA), John Loughridge (Executive Vice President, DOF Subsea) and Guillaume Allegret (Engineering Manager, Subsea Projects-Oceania, TechnipFMC).
Author and Media Personality Tracey Spicer kicked off the afternoon as the Keynote Speaker. Tracey spoke about her personal experience and learnings from advancing her career within the Media Industry. She spoke about how the working environment established by leaders of organisations has a direct impact on the culture for inclusiveness.
Andrew Hagger, the Chief Customer Officer of National Australia Bank spoke next about the NAB Diversity and Inclusion policy and how Diversity leads to improved business performance. He spoke about the initiatives implemented by NAB to work towards their gender diversity targets. These included flexible work practices, eliminating bias in recruitment protocols, establishing fair and equitable management processes, ensuring equitable remuneration and fostering a working environment free for discrimination, harassment, vilification or victimisation.
Mary Delahunty, General Manager for Business Development and Policy for HESTA followed to provide probably the most entertaining presentation that is possible on the topic of superannuation. Mary spoke passionately about the Australian superannuation system and how it disadvantages women by its focus on duration in the workforce. Her statistics show that many women are facing “retirement poverty” due to the current structure of the superannuation system, despite working for the majority of their professional lives. For the women who have not joined the workforce, a situation of “financial dependency” is created.
The final speaker was Professor Cobie Rudd, the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Edith Cowan University, who only recently returned from the Global STEM Gender Equality Congress in Berlin. Professor Cobie spoke about the factors contributing to the Australian gender pay gap. The biggest factors are sexual discrimination and years not working (interruptions), followed by gender imbalance at an industry or job level, age, share in part-time employment and tenure with an employer.
A panel discussion ensued, in which the speakers answered questions that were primarily focussed on actions that could be taken by individuals and organisations. Attendees were encourage to have the courage to look within their organisations and address any issues in a transparent way, that bad behaviour should never be tolerated and should be addressed and that a diverse leadership team always leads to a better, more balanced decision.
As the National focus on diversity and inclusion grows, WISE plans to support and promote women within the subsea industry, for the benefit of individuals, organisations and the industry as a whole. We are proud that key subsea industry organisations are demonstrating leadership and support in this area.
WISE will be launching the first in-depth survey on women participating in non-traditional Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) professions within the subsea industry and invite expressions of interest from all organisations to participate. Please contact WISE for more details and to register to participate.
The CEDA Women in Leadership Series has kindly availed the presentations and panel discussion from this event to the WISE community.
