INTHEBLACK March 2025 - Magazine - Page 25
The gender pay gap is
an aggregate measure
of progress in advancing
gender equality, but it’s
not the same as equal pay.
Gender equality extends
well beyond the workforce,
but closing the leadership
gap at work may have
a ripple effect across the
broader economy.
IT REMAINS AN ONGOING MORAL
and social issue, but gender inequality also
presents a huge economic challenge.
The World Economic Forum estimates
that advancing gender parity could add
US$12 trillion to global GDP and boost
some countries’ economic output by as much
as 35 per cent.
While this complex issue extends well
beyond the workforce, closing the leadership
gap at work may have a ripple effect across
the broader economy. Here are five strategies
that are proving to be effective or show the
greatest potential for progress.
1. RETHINK RECRUITMENT PRACTICES
From gender-coded wording in job
advertisements to job requirements that may
exclude many women, gender bias can be
pervasive in the recruitment process.
Annika Freyer is director and CEO
of Champions of Change Coalition, a global
movement for achieving gender equality.
She says changing the definition of role
requirements can open more opportunities
to women, but this requires a consideration
of future needs “rather than what has been
done in the past”.
“Often, if you look at potential rather
than performance, you can open the aperture
of how you define merit for a role and
identify new candidates,” she says.
A report from Australia’s Workplace
Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) states
that increasing women’s participation
in the workforce has positive impacts on
organisational culture and operations, which
helps to normalise women in leadership roles.
Potential strategies include
changes to recruitment
practices, linking gender
targets to executive incentives
and implementing sponsorship
programs.
In 2019, Kimberly-Clark, global
manufacturer of products such as toilet
paper and tissues, changed its recruitment
processes to attract more women to
operational roles at its Millicent Mill
in South Australia.
That year, just 15 women were employed
in these roles out of a workforce of 350.
The previous year, no women were hired
into operational roles, nor were there any
female applicants.
Mill manager Adam Carpenter launched
a review to explore why this was happening,
and how it could be addressed.
“We made simple but really effective
changes to our job advertisements,”
Carpenter explains. “We removed the
requirement to have a forklift licence
to apply and placed more focus on behaviours
rather than just technical skills.”
Kimberly-Clark also ran a local media
campaign and adjusted the messaging around
its internal referral program.
“We immediately got an uplift in women
applying” says Carpenter. “It went from
nothing to 10–20 per cent of applicants
being women.”
Since 2019, the number of female
employees at the mill has increased nearly
fivefold, from 15 to 70.
“Though at 20 per cent of the workforce,
this is still below gender parity — and I’ll
readily note that. As an organisation, we are
on a journey of continuous improvement
and there’s more to be done,” says Carpenter.
“But the commitment is there, and efforts
are ongoing. The business benefits are there
as well.”
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