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Male Champions of Change highlights equality opportunities
Male Champions of Change, the organisation created by men that recognises the role they can play in promoting gender equality, has outlined its approach and strategy to reducing gender inequality in the workplace.
Grace Ormsby
In its first review report since the organisation’s founding group began in 2010, Male Champions of Change outlined the insights it has gained since commencing its strategy aimed at accelerating the advancement of women in leadership, and achieve gender equality.
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The report found a number of challenges in implementing such change, including that recognising that as people, companies and organisations learn, they won’t always or necessarily get everything right the first time.
An introductory letter to the report reflected that “for those of us leading change in small organisations, with limited resources, we can lack the systems and structures that support change to happen quickly.”
Alternatively, for those “leading very large organisations and changing large systems, the challenge of engaging all the people across our organisations in the need for change so that we all can achieve gender equality remains a persistent obstacle”, the report noted.
Change is actioned through identification of issues and opportunities, with small experiments created on disruptive ideas that are designed to address systemic issues and accelerate change, the report explained, which are developed, tested, and scaled, for adoption or adaption in individual and collective organisations.
Measurable objectives and specific outcomes are used by Male Champions of Change to monitor and assess the effectiveness of the work being done, it was outlined.
The four outcomes being measured are gender balance across leadership, recruitment, graduates and promotions; the achievement of pay equity between men and women; the implementation of flexible and inclusive employment experiences; and leadership, advocacy and impact on gender equality social issues.
Practical actions that can and are being taken by Male Champions of Change’s associated organisations include stepping up as leaders, creating accountability through use of targets and auditing, disruption of the status quo by implementing flexible work approaches and sponsorship of leaders, the dismantling of barriers for carers which includes superannuation pay for leave periods and parental leave, and a promotion of gender equality in society through action against domestic and family violence in the workplace and alignment with women’s empowerment principles.
There are now 12 Male Champions of Change groups, comprising over 200 male champions and women leaders acting as special advisers on the strategy, according to the report, with around 200 implementation leaders are working within and across the organisations to deliver change.
Signees to the Male Champions of Change include the CEO and chair of Unilever, the CEO of Racing Victoria, the University of Queensland’s chancellor, the CEO of KPMG Australia, NAB’s CEO, the managing director of Stockland, Cricket Australia’s CEO and the NSW SES commissioner, among others.
Lawyers Weekly has previously reported on the results contained within the first Male Champions of Change review report.
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