Skip to content

Supporting women leaders in one of Australia’s most female dominated workforces: retail

   
Supporting women leaders in one of Australia’s most female dominated workforces: retail

The Australian retail industry is one of the leading employers of women in the nation.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency estimates women make up around 57% of the retail trade workforce and 49% of management.

In partnership with the Australian Retailers Association (ARA), and consistent with its commitment to addressing imbalances and promoting gender equality across the sector, CEW’s ARA Women Leaders in Retail Scholarship gives aspiring women leaders in retail the life-changing opportunity to study at Harvard Business School.

The scholarship covers the cost of tuition and travel expenses for a women leader to complete an executive leadership development course on campus at Harvard Business School in Boston, USA.

Last year’s recipient, Wesfarmers OneDigital General Manager Finance Virginia Leaf says attending Harvard will help her make a bigger impact on a major transformative initiative she is contributing to, while also accelerating her career development more broadly.

“I am a senior leader who is passionate about driving change in the retail industry,” Virginia says.

“Attending Harvard will help me improve my strategic, innovative and change leadership skills, to support the setup phase of OneDigital at a time of unparalleled ambiguity, disruption and challenge in the retail industry. I’m also looking to improve my impact and effectiveness, and excited by the opportunity to develop a network of female leaders globally.”

Find out more, or apply, here.

RECOMMENDED
ARTICLES

CEW welcomes the findings of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s (WGEA) Scorecard, which has found that the average total remuneration gender pay gap has dropped to 21.7 per cent in 2023 from 22.8 per cent in 2022.  It is the second biggest single year drop since WGEA started collecting employer data in 2014, however, on...
CEW welcomes and supports the Productivity Commission’s Report into Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and takes this opportunity to welcome the new Productivity Commission Chair and CEW member Danielle Wood to this important role. CEW supports the key recommendations of the report, namely: Building towards universal, free or low-cost access for all children to...
In the world of data science, where innovation and leadership play a pivotal role, women have been steadily breaking barriers and shattering glass ceilings. Their contributions are invaluable, yet there is still a gender gap to overcome. The inaugural CEW Actuaries Women Leader in Data Science scholarship winner, Lisa Green, is a prime example of...
Keren Paterson is a 2023 CEW scholar and attended INSEAD’s Advanced Management Program in France this year. Read about her amazing experience below: Some of the most inspirational business leaders that have influenced my career are graduates of the INSEAD Advanced Management Program (AMP). They have led very different businesses, but they share an incredible...
The winners of the CEW and ANZ Sustainability Scholarship are working to address some of our planet’s most pressing challenges in radically different ways. They are: Brickworks General Manager Operations Emily Antonio I’m Plastic Free Founder Simona Paganetto Coates National Environment and Sustainability Manager Robyn Simpson While their expertise and experience different greatly, they are...
Today we released our seventh annual Chief Executive Women Senior Executive Census which tracks the annual progress of women’s representation in the senior leadership teams of Australia’s top companies. Latest data shows that women remain undeniably underrepresented in leadership teams across Australia’s top businesses and gender parity at the top is still at least half...
This year’s recipient of the ARA Women Leaders in Retail Scholarship Coles Group General Manager, Non-Food Business Unit Debra Galle, prioritises values and behaviours to build supportive, transparent and team-based cultures. Debra is passionate about fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retail, a segment that has faced rapidly changing and difficult circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic....
Theatre directors, music producers and brand builders, curators and a philanthropic fundraiser are among the recipients of the 2023 Hansen CEW Leaders Program for the Arts Scholarship. Made possible thanks to the generosity of Jane Hansen AO, these scholarships help women leaders looking to take on executive leadership roles within the Arts by supporting them...
The winner of this year’s CEW Chemistry Australia Scholarship is Orica manager of manufacturing technology Kira McGrath. McGrath has extensive experience with ammonia, nitric acid and ammonium nitrate manufacturing processes specific to Orica’s Kooragang Island manufacturing facility, in Newcastle New South Wales. The facility supplies critical products to the mining and infrastructure, agriculture, water supply,...
CEW’s community of women leaders has grown to close to 1,300, with the addition of 209 talented following the latest nomination period. These women come from a diverse range of sectors: from arts and culture to aviation, financial services to engineering. They are all leaders in their fields who bring with them tremendous influence, expertise...