The findings are in a report by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, which was based on six years of Australian companies’ gender reporting to the federal Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
The report, Gender Equity Insights 2020: Delivering the Business Outcomes, found:
“This report provides new evidence that the case for greater gender equality is not just an issue of fairness and the ‘right thing to do’,” the report said. “It is supported by strong causal evidence that more women in leadership leads to better company performance, greater productivity, and greater profitability.”
The strong causal link is reinforced by a report produced in April by Deloitte.
The report, Inclusion as the competitive advantage: The case for women in supply chain, found that increasing the number of female supply chain professionals is not only a proven growth strategy, it offers a competitive advantage.
It also found that a key trend driving the need for more women in the supply chain was the emergence of machine learning and artificial intelligence and the skills shortage that has arisen from it.
“Actively recruiting more female candidates may enable companies to cast a wider net, and may be a compelling approach to addressing the skills shortage and driving the supply chain forward,” the report said.
The WA Mining Club is working to drive diversification and innovation within the mining industry through the Young Professionals program.
The program was created to help nurture the next generation of mining professionals, getting them ready for the future of work.
In a recent Young Professionals livestreamed event, Exploring Social License, Lynas Corporation CEO and Managing Director Amanda Lacaze discussed how nurturing the next generation into future leaders begins in the operations stage.
“We must bring women through the operating line because it is the primary recruitment area,” Ms Lacaze said. “We’re putting a lot of effort into increasing the number of women actually working on shift as technicians, operators, shift supervisors, etc, so that we are growing the next generation of managers.”
Since the Young Professionals program began in 2018, the WA Mining Club has seen a significant increase in female membership, with its inaugural Chairperson female.
