Endorsements for Unique Leadership of Minority Women Report August 2017 by Dr Diann Rodgers-Healey

Susan Ryan AO former Age Discrimination Commissioner

Christina Ryan, Founder, Disability Leadership Institute

Sue Salthouse, Chair, Women With Disabilities ACT, Director, Didactic Enterprises

Jen Hargrave, Senior Policy and Communications Officer, Women with Disabilities Victoria

Dr Patricia Hamilton, Immediate Past President of National Rural Women’s Coalition, Former

President of Australian Women in Agriculture, Former Chair of SA Rural Families Network

ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie

Dawn Hough, Director, ACON’s Pride Inclusion Programs, Pride in Diversity, Pride in Sport

Aloma Fennell. National President, The Older Women’s Network Australia Inc.

Tracy Howe, NCOSS CEO

Nareen Young, Director, PwC's Indigenous Consulting

Michelle Rush, Senior Manager, Woolyungah Indigenous Centre, University of Wollongong

Violet Roumeliotis, CEO, Settlement Services International (SSI) Australia

Susan Ryan AO former Age Discrimination Commissioner

This report by Dr Diann Rodgers-Healy, The Unique leadership of Minority women confirms and explains

the extent to which our leadership talent pool is reduced by sexism and specifically by the rejection of

the unique talents of minority women. Older women, from all backgrounds are part of this exclusion.

Leadership of Australian business, public and private institutions and organisations of all sizes would be

greatly enhanced if the widespread practice of sidelining and excluding workers of mature age were

abandoned. Failure to recognise and support mature workers with leadership potential is endemic. The

Australian Human Rights Commission’s ground-breaking 2016 national inquiry into employment

discrimination against older people, Willing to Work, established the extent of the problem, quantified

the loss to our economy and society and proposed wide reaching changes to redress this discrimination.

Most workers as they pass age 50 start to experience ageism. They find their opportunities for

promotion to leadership are unfairly limited, sometimes cut off completely.

This discrimination affects mature female workers even more than male workers.

Women face many obstacles as they progress to senior positions. Parental leave, caring, other family

responsibilities, together with the gender pay gap, make their path to leadership much more difficult

than that of their male peers.

Women in the workforce, as they mature, are held back by a raft of such gender based discriminations.

At maturity, sexist stereotyping further undermines their opportunity to be judged on talent and

performance. The destructive effects of this ageism limits opportunities for all women from all minority

groups. Their unique talents and experience are wasted.

The successful tackling of ageism in the workforce, along with the removal of discrimination against

minority women would lead to the emergence of more female leaders from all backgrounds.

Christina Ryan, Founder, Leadership Disability Institute

Disability and leadership are still mutually exclusive terms in Australia. The 2017 survey of disability

leaders undertaken by the Disability Leadership Institute showed that over 70 per cent of disability

leaders work exclusively within disability specialist areas. There is very little presence of disability

leadership in the mainstream, and those who are in the mainstream are very isolated.

The study of disability leadership in Australia is almost non-existent. The focus of governments and

private sectors has remained on employment, with a great deal of that focus on entry level work. Few

organisations have leadership pathways for disability leaders; even fewer recognise that a person with

disability can be a leader or should receive leadership development.

When gender is applied to this scenario of exclusion and discrimination the situation becomes opaque,

although there is strong anecdotal evidence that women disability leaders are few and far between and

have only achieved their positons through their own resources, without formal supports, and facing

many significant barriers.

It is enormously refreshing to read a study that not only mentions disability, but recognises that women

with disabilities can be, and are, leaders. Additionally, this new research by Diann Rodgers-Healey and

the ACLW takes a rare, but essential, intersectional approach. This is the beginning of a changing tide in

women’s disability leadership in Australia and contributes significantly to a poorly understood aspect of

gender and leadership conversations.

Christina Ryan is the founder of the Disability Leadership Institute, and a management consultant,

speaker and writer who specialises in executive and team culture and coaching. She has represented

Australia at the United Nations as a disability gender specialist in both an NGO and official capacity.

Sue Salthouse, Chair, Women With Disabilities ACT, Director, Didactic Enterprises

Unique Leadership of Minority Women

Women With Disabilities ACT (WWDACT) welcomes the latest research by Diann Rogers-Healey from the

Australian Centre for Leadership for Women (ACLW). It is important for us to focus on the need to

cultivate leadership opportunities for women from minority groups. Unfortunately the voice of women

who identified disability as their primary attribute was lacking in the research. There are many reasons

for this. We know that more than 50% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people report having

disabilities. Similarly we know that more than half of those over 55 years of age report having a

disability. Therefore disability must have been a secondary attribute for a large number of the 71 Survey

respondents. This highlights the fact that intersectionality must be a focus of discussion in any analysis

of diversity and inclusion in workplace policies.

Respondents to the Survey which formed Phase 1 of the research came predominantly from the Health

(60%) and Community Sectors (17%). Alas, the latter sector has limited career pathway options because

of the large number of small organisations. This characteristic impedes the opportunities for leadership

development. Responses to Phase 2 of the study were provided by 13 women from Culturally and

Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds working for a single NGO, so it is understandable that their

input was skewed to issues of concern to migrant women. Nevertheless, the discussion section of the

research report had a universality which is directly relevant to women with disabilities.

Women with disabilities certainly need to have a more prominent role in public spaces such as

parliaments and mainstream organisations, especially those outside the disability and community

sectors. At present there are only 2 women parliamentarians (along with one male) who identify as

having disabilities in Australia out of a total of 824 positions across all jurisdictions1. They are remarkable

role leaders. Rising to prominent leadership positions is difficult for a minority group which has limited

access to education, and even when possessed of multiple qualifications, fails to win jobs. The research

pointed out that only 53% of people with disabilities participate in the labour force – acknowledged as

an abysmal rate. The research rightly reports that the 2015 Survey of Disability and Carers (SDAC) shows

that this compares to an overall figure of 78%. However this masks the fact that there was 83% labour

force participation for those with no reported disability2; and that employment rates for women with

1 McCann,J. & Wilson, J.; Representation of women in Australian Parliaments 2012, accessed online on 11 June 2017 at

http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/2011-2012/Womeninparliament#_Toc318895766

2 ABS, Survey of Disability Ageing & Carers 2015, Cat. No. 44300DO020_2015 Disability, Ageing and Carers,

Australia: Summary of Findings, 2015; Table 9.3 Persons aged 15–64 years, living in households, disability status, by sex and labour force status–2012 and 2015, proportion of persons

disabilities sat at just 49% compared to 57% for men with disabilities. The weekly median income for all

people with disabilities is $465, less than half that for the non-disabled. When economic security is thus

jeopardised, women with disabilities devote much of their time to keeping their heads above water, let

alone setting their sights on leadership positions. Too often the leaders we do have in the sector are, like

myself, from privileged, educated, white Caucasian backgrounds.

This is important ACLW work and this research point the way for further investigation of inclusion

philosophy and inclusion policies across Australian governments, corporations and not-for-profit

organisations.

Jen Hargrave, Senior Policy and Communications Officer, Women with Disabilities Victoria

We know that minoritised women are under-represented in high profile leadership roles. We

know that this leaves blankess where we should have role models for other minoritised women.

We know that while minoritised women are not at decision making tables our rights and

experiences are forgotten.

Before we can increase representation we need to understand more about its structures and

how they combine with marginalisation.

This research by Diann Rodgers-Healey is important for building that knowledge base. By

speaking with recognised leaders from minority groups, Dr Healey creates a picture of how

leadership bodies can approach increasing their diversity.

She finds a first step to change is to look deeper into ‘diversity’ to recognise and reappraise the

unrecognized skills and experiences of minoritised women. Minoritised women take on

leadership roles in everyday life, and this report suggests these skills experiences are

transferable to recognized leadership roles. With this understanding, opportunities can be

created, skills transfer development can be promoted and representation can increase.

Dr Patricia Hamilton, Immediate Past President of National Rural Women’s Coalition, Former

President of Australian Women in Agriculture, Former Chair of SA Rural Families Network

Do women from minority groups ‘do’ leadership differently? Dr Diann Rogers-Healey’s report, Unique

Leadership of Minority Women, identifies the ways in which the subjects of her study suggest they do.

This important report provides a snapshot of the underrepresentation of women in minority groups in

leadership. An understanding of leadership empowerment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander and

CALD women has been addressed in depth. While the needs of older women and rural regional, remote

women, with a disability and LGBTiQ need further research.

In exploring the issues facing these women in minority groups, Dr Rogers-Healey has focused her study

on diversity and inclusion and identifies the cultural barriers surrounding women’s leadership

opportunities. Her summary of the characteristics concerning the leadership of minority women “as

being resilient, not ego-driven but more collaborative, participative, interpersonal, empathetic,

compassionate, inclusive and respectful of diverse views, experiences and the challenges individuals

face” (p29) is comprehensive and supports my experiences over the last four decades of working

alongside rural, remote and regional women who have a strong understanding of the diversity and the

importance of inclusion for the sustainability of their communities.

By acknowledging the challenges women in minority groups face in accessing leadership through an

intensive study involving both quantitative and qualitative data collection, Dr Rogers-Healey’s report

provides a valuable insight and resource for those policy and decision-makers who need to empower

women to advance to leadership positions as they progress to close the diversity and inclusion gap in

minority groups. I look forward to further focus on the lived experiences of rural, remote and regional

women.

ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie

Australia should be proud of the vibrant multicultural society we have become, thanks largely

to compassionate policies of successive governments and the generosity of our communities.

However, this compassion appears to have waned in recent times, which is threatening social

cohesion and our ability to meet the social, economic and environmental challenges of our

times. This is a time to come together as a people and not allow fear and hatred to divide us or

tear us apart.

From this context, I highly commend this valuable report, which sheds some light on how

multiculturalism can be strengthened in Australia, particularly by addressing the widespread

underrepresentation of women from minority groups in leadership roles. The report highlights

that the unique leadership style of women from culturally and linguistically diverse

backgrounds, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and minority women in general, are not

being sufficiently recognised, to our detriment.

The Unique Leadership of Minority Women report importantly shows that unique lived histories

and experiences of marginalised women shapes a unique leadership style that should be

valued and harnessed by workplaces. This understanding should path the way for improving

current initiatives to do with diversity to ensure we truly value and include the unique

identities, experiences, leadership status and potential of minority women in leadership. In

doing so we will go some way to break down the current barriers that prevent many women

from reaching their full potential and contributing to a richer and emboldened multicultural

society.

Dawn Hough, Director, ACON’s Pride Inclusion Programs, Pride in Diversity, Pride in Sport

I commend Diann on her report exploring the unique leadership of minority women. While I feel that

this is an area that definitely needs exploring, I was disappointed to see that there is little, if any real

coverage of Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LBTQ) women within the report. This once again

reinforces the invisibility of LBTQ female leaders within organisations and the almost non-existence of

‘out’ female role models that our young women can look up to. We know that there are still barriers for

women in executive ranks, we know that being diverse adds an additional dimension to those barriers,

but when that diversity also carries a stigma that can significantly impact one’s career trajectory the

difficulty of balancing authenticity with one’s career aspirations becomes particularly complex.

This is an important piece of work and one that I certainly hope the ACLW will continue to explore. We

know little of the unique dimensions of diverse female leadership, an area that I believe requires far

greater exploration. The dilemma of course is that until we see far greater inclusion, far greater

representation, the unique leadership of minority women will continue to be an underrepresented and

little understood aspect of our executive landscape.

Aloma Fennell. National President, The Older Women’s Network Australia Inc.

The Older Women’s Network Australia Inc in recognition of the endemic, consistent and appalling discrimination feted against mature aged women supports this document. This persistent and consistent workplace discrimination is highly damaging on the mental health and wellbeing of older women. Women who have held senior positions throughout their working careers. Women who are educated and capable and who can bring a wealth of experience to leadership roles and who are continuously overlooked due to their age. The ACLW 2017 report, Unique Leadership of Minority Women not only highlights this discrimination but does so particularly for Older Women.

Tracy Howe, NCOSS CEO

Australia is a proud multicultural society, and yet, when examining the leadership landscape, this

diversity and multicultural character is not reflected. This is even more paramount when considering the

statistics through a gender lens. Indeed, NCOSS Women works to address the array of issues

surrounding gender equity and gendered poverty in NSW. We know that there is not a level playing field

for all women; the challenges are wide-ranging and varied for different groups – Aboriginal women,

women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, young women, older women, women

with disability, and women in regional, rural and remote NSW.

Exploring the underrepresentation of women from diverse backgrounds in leadership positions enables

us to ask why this is the case, and how we can work together to actively recognise the leadership

potential and strengths of women from diverse backgrounds.

Rodgers-Healey’s research is significant in shifting the discourse on women in leadership and the

inequalities experienced in organisational contexts. Revealing the array of challenges faced by women

from diverse backgrounds in accessing and being exposed to leadership opportunities, Rodgers-Healey

highlights that there is immense strength, knowledge and diversity in the unique style of leadership

brought by women from diverse backgrounds.

This is a significant and valuable piece of research and an important conversation for our society to

have. It’s wonderful to see Rodgers-Healey leading this work and I proudly endorse the report ‘The

Unique Leadership of Minority Women’.

Nareen Young, Director, PwC's Indigenous Consulting

'This thorough and comprehensive report is timely. Intersectional differences and strengths have largey

been ignored in mainstream approaches to women's leadership in Australia and the report's research

approach is highly valuable.

The report articulates many hitherto unexplored concepts that can now be articulated. For me, it's very,

very welcome.'

Michelle Rush, Senior Manager, Woolyungah Indigenous Centre, University of Wollongong

This valued and extensive report done by Diann Rodgers-Healey is a clear example of Women in

leadership roles being underrepresented in minority groups, Throughout the report she was able to

explore diversity groups and barriers being challenged throughout the progression of women in

leadership opportunities.

Aboriginal women, women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, women with disability,

and women in regional rural and remote areas still remain significantly underrepresented in leadership

roles in the corporate world.

I personally believe this is an important piece of work done by Diann and I look forward in hearing

further outcomes on diversity and inclusion and the distinctiveness of cultural barriers surrounding

women’s leadership opportunities.

Violet Roumeliotis, CEO, Settlement Services International (SSI) Australia

The Unique Leadership of Minority Women study recognises the importance of intersectionality in

diversity leadership. In many workplaces, diversity and inclusion efforts focus on a single dimension,

such as gender or age. This study is a reminder that a more nuanced approach is required. Importantly,

it also acknowledges the unrecognised skills and experiences of women from minority groups.

Women with diverse experiences take on leadership roles in many aspects of daily life. The skills and

knowledge gained from those experiences are transferable into traditional leadership positions. These

‘everyday leaders’ range from the quietly committed through to individuals with publicly recognised and

awarded achievements. In their own way, each group has made significant contributions to their area

and, as a result, to the wider community. It is timely to recognise this.

This is an interesting study and highlights the need to consider intersectionality in diversity and inclusion

policies across Australian society. It is also a call to action for Governments, corporations and not-for-

profit organisations to commit to cultivating leadership opportunities for women from a wide range of

experiences.