Focus on gender diversity led to “replacing old white boys’ club with new white girls’ club”

Leadership & Management: More than 50% (51.5%) of Australia’s population were either born overseas or are first generation Australians, yet this vast multicultural society is virtually absent in any significant number from the governing bodies (boards) of many organisations.

Women on Boards’ (WOB) research shows that while a gender balance of 40% female has largely been achieved on the boards of organisations, the inclusion of culturally diverse and Indigenous Australians has largely been ignored.

The data shows that only 12.8% of board members are non-Anglo Celtic and of this approximately 3% are Indigenous.

Executive Director of Women on Boards, Claire Braund, said that “when you consider that more than 50% of Australia’s population was either born overseas or are first generation Australians, there is quite a gap to close in order to better capture the experience and skills brought by our rich multicultural society on boards.”

Ms Braund commented that a 20-year focus on gender diversity had inadvertently resulted in “replacing the old white boys’ club with the new white girls’ club.”

“Which is not to say this has been a poor outcome, but we clearly need to use the lessons we have learnt in bringing women into the boardroom to springboard to being more culturally inclusive on our boards”, she said.

Diversity Council Australia (DCA), along with partners Settlement Services International (SSI) and Chief Executive Women have received funding under the Women’s Leadership and Development Program for a project to address the systemic barriers restricting culturally and racially marginalised (CARM) women’s upward mobility into leadership roles in Australian organisations.

Lisa Annese, CEO, Diversity Council Australia, said “For too long, women’s leadership programs have been designed in a one-size-fits-all way, that doesn’t take into account the different experiences that different women have.

“This funding means that we can design a program that is led by and informed by culturally and racially marginalised women to understand what exactly the systemic barriers stopping them from entering executive and key decision-making roles in Australian organisations are.”

Ms Braund said that the Truth Be Told report was an effort to establish a baseline of culturally diverse people on boards from which future increments can be tracked; and to shine a light on the need for greater consideration of cultural diversity on boards – something WOB has successfully done with regard to women on boards over the past two decades.

“It is clear that while we can wait for a formal or legislated agenda, focussed attention from industry and organisations will drive the positive change we need in this area – just as it did gender balance on boards.”

Women on Boards also participated in the 2022 review of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) and supports it undertaking research as to how to best collect more diversity data. However, this will not improve the lack of cultural diversity on our boards in the short to medium term. WOB recommends steps in its report that organisations can adopt to start to address the barriers to culturally diverse people achieving board roles.

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