 Exclusive survey: Leading women speak
In February we invited over fourty of Australia's leading women – including the members of the Women & Leadeship Australia Regional Advisory Board – to share their thoughts on a variety of key leadership topics.
Here, we share what they told us.
How do we support women in leadership roles?
We asked our survey respondents to indicate the three most important ways of supporting women in leadership roles. A clear pattern emerged. The top three responses all concerned women being in supportive spaces, usually with other women:
 Working somewhere with a supportive culture (93% of respondents indicated this)- Finding mentors in other women (64%)
- Networking with peers (in physical spaces) (50%)
What is holding women back from an equal representation?
Invited to identify just one barrier, respondents felt that the notion of hegemony ('with men dominating positions of power, there’s no perceived problem') as the main hurdle.
Just over 20% of respondents indicated having babies as a serious barrier to equal representation. Interestingly, respondents indicated women ('we are our own worst enemies') as a strong barrier.
 How involved should government be in reducing the gender wage gap?
There was an overwhelming call from respondents for government to be involved in reducing the gender pay gap.
Over 90% indicated that government should be either highly or somewhat involved. Under 10% said government should be only a little involved, or not at all.
How involved should government be in reducing the low representation of women on boards?
Similar to the issue of the gender wage gap, respondents were adamant that government should be involved in getting women on boards.
The majority (93%) said that government should be either heavily or somewhat involved. Only 7% said that government should be a little involved. No one indicated government should be hands-off.
 When will Australia will reach gender wage parity?
On thsi point, survey responses were less than optimistic. Almost half of respondents felt that we're 10 years off gender wage parity. The majority (85%) felt that it would be 2020 or later.
Key leading women in Australia and overseas
There was a broad spread of names that came up as key leading women, both in Australia and around the world.
Most popular leading women in Australian:
- Julia Gillard (Deputy Prime Minister)
- Gail Kelly (CEO Westpac)
- Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce, AC (Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia)
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Most popular leading women overseas:
- Hillary Clinton (US Secretary of State)
- Oprah Winfrey (American television host, producer, and philanthropist)
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For more information about the invited participants of the survey:
- Full list of the WLA speakers here
- Full list of the WLA Regional Advisory Board here
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