Decade of action recognised with prestigious WGEA award

Deakin University is one of only around 100 workplaces around Australia to receive this prestigious honour in 2016. In accepting the award, Vice-Chancellor Professor Jane den Hollander recognised the importance of the university’s employees in transforming the Gender Equity Strategy into everyday actions.

“This year, the 2,500 organisations which report to the Agency were required to consult with employees to demonstrate that gender equality initiatives were aligning with the lived experience,” Professor den Hollander said.

“Employee responses indicated that our strategy – a key tool for translating the university’s commitment to equal opportunity into actions through employment practices, workplace culture, leadership and management – is helping to improve gender equity performance. But there’s clearly more work to be done, and we must go faster.

“Every member of the Deakin Executive has an objective related to reducing the pay gap and ensuring a better balance of gender and diversity in their portfolio. Interestingly it is my experience that by naming the issue and instituting the annual review of progress four years ago we have made ground in promotion success of our women and in reducing the gender pay gap.

“With this important citation from the WGEA – now for the tenth consecutive year – comes responsibility to ensure equal opportunity is authentic and a lived experience of our Deakin community. Critical to Deakin’s success is ensuring we look for meaningful and innovative ways to address gender inequality.

“This includes an increased focus on women in STEMM areas (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine) through participation in the SAGE Athena SWAN pilot program and I am proud that our Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment hosted its fourth Gender Summit earlier this year, which explored strategies to increase the representation of women in its staff and student body.”

Professor den Hollander said Deakin’s commitment to gender equality was demonstrated when it comes to ensuring that the University attracts, retains, and provides leadership opportunities for women in key roles across all parts of our University.

“This includes establishing a solid evidence base for the work, embedding and mainstreaming gender strategies into operational plans, assessment and revision of strategies, increased accountability via established KPIs, staff engagement and education. It also includes a focus on increasing numbers of female Professors, Associate Professors and women in leadership roles, and reducing our own gender pay gap,” Professor den Hollander said.

WGEA Director Libby Lyons said WGEA data showed there is progress towards gender equality in Australian workplaces, but it is too slow.

“It is only through more employers adopting leading practices to promote gender equality in the workplace that we will see the pace of change pick up,” Ms Lyons said.

“That's why it is so encouraging to see more than 100 organisations meet the very high standard required to receive the WGEA Employer of Choice for Gender Equality citation this year. I congratulate all the 2016 citation holders for their commitment and recognition of the strong business case for gender equality. I hope to see continued growth in this community of leading practice employers.”