Engineers Australia - Women striving for Leadership Panel Discussion

Our friends at the Sydney Wie Division-Engineers Australia recently hosted a 'Women striving for Leadership' panel discussion on Thursday 21 June from 6pm at Rydges Hotel, World Square Sydney. Guest Speakers included Dr Marlene Kanga, Chemical Engineer and most importantly upcoming 2013 National President of Engineers Australia, the peak industry body in the Southern Hemisphere. Marlene re-iterated what we all know yet refuses still to be addressed; that it "is no longer acceptable for bias against any group in the workplace"  and "diversity is needed if we are to solve most of the world's problems such as sustainability etc, diversity is efficient and makes the best use of human capital-logical but not always practised, diverse boards avoid Groupthink". 


Marlene also reminded us of how far Australia has to go reflecting that our neighbour Malaysia has a target of achieving 30% women on boards by 2015. This cannot be achieved as long as one guy continues to tap the other on the shoulder when recruiting for boards, as this is one way of only recruiting from a 'very small pool of talent'. One best-practice example given by the speakers was highlighting the diversity is the recently elected French Government Francois Holland's ministry which consist's of 50% women, including a Minister for Women with Moroccan heritage. Most pointedly Marlene vision for Engineers Australia would be to return the organisation to be 'for and by the members'. A very thoughtful and gracious remark. 


Other speakers included Lucy Baker, Sustainability Leader at Aurecon who spellt out the perception that 'People are perhaps socially conditioned to take leadership suggestions from a man' and the notion that there are still backward 'preconceived ideas about 'waht is acceptable for a woman', as well as some great tips for women in leadership positions and managing a work/life balance with family responsibilities.


Final speaker, Dr Bronwyn Evans from Cochlear and Fellow of Engineers Australia, shared her journey from being an engineering cadet at the Electrical Commission to doing a PhD/becoming a lecturer, to working at Standards Australia  and GE Healthcare and finally moving to Cochlear, one of the worlds' biggest medical device organisations. The key message which was communicated and is relevant to all UTS students and graduates is that if there is case of pay inequity.........i.e. not being paid the same as your male colleagues for the exact same work, you are not only being undervalued and underpaid, but you are doing others a disservice'. Organisations will continue the trend if you do not speak up. Current pay inequity within the engineering profession sits between 10-20% within Australian workplaces. (see APESMA).


Thank you to all speakers for a wonderful and very enlightening event, and particularly for communicating the obvious..........YES, it is worth it!