"Just sit there and look pretty"

When International Women’s Day (IWD) came right in the middle of GE’s support of the inaugural Superstars of STEM program, my comms team and I decided we had to build on its momentum.

Superstars of STEM is cleverly crafted by Kylie Walker, CEO of Science and Technology Australia, to propel inspiring women scientists into the limelight. We wanted to offer those women another platform, and celebrate International Women’s Day at the same time.

To cut a long story short we decided to wrap five speakers into the Press For Progress actions devised by IWD, and create a compelling podcast.

You can listen to the podcast here.

I’ve published my segment below, as a teaser.

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Today, I pledge to Press for Progress by influencing others’ beliefs and actions, with the aim of fostering an equal and inclusive environment for everyone.

My first job out of uni was on a graduate program at a steel-manufacturing company based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It was there that I experienced my first real dose of gender stereotyping and unconscious bias.

At the age of 20, after six months working in the graduate program, I was promoted by the managing director to a senior role as leader of a team. It was a role that many people wanted; and certainly a role that people didn’t think I deserved since I was young, a woman … and different to the typical leader at a steel company.

My learning curve was steep: how to lead a team, understanding the intricacies of the Australian resources market, and even how to ask for a pay rise were among the first challenges I welcomed.

But my biggest learning came from swimming against a strong undercurrent of sexist comments and deliberate actions by a handful of people who were determined to undermine my authority and make me question whether I was capable of the job. I was, of course, capable of the job and worked hard to drive significant improvements for the company. I became recognised and valued for my skills and talents.

My biggest regret, with hindsight, is that I didn’t call out inappropriate remarks like: “Just sit there and look pretty”, because, to be frank, I was young, and afraid that challenging people around me would negatively impact my career.

That is the first insight I want to share today. Not only must we speak out for ourselves, but we must speak out for others, especially for the more junior people in our organisations. Because, here’s the thing: when we stand in solidarity — and I’m talking women and men; when we demand respect for other people, and elevate their prospects, it is the most powerful force for change.

I’m incredibly lucky to have worked with and learned from many amazing people as I built my career in the engineering and tech sector. There are brilliant people in this industry. But deeply entrenched biases, boys’ clubs, and gender stereotyping are still present — and still prevalent enough to hamper our strides toward gender equality.

I do three main things to accelerate change:

Firstly, I show people that successful leaders can and should have perspectives that challenge the norm. Diverse perspectives unlock innovation, creativity and previously unimagined ways of problem solving. And I’m proof that successful leaders need not look like the bosses who went before them.

I recently experienced what it’s like to be judged without being given a chance to demonstrate my character and capabilities. It happened because I didn’t look like the middle-aged men who attended the leadership course I was participating in. At the end of the two weeks, one of the men in my team confessed: “When I first met you, I didn’t think you had any substance. But I was so completely wrong and you showed me that”. We then had a very open and honest conversation about unconscious bias. He later emailed me to say that realising how much he had been influenced by unconscious bias was one of his biggest learning insights from the course.

Which brings me to my second point. I take responsibility for bringing the unconscious to the conscious. I’m up for the hard conversations. It’s important that we call out biased behaviours and unbalanced situations when we see them. I’m talking here about double standards, language that is not inclusive, and the underrepresentation of women on boards, on industry panels, in the media, and at any level of decision-making or opportunity.

Many people I know, myself included, have taken the 50/50 panel pledge. In other words, they will not participate in a panel unless it has equal representation of men and women.

I urge you, when you attend an event with a program that’s dominated by men, to call it out! You’re not asking the impossible. I guarantee that when you point out the anomaly, or demand that organisers find more women to speak — they’ll find them. The more diverse talent we uncover in this way, the more role models we will create who actually reflect the make-up of our society.

Lastly — and this is so important — believe in yourself. Bring your true self to work and be unapologetically you. You’ll meet two types of people along the way: one group will lift you up, and the other will try to kick you down. My personal rule is that I never let people bring me down.

Normalise and model behaviours that promote equality.

Men and women need to talk about and openly participate in shared parenting responsibilities — for example, prioritising picking your kids up from school, being at school concerts and attending parent-teacher meetings. This frees men and women to be human and engage in a rich variety of activities that benefit their family lives, their sense of integrity and, of course, their work. As a society, we must value and respect the roles of breadwinning and caregiving equally.

We also all have to learn to use inclusive language, to eliminate the unconscious bias of describing capable women as “bossy”, or passionate women as “emotional”. Habitually poor choices of language belittle us all.

And I encourage you to seek out opinions that are different to your own — challenge yourself to see beyond what may be entrenched views. Be a role model that people can identify with.

We are living at a truly exciting moment in history when, for the first time, men and women are exploring what it means to have equal choices.

At this critical inflection point, don’t just be a passenger of time. Jump in the driver’s seat! Press for Progress, speak out against bias, take responsibility and act.

#IWD2018 #PressforProgress