How dismayed I was to read an article saying a third of women prefer male bosses on your website on Friday. And what a load of rubbish. This content was based on “a survey by English high-street chain Hobbs” of 2500 of its own employees, so perhaps something a little more relevant to an Australian audience is a survey released by Chief Executive Women and Bain & Company this year showing that women and men who are in the middle stages of their career say exactly the opposite. They are more likely to stay in an organisation as a place to progress if they see women reaching the top. The research shows that women are actually five times more likely to be promoters of their organisation when females represent more than 25% of the executive team. Both females and males see the lack of significant numbers of women in executive positions as a key reason to question their organisation’s commitment to gender diversity, and a poor track record of promoting women into senior positions is the number one reason for not recommending their organisation as a good place for women to work. There are some great examples in corporate Australia where the real issues are focused on -how to get the most out of people male and female to help drive productivity and excellence in our organisations – and overwhelmingly that is by having diverse leadership.
Yours sincerely
Christine Christian
President, Chief Executive Women
CHRISTINE CHRISTIAN
Christine Christian is Non Executive Company Director, ME Bank Limited, Lonsec Fiscal, Powerlinx Inc., State Library of Victoria