By Roman Ruzbacky
Gender Equity Award Winner DEI Manager 2024
On the eve of International Women’s Day, I began to hear once again the familiar sounds of CEOs and politicians responding to the calls for action in tackling gender inequality in Australian workplaces, with the following familiar catch phrases, “There’s more to do…. We must do more …..We have a long way to go….Everyone needs to play a role here… We need to work together……We have to ensure that all women have….. It’s the right thing to do…” It appears to be a recurring theme. Well, that’s what I wrote in 2016.
At the time, I would have preferred to hear, “We are doing everything we can… We have thrown everything at it… We have left no stone unturned…..”
And now in 2025, apart from the cupcake debacle, there’s more serious business to deal with. Staying on course. And trusting the systems and processes we have cemented in place will keep us on course. The ship has set sail and there’s no turning back.
The backdrop of new forms of overt resistance, the usually covert forms of resistance, and throw in the myth of merit, noise and cognitive overload. It’s a familiar cycle. However, the key issue persists, the glaciers are possibly melting faster than the glacial pace of change to achieve gender equality.
And where are the men in all this? Who is going to show up this year? And who is going to do more?
What is the nature of the recent backlash towards gender equity initiatives? I feel there have always been three camps, the noisy ones, the passive silent ones and the active ones.
Outright angry types: It has been perceived in some circles that the middle-aged male has become an “endangered species”. So, every attempt to even the playing field is met by loud and aggressive opposition, including claims of reverse discrimination
Passive fearing types: Remain silent on the topic, avoidance or zero acknowledgement of the issue, or worrying about saying the wrong thing and uncomfortable entering the conversation.
Doers: Advocates, Activists and Non-Performative Allies who understand that gender equity benefits everyone and actually do something about it.
Male allies are there
Most of the men working in gender equity in Australia know of each other and about each other’s work, and our ongoing commitment to gender equity.
And my fellow male advocates, allies and activists, are appalled at seeing rates of violence against women (a national crisis), we are engaged with the #MeToo and Respect at Work initiatives, redefining fatherhood, we are seeing greater visibility, transparency and increased accountability in workplaces and gaining better understanding of intersectional inequity, cultural and psychological safety and co-design. These issues are being surfaced in IWD events, conferences, workshops, and forums throughout the year. Something has definitely changed.
I have been working in gender equity since 1997 (and others have even longer), since the early 70s. In fact, it’s become more than a career. Why? Because of personal experiences, where I observed firsthand as a child of a single mother in the 70s and 80s, many challenges women had to face and navigate, and still do.
As a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practitioner, I have developed gender equity strategies and actions plans for organisations, managed discrimination and sexual harassment complaints, conducted intersectional gender pay gap analyses, and prepared ten successful applications for the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s (WGEA) Employer of Choice Citation, I have come to the conclusion that gender equity benefits everyone.
At the core of my work is equity, ensuring all people are treated with dignity and respect, have equitable access to employment opportunities and the ability to participate in all aspects of work and public life.
“Equity is the principle that people should have the same opportunities to succeed, despite any past injustices or systemic discrimination. Equity means the ways we treat people and interests ‘fairly’ and without creating privilege and extremes of difference between and among people and groups in communities of wellbeing, health, liberties and protections, resources and reasonable access to resources. This may mean that resources are distributed in a way that addresses the specific needs of underprivileged communities or people.”
There’s more than enough for everyone. There’s enough room in leadership.
Engaging men in the conversation
So, how do I engage in a conversation about gender equality in my workplace and make someone care enough about it? And I’ve moved more into the storytelling part of my practice. How do I connect with stories – conversations from the heart. How do I look for connection and empathy? And how do I then lean into the evidence? How do we make it real for people?
We could start with the personal, for example, comparing superannuation statements for men and women after 25 years of work in your family. Or if we talk about cost-of-living pressures, we talk about the impact of gender pay gap issues, job segregation, career breaks, unpaid and invisible work, and cumulative effects.
For example, when I look at someone’s remuneration when conducting gender pay gap analysis, for example, a single mum earning only $55,000 a year, or person who has caring responsibilities, a graduate moving out and looking for a new job, or someone over 50yrs old who has been made redundant, etc., I think about their life compared to someone on a significantly higher income. Lower income earners have bigger challenges and hurdles – like trying to pay the bills and put food on the table. And because it’s mainly women on average on lower wages in Australia working in jobs that either keep you well, educated and alive, then that’s an issue worth addressing.
The stupid curve
Does the layperson need some basic proficiency in the science/evidence of gender inequity? Just enough to know what is going on.
“We have seen many senior leaders and employees shift their thinking and be spurred to action by compelling data. When having our first conversation about gender equity with senior leaders and people managers, we bring one piece of evidence that results in an ‘Aha’ moment – where the reality of gender equity is demonstrated by engaging the Head through the “Stupid Curve” visual. (ref: https://www.wgea.gov.au/)
This graph, also called a “jaws or scissors graph,” is a powerful way of visually demonstrating the gender parity in the recruitment of women and men at the outset of their careers, and the significant loss of women mid-career. This is when the lines widen significantly on the graph and the representation of women in manager, senior manager, executive, C-suite, and CEO levels drop exponentially.
In Australia, women outperform men in domestic undergraduate and postgraduate completion (ref: https://www.wgea.gov.au/resources/ publications/higher-education-enrolments-and-graduate-labour-market-statistics)
The gender composition of higher education course completions in 2019 shows that a higher proportion of women graduated than men. Women currently represent 60.4 % of all completed undergraduate and postgraduate higher degree courses. The Stupid Curve is a phrase coined by former Deloitte USA Chairman Mike Cook and it demonstrates how companies under-utilise workforce talent.
When overlaying your organisation’s workplace profile data on this curve, you will be able to quickly establish if your organisation has a similar curve. You will also be able to determine if women with intersecting identities, including women with disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, women from culturally diverse backgrounds, women at different age groups, carers, and TGDNB represented at even lower levels. You may be able to pinpoint the glass escalator, glass ceiling, the double-glazed ceiling, and glass cliff in your graph.
What you’re also trying to demonstrate is the potential limitations of homogenous leadership, the lack of multiple perspectives in decision making, not utilising the pool of talent available to you and potentially not being reflective of the customers or community you serve.
And we often hear the statement, “You can’t be what you can’t see”. So, if you are early on in your career, and looking at leadership, or jobs advertisements with imagery, do you see yourself? After a few years of helping to run a gender summit for a STEM university faculty, I heard a senior male leader say, “If we had gender parity in our third year courses, we would double our enrolments”.
I’ve been a quiet disruptor
I have always felt that allyship is something you don’t declare or assume. It’s something that is earned and someone has called you because of your actions. Allyship was super important during the time of the “It Gets Better project” supporting our LGBTQ+ youth (2010).
As my colleague put it, an ally is someone who is open to learning, listening without judgment, knows there are diverse ways of seeing the world and supports the rights of people who experience inequity.
What have I seen in 25 years? In short, I have seen some significant legislative gains in a backdrop of continued recurring pattern of two steps forward, one step back. And interestingly, I believe the community is more than ready for change. Think about Women’s AFL, the first match was a sellout, and the ground was too small to accommodate the huge wave of supporters – the groundswell underestimated. Think about the stunning performance of the Australian Olympic women’s swimming team. But then think of the Arts, Music, Academia, STEM, IT, Emergency Services, Politics, etc, we see amazing progress all the time, things are shifting.
Yes, we’ve generally moved away from passive actions, such as morning tea events, cupcakes and don’t forget scones with jam and cream. Our conversations and approaches have matured. Have we sustained gender equity initiatives in workplaces throughout the year? Is the change sweeping enough? Is the pace still glacial? Is the rubber hitting the road? Are we getting traction? Are we getting unprecedented and change?
I have continually tried to develop my understanding and do everything I can to move the dial, by strengthening the evidence base (love everything data), to working in partnership with leaders, creating enabling environments and clearing the path of resistance created by powerful men.
The qualities of non-performative allyship
For the men I have worked and collaborated with, we see the importance of gender equity, engaging other men, doing our own learning, checking in daily on our own bias, engaging respectfully in the work in conversation, behaviour and action.
We take care in not being the dominant voice in conversation, to not take the platform, to share space, to elevate and amplify voices, and to work with humility and respect and we often work behind the scenes. But we can’t walk on eggshells and have to at times sit with discomfort.
We are taking a stand on violence against women, listen carefully and challenge negative behaviours (including sexual harassment), micro-aggressions, attitudes and inaction.
We understand the value of unpaid and invisible work, the superannuation and pay gap, precarious employment, poor job design, inflexibility, poor culture and implement actions to disrupt the cycle.
We build our literacy and familiarity with some of the research and writings of Flood, Pease, Russell, Fitzsimmons, etc. and are familiar with the terms, the glass cliff, glass ceiling, glass elevator, double-glazed ceiling and the glass closet.
We become more self-aware to pick up on mansplaining, manterrupting, manpeating, hijacking of the agenda and ticking boxes.
I usually work quietly in the background to disrupt – talking with men, shifting the burden from women to men to change the systems and environments they have created to cause and perpetuate gender and intersectional inequity.
We are recently seeing more men engaged in the gender equity conversation and not be reluctant or afraid to be part of the conversation. We are seeing more male allies step up. 99% of my role models and influencers in my life have been women, 90% of people I know working in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging are women and people who are LGBTIQ+. And this is the gap I’m trying to close.
Here are my top ten personal actions to be a better ally
Over the years I have become more intuitive in my diversity, equity and inclusion practice. Like driving a car, you become unconsciously competent and get better at looking at your blind spots, anticipating what other drivers do, avoiding obstacles and reading the traffic under all conditions.
Similarly with your own subject matter position and practice, you work on these consistently with discipline to become better at what you do. The tips below don’t operate in isolation, but if I were to unpack and isolate some of the key ingredients of my allyship, these are some of the things I contemplate and continue to work on.
- Having identity awareness – personally reflecting on how I come across, how I am perceived, being 6ft5, how I communicate and behave, as well as being my authentic self
- Acknowledging my limitations, hard-wired behaviours, and not having lived experience of gender inequity, and taking responsibility for mistakes and checking in on myself consistently
- Making time to listen attentively without judgment
- Having a curious mindset that seeks different experiences and perspectives, and not seeking comfort in sameness
- Immersing myself in opportunities to connect, listen, learn, build trust, respect and connection
- Being open to unlearning, more unlearning, then learning and not being afraid to ask questions, but understanding that some conversations are difficult and may bring past feelings of trauma
- Building my gender scholarship and data literacy
- Showing up with courage, determination, and adaptability to challenge the status quo. You can’t be afraid to get in the crossfire.
- Embracing the unique ways in which each person functions and contributes to our workplace and society
- Upstanding and not by-standing – supporting the rights of people who experience inequity, but intervening not interfering
It takes time and effort to disrupt and shift an existing system. For any disruption to be truly effective, everyone must play a part as everyone benefits.
“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” – Henry Ford
