Jobs for the girls as well as the boys

In 2020, fed up to the back teeth with sexism in my industry, I quit my job and started writing a book. Finished and published in 2021, the book is called Beating the Odds: A practical guide to navigating sexism in Australian universities. The title was deliberately both an accurate description of the contents of the book, and a provocation: It assumes that the existence of sexism in the hallowed halls of academia was so significant that a book on how to manage it was needed.

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In the book, I wrote about the fact that American politician Kamala Harris – then, as now, the vice-president of the United States – had become my 2020 girl crush. In early October 2020, in a vice-presidential debate, her male opponent interrupted and spoke over her. She said, very politely, ‘Mr Vice-President, I’m speaking.’ He ignored her and continued with his manterruption[1]. She repeated, a little more forcefully, ‘I’m speaking.’ Then he stopped. Hands up if you’re a woman and this has NOT happened to you (the manterrupting, I mean, not the being my girl crush) – I don’t see any hands.

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The world’s media reported and dissected Harris’ retort. She became a role-model for women everywhere. Just after the debate, the American President at the time referred to her as a ‘monster’ and ‘unlikeable’. That former President is saying similar sorts of things about her now, as she lines up to contest the US election, claiming, among other things, that she is ‘dumb as a rock’[2], ‘crazy’ and ‘not Black’[3].???????

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Kamala Harris managed to bring in $AUD305 million in donations in her first week with around two-thirds of that money coming from first-time donors. Over 170,000 new volunteers have signed up to support her campaign in the same short period[4]. Pretty good for an alleged ‘unlikeable, dumb as a rock, crazy, not Black, monster’. Whether she wins the US election or not, the times, they are a changin’. Women are tired of the status quo, have realised being quiet and eye rolling doesn’t bring about any change, and are increasingly calling out sexism and misogyny, including in the workplace and in relation to workplace leadership.

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Women in every industry operate within a sexist world and in most industries, within a work environment and sexist attitudes that limit their opportunities to lead and that under-value their contributions when they do manage to achieve leadership roles. As I write about in my book, my own experience over around 15 years in university senior leadership roles – including in Acting Vice-Chancellor, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Senior Vice-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor roles – was often of being one of a very small number of women, or the only woman, in the room. Sadly, some of my experience was that I was sometimes in the room solely or primarily ‘for optics’ and definitely not for the breadth or depth of alternative perspective or insights – or contribution to improved performance – that I might bring.

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One male senior leader I worked with once told me – and more than a little bit crossly – that my job was to agree with him, not to have, or share, views that differed from his, as I had been doing. He would prefer if I were quiet and said nothing as his deputy. And perhaps I could also do the dishes in the tearoom while I was there. While I understand and appreciate the importance and value of a united front between senior leaders, the complete lack of interest in my perspectives and potential contributions at any time, nor in any ideas other than his own, was disappointing, to say the least. But not surprising.

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Women in leadership roles bring a potential wealth of benefits, including perspectives that differ from those of the men historically selected by other men for these roles. Women also bring a deep understanding of the significant value of diversity, equity and inclusivity in strategic thinking, decision-making and care of those in your charge as a leader.

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Women also help improve the performance of an organisation. As I outline in my book, journalist Annabelle Crabb (2020) reported on a world-first study that shows a link between greater gender diversity and business success. Specifically, the Australian study found that a female CEO increased market value by five percent – that’s nearly $80 million to an average ASX200 company. The evidence shows that increasing the number of women in other key leadership positions by 10 percent or more increases a company’s market value by 6.6 percent, or an average $AUD105 million.

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While the educational institutions I work in and with aren’t usually looking to make profits per se, they do need to be financially viable. In the increasingly competitive, market-driven and accountable world in which educational institutions operate, having women in school, university and other education institutional leadership ranks will help their performance on a range of fronts.

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However, as my book discusses, female leaders face specific challenges. These include, among others:

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• gendered expectations that they will behave certain ways, accept lower level work and roles, and focus on serving others’ needs
• being invisible to decision makers
• having to work with or under ‘benevolent sexists’ and/or ‘nice-guy misogynists’
• being manterrupted in meetings before they can finish their point, as Kamala Harris showed the world in 2020 in the example above
• having their ideas appropriated by men
• perceived style ‘problems’ that men just don’t ever seem to have (and not only with their clothes/hair – eg ‘not being nice enough’)
• having the ‘incorrect’ balance of gravitas/humility, and
• being gossiped about, disparaged, bullied, mobbed, gaslighted, threatened, ostracised and even pushed out of leadership roles.

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It is often assumed that the dearth of female leaders in workplaces is a matter of a confidence deficit in women, or that a simple fix like a mentoring program will sort things out. But the situation for aspiring female leaders needs much more complex solutions than these.

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While we wait for the times to actually change, my book offers some suggestions to women to act in the spheres in which they have influence.

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I think it’s important to say that it is certainly not all bad as a female leader. When we do get leadership roles, the majority of women will take the opportunity to bring power and life to their values and convictions, and conceptualise and enact change and progress to strategies, plans and/or operations for the benefit of all.

We need more of such leaders.

[1] A manterruption is an interruption by a man.

[2] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-kamala-harris-race-gender-rcna164766

[3] ?https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-kamala-harris-race-gender-rcna164766

[4] https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/harris-brings-in-record-305-million-in-her-first-week-of-white-house-campaign-20240729-p5jxe8.html

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