At the 2025 Chief Executive Women Annual Dinners, held in Sydney, Melbourne,  Brisbane, and Perth,  CEW President Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz reflected on the organisation’s mission to create lasting, systemic change for women in leadership.

In her address, she acknowledged the progress made over the past year while reinforcing the importance of collective action to remove barriers, drive equity, and support the next generation of women leaders. Her message was one of momentum, responsibility, and optimism for what can be achieved when we lead with purpose.

You can read the full written version of Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz’s address below.

Distinguished guests, CEW members, and friends. Welcome.

It’s great to be in this amazing room together.

A special thank you also to our sponsors and partners – your support is what enables us to continue our important work. And we can’t let this moment go past without also acknowledging the founders of CEW, some of whom are here tonight, as well as past presidents and all those who give so generously of their time to CEW.

We all know these events don’t come together by accident – thank you also to everyone who has put in the effort to make tonight such a success. You know who you are.

Tonight is a true milestone.

It’s time to reflect on the legacy of CEW, founded 40 years ago in the spirit of inclusion at a time when corporate Australia was not particularly welcoming of women.

I’d like you to cast your mind back to 1985, the year in which CEW’s founders formed the organisation that went on to become CEW. Some of you weren’t yet born, so that might be a little tricky for you.

In 1985, Bob Hawke was the Prime Minister, and Paul Keating was the Treasurer. Australia’s dollar had been floated for just over a year. Australia’s population was just 16 million, 10 million fewer than today.

In 1985 I considered myself suitably fashionable with a very, very bad, 80s permed hairstyle. I listened to music on my Sony Walkman. Back to the Future was the #1 movie and the #1 song was ‘we are the world’.

And, it was the year I started my degree in urban geography.

For the first three years of my degree, I typed my essays on a typewriter, very poorly, it must be said, requiring copious amounts of tipex. For my honours thesis (which was usefully about the migration of Icelanders to Australia, there were 93 of them and I met them all – great career preparation I’m sure you can agree), I ditched the typewriter and leapt into the world of technology saving up to buy a computer that cost $3000 – equivalent to over $10,000 today. It was a spectacular piece of tech, having two 5-inch floppy disk drives and no hard drive.

In 1985, the landscape for women in this country was starkly different than it is today. Many professions were still considered off-limits for women, and those who dared to enter male-dominated industries faced significant resistance.

First Nations women, who had only recently been granted the right to vote right around Australia, were still fighting for basic recognition in workplaces and society.

Women’s participation in the workforce was 48%. The gender pay gap was 23% in 1981 and only 5% of women held a bachelor’s degree. Policies supporting working parents were nearly non-existent, and in fact policies and practices were often used to force women out of the workforce once they formed a family .

It was though a time of very rapid change.

The futuristic, chilling, dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, was published in 1985, exploring themes of powerless women in a patriarchal society, loss of female agency and individuality and suppression of reproductive rights.

The Federal Sex Discrimination Act had come into force just the previous year, driven by the legendary Susan Ryan, making gender based discrimination and sexual harassment illegal for the first time.

In the 1980s, there were a lot of firsts:

• Janine Haines was the first woman to lead a parliamentary political party
• Joan Child was the first the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives
• Mary Gaudron was the first woman appointed as a Justice of the High Court of Australia
• Rosemary Follett was the first female chief minister in the ACT and Dr Carmen Lawrence was the first female state premier.
• Mary Beasley became the first woman appointed to the Qantas Board

And in that environment, 40 years ago, a group of amazing women formed CEW.

I had the privilege recently of talking with some of the founders of CEW, and they shared powerful stories of the challenges they faced in the 1980s and how those experiences shaped their vision for the organization.

Penny Carl-Nelson spoke about the isolation she felt as one of the few women in accountancy and how hard it was to find role models who could guide her. Her experience emphasized the importance of creating a supportive network for women— something that would become a foundational value for CEW.

Reflecting broader societal challenges, Barbara Cail expressed her frustration with women’s magazines in the early years, which were filled with recipes and royal gossip, with little focus on important issues like women’s rights and pay. She was determined to change that, and launched a new publication for women’s leadership in business. She fought to make gender equality a central conversation, not only for women but for all.

Heather Leembruggen also reflected on how the early group of women was determined to change the status quo. The group’s early strategy involved inviting male leaders to lunches— not for approval, but to ensure a diverse dialogue around the table and to prove that change was not only possible, but necessary.

Bonnie Boezemann recalled a time where she was denied the opportunity to present a budget simply because of her gender.

From the beginning, the CEW founders were working to support other women, to bring men into conversations and to create tangible change, including raising funds for educational programs for women.

In every story they shared, I saw a deep sense of purpose and resilience — women determined to pave the way for future generations and ensure they wouldn’t face the same struggles alone. The challenges they overcame were not just personal but collective, and they built CEW to change the narrative for women in leadership.

So 40 years on, much has changed. You will be grateful that I am no longer sporting permed hair, Spotify is a great improvement on the Walkman, and my tech devices not only actually have data storage but also access to the infinity of the cloud.

44% of members of the senate and house of representatives and 36% of ASX 300 Directors are women.

Over 50% of people earning a bachelor’s degree each year are women.

Women’s workforce participation has risen to 63.5%.

The gender pay gap has fallen to an all time low of 11.9%.

But, the reality is, true inclusion remains one of our greatest challenges.

We have now seen decades of diversity initiatives, policies, and targets. And while so much progress has been made, we must confront an uncomfortable truth: gender equality will not succeed if it is treated as a movement for women alone.

We must bring everyone — women and men of all backgrounds — along for the journey.

Because gender equality is not just a women’s issue. Research consistently shows that when women fully participate in the workforce and society, economies grow, innovation flourishes, and businesses perform better.

But economic growth driven by gender equality is not inevitable — it is a choice. A choice that requires us to move beyond surface-level commitments to genuine inclusion, where every leader, every workplace, and every sector recognises that gender equality is about strengthening Australia as a whole.

At the same time, we cannot ignore the broader political and social context in which this conversation is happening. Just recently, Vote Compass data has highlighted a growing divide in attitudes towards diversity, equity, and inclusion. 17% of the Australian population believes that striving for gender equality is no longer a valid objective and has gone too far. And we have seen in the United States a dramatic scaling back of DEI initiatives—which is shaping public discourse and policy.

And this renewed public discourse is not necessarily a bad thing. We need to have a much more nuanced conversation around diversity, and refocus on why it is that bringing true diversity into our workplaces, our parliaments, and our public sector really matters.

It’s not about virtue signalling.

It’s not a tick the box exercise.

It’s not about women vs men.

It’s not even just about equity.

At its heart, it’s about harnessing the power of teams with true diversity of experience, drawing from 100% of the population, not just half of it.

We need to challenge superficial thinking around how we harness the right talent and skills in our workforces, asking ourselves how we can truly build the most skilled and diverse teams. This is something that should never be scaled back.

Why?

Because we know that genuinely diverse teams create better outcomes – better outcomes for shareholders, for our customers, our people, our communities and our planet. Having different perspectives around the table brings forward different solutions, stress tests ideas and requires orthodox positions to be thoroughly examined rather than blindly followed.

Because we know that increasing female participation in the workforce is the single biggest economic lever we have to drive economic growth. And not just increasing participation, but increasing participation at the skill level to which Australia’s women are trained. We are underutilising our highly educated female workforce at a time when we have a significant skills shortage. Increasing female participation to the same level as male participation in the workforce would add an additional 1 million skilled workers and billions to our GDP.

Gender equality is not a ‘nice to have’ bit of window dressing that detracts from the business of business – rather, it’s a business imperative to drive better outcomes.

One of the persistent myths in diversity conversations is that inclusion comes at the expense of merit. Of course, appointments should be made on merit – from 100% of the population, not just half of it. We need the very best talent – male and female - around the table, for the good of all.

And let us be clear: true inclusion does not mean slowing progress, lowering standards, or making trade-offs. It means raising the bar for what great leadership looks like in this country. It means challenging outdated assumptions about who belongs at the table. It means recognising that when we remove barriers, we create a better, more resilient, and more innovative society for everyone.

That also means recognising that diversity must be broader than gender alone. We must ensure that those from all backgrounds are included in the conversation.

CEW was founded in the belief that women belonged at the heart of decision-making, not as outsiders, but as full participants in shaping our nation’s future. That belief remains as relevant today as it was 40 years ago.

True inclusion also means striving to make CEW a more inclusive organisation — one where people feel safe, accepted, inspired and encouraged.

As we look forward to the years ahead, let us honour the legacy of those who came before us by continuing to push for workplaces, policies, and leadership that reflect the true potential of our country.

Because this work that CEW’s founders started 40 years ago is not finished.

We are not done.

So onwards, to the next 40.

Thank you.