Visibility vital for women to rise

Under Diane Edwards' watch women in the Ports of Auckland workforce have increased from 8 per cent to 28 per cent. Photo / Nick Reed

It may nearly be 2020, but for many women, the chances of getting to the top of their career are still woeful.

The stats are chilling — last year's Champions for Change diversity report revealed that only 30 per cent of the female employees of the companies who took part held executive or general manager roles. Middle management figures were better, although women were still underrepresented, with 45 per cent in such roles.

The mid-career mire is something many women wrestle with. Women are still overwhelmingly the primary caregivers for children, and time off to raise a family does nothing for career prospects. Even those without children, or whose partners take on that role, struggle. Bias (either conscious or unconscious) still exists — it can be a Herculean effort for women to break through the preconceptions and make it to the top of their career.

Diane Edwards is the general manager for people, foresight and innovation at Ports of Auckland. She remembers an incident early in her career when she voiced an interest in becoming the general manager of the bank she was working at.

"The human resources person (a man) just laughed and said: 'that's not going to happen'," she says. "The covert message was 'we don't have women in top leadership roles at the bank'."

It didn't stop her. She took time off to study, fast tracking a banking degree, then was welcomed back with open arms. Her career took off, working in management roles in training, undertaking major change management roles, working with top tier managers across many companies to help with their human resources, IT and finance issues.

In 2011, she was headhunted to come and help a company that was in major trouble. There were strikes in 2012, and she worked with the union, and compiled a report outlining the issues in the firm. Part of it was lack of diversity.

"There were no women on the docks, so we decided to try to encourage some of the daughters of the older men who were working here," she says.

Starting off as stevedores (the people who get goods on and off cargo ships) many of these women have now gone on to be managers, and the Ports of Auckland has gone on to win awards for their diversity policies and the way in which they have moved women into senior roles.

Edwards says integral to her success has been her ability to "get stuck in". One of the keys to women's success, in her opinion, is to establish a network outside work hours. She says much of the decision-making and networking takes part at events outside the office, and women need to be part of this.

"In the early days of banking, there would be only two or three women in the room. It's never been intimidating for me, but I can't say I've always loved it," she says.

This visibility is vital, in Edwards' opinion. She understands many women feel they need to rush home to take care of their children (if they have them) but says partners need to play their role here.

"Don't allow yourself to be excluded from these events," she says. "Networking will allow you to meet the people who have the influence: this is very important."

She says as well as lack of visibility, another reason why women fall behind when it comes to pay, is when they aren't given pay rises when on parental leave.

"It's incredibly hard to make up for a lack of pay rise when on leave, so we now ensure that everyone gets a pay rise, whether they are on parental leave or not," she says.

As the majority of people who take paid leave are women, this is an incredibly effective way in which to ensure they aren't left behind.

Though Edwards says she doesn't see much overt bias in the employment market these days, she believes unconscious bias still abounds. She has experienced some "obscure" examples herself.

"When I first came on board at Ports of Auckland, I noticed that there were no female toilets for the board room. I asked myself 'what's going on here?' There had been no women in senior management, so they felt there was no need for women's toilets. But it relayed a subconscious message that this place was not for women."

This has changed under Edwards' watch: women in the workforce have increased from 8 per cent to 28 per cent and there are now three at executive level.

But it takes a lot of work to forge such structural changes across the board. Edwards says even recruitment companies, who should be spearheading diversity, display unconscious bias.

"We have had recruitment companies send us all male applicants, because they thought the role 'was a man's role'," she says. "We haven't worked with them again."

One of the simple ways in which the Ports of Auckland have overcome unconscious bias in the hiring procedure is by leaving people's names and gender details off applications. This means people are all judged by their qualifications and skills, rather than their gender.

This is important. Edwards gives another example of a recruitment firm who carried out pay assessments for certain senior jobs in the ports. When they discovered the person applying for the role was a woman, the company reduced the salary by a significant percentage.

There's no doubt the women have a hard road when it comes to getting to the top of the career ladder.

"Support networks of other professional women can be helpful for improving morale, and it's also good to find a mentor in your own company who can help you move forwards.

"I had a great mentor when I was in banking, and I have been told that the leadership of females at the port have been a great help for women coming through. It's so important that women are visible and able to provide support to others seeking to succeed in their own careers."