‘You can’t be what you can’t see’.
This saying is significant in the diversity sector. It reminds us to appreciate the value of role models to young people, especially young girls, who look up to women they wish to emulate. While this is great for some, the reality is that most leadership roles are still occupied by people of Anglo Celtic descent, with little space given to people from different cultural backgrounds.
- diversifying the way we market, recruit, and retain employees;
- interrogating the ethnicity pay gap that can drive real progress and action;
- delivering more progress through education and mentoring; and
- empowering WOC networks to play a key part enabling change.
By limiting the inclusion of all women in the workplace, we short-change ourselves because we inhibit the full potential of our colleagues. There is more than a fiscal benefit in hiring a diverse workforce – there is a moral imperative, too.
Not only does research prove the more varied a cohort of workers, the more enriched solutions can be, it stands to reason that when our workplaces resemble the communities and society we live in, we can and do deliver a product more attuned to our clients.
In Australia, where one in three of us is either born overseas or has a parent born overseas, (in some states almost one in two) we are faced with a reality that diversity is very much ingrained in the DNA of Australia; this is who we are. By extension, if women comprise 50 per cent of the nation’s population, we can and should be doing better with metrics in representation. Does your workforce resemble Australia’s cultural demographic today? If not, why?
When we hear about the concept of being an ally we rightfully assume it embodies the notion that a person shows solidarity for another, without expectation or gain, holding space for the otherwise sidelined minority. First Nations spokesperson Carly Stanley has posited we progress this idea from ally to accomplice, as the latter infers a more conscious role in the facilitating of opportunities for WOC. This has an affirming tone to it. In the same way we know that it is not enough to not be racist, but to be actively anti-racist, so too should our support be progressed actively, and not passively.