#IWD2022 #BreakTheBias

What are Australian business owners and leaders doing to #BreakTheBias in 2022?

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By NAB Executive Regional and Agribusiness, Julie Rynski

As Australia’s largest agribusiness bank, NAB has a responsibility to our people and community of customers throughout regional and rural Australia to do our part in driving gender equality and women’s empowerment.

This is why, in the lead up to International Women’s Day 2022, NAB’s Regional & Agribusiness (R&A) team?asked some of Australia’s incredible business owners and leaders; ‘what’s the one thing you’re doing to #BreakTheBias in 2022?’

We know diversity drives innovation, engages our people, builds productivity, and will ultimately deliver a more prosperous future for our sector.

I never underestimate how important regional Australia is in driving the national economy. It’s been calculated regional Australia?accounts for 40% of our total economic output and provides more than one-third of our exports.

Women play a hugely important part of that – a third of Australian women live in regional, rural and remote areas – but their participation in the regional and rural workforce lags behind men. Imagine the benefit to our nation and to women if we could improve that.

It’s why, this year, I will continue to push for more opportunities for women in our regional workforce, along with greater recognition of, and support for, the brilliant role they play in our nation’s economy.

According to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) data,?women comprise 32% of the agriculture industry workforce. At the same time, women provided 84% of all off-farm income, play a crucial role in farm diversification and are also contributing to household, volunteer and community work.

The International Women’s Day 2022 campaign theme #BreakTheBias, champions a world that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

Bec Hopper, Operations Manager of PAH Innovative Construction and NAB customer, established networking group Wagga Women in Construction in 2018.

“When I started working in construction with my partner twelve years ago, I’d come from a different industry and was very much working behind the scenes. I felt like there was no one I could talk to for support and started to see many other women also working relatively alone,” Bec said.

“I formed Wagga Women in Construction to assist in breaking down the barriers and bring us together to share our knowledge, ideas and tips about all things construction. I am extremely passionate in sharing my knowledge with other women in construction.

“So many women work behind the scenes in their partners’ businesses with little to no recognition and navigating things like legal requirements, bookkeeping and accounting is such a mind field. I wanted to let other women out there know they are not alone and show that construction isn’t just about the tradies.”

Bec won the Housing Industry of Australia (HIA) Australian Business Partner of the Year award for her work with Wagga Women in Construction in 2019, and is a finalist again for this year’s awards.

Lucinda Corrigan, Director of Rennylea Pastoral Company and NAB customer, based in the Murray Valley of southern NSW, is among the many women actively working to #BreakTheBias.

“Our Angus cattle business has 12 employees – six of them female. The team is expecting three babies this year and I’m focused on building the sort of supportive, flexible workplace environment that many corporate employees with young children are lucky enough to take for granted,” Lucinda said.

“Simple practices like encouraging male workers to go home and look after their children so their wives can attend appointments haven’t been the norm in our industry, but committed leadership can change that.

“Equal opportunity gives us a lot more talent to pick from and we’re mad if we don’t do everything we can to make working for farm businesses more family friendly, for both women and men.”????

Similarly, NAB is committed to achieving gender equality by having 40%-60% of either gender represented at all levels of the business by 2025.

NAB is ranked 14th globally, and 2nd in the Financial sector in Equileap’s Gender Equality Global Reporting and Ranking 2021 Edition and is included in the 2021 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index.

Individually, we're all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day. Collectively, we can forge women's equality in our communities and our workplaces.