Women in the workforce

It is interesting that females out score males throughout school, they represent greater numbers of the student population at university, where, they also outscore males.  They perform better than males in the early parts of their careers and then, blip, they are suddenly under represented in upper management roles.  Yet people can still argue that there are no gender biases when it comes to selecting people for promotion at work. Suddenly women become seriously out performed by men?

Women also have to manage childbearing as well as maintaining their careers, so yes they need some extra flexibility in the work place to achieve this.  But resistance to providing flexibility discriminates against women and prevents them from being able to reach their full potential. Not only that, the workplace loses out because it is not utilising a good proportion of its talent.

I find this line very interesting:
Australia has one of the world’s lowest rates of educated women participating in the workforce and one of the world’s highest rates of female education, a situation that is "uniquely acute" in Australia, the report added.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/some-men-fear-competing-with-women-20131025-2w5i8.html#ixzz2ihcpHp1L

Can Australia really afford to ignore half of it's talent?

It is convenient for a male dominated workforce to effectively get rid of fifty percent of its competition by removing women from being contenders in the climb up the corporate ladder. It also means that nothing culturally has to change and business can continue as usual. It takes some more evolved thinking to structure our workplaces in order to make them fairer for women and to encourage their greater participation.

Nearby childcare, flexibility of hours, part time positions, management that understands the needs of women with families, are just a few of the things that need to change. Understanding the needs of families also extends to the male partners of women, who may also need flexibility within the work force. A male dominated culture can discriminate against other males who do not share the same views on putting work above the needs of family and home life.  Many men would like to be able to support and facilitate their partners back into the work force by sharing some of the child care load.  But they fear that by asking for flexible hours or the ability to work from home they will be seen as 'not serious' about their careers and they too will be discriminated against and have progression in their careers hampered.

Again, women lose out, as they may feel that for the good of their partner's careers they themselves have to accept less work or no work in order to bare the majority of the demands of child rearing.

The old model of nine to five, Monday - Friday, can change.  By extending work hours, but making the hours at work more flexible, parents can easily both combine child rearing and paid work.  The workforce benefits and the workers benefit in maintaining key employability skills.  The years of child bearing are just a proportion out of  a person's career. We can't afford to lose good educated women out of the workforce long term, just because they have spent some time out raising children.  We need to value the role these women (and men) play in raising the next generation and then facilitate their re entry into the work force by adequately recognising their skills and talents.