Blaming women for their own marginalisation at work is Illogical, irritating and sends workplaces and their businesses backwards, author and journalist Catherine Fox says.
Fox made the comments at the bluenotes-hosted launch of her new book Stop Fixing Women, where she dismissed the idea women need a particular set of skills to prevent marginalisation.
"We were defaulting back to a pretty dangerous space which was pretty much blaming women for their own marginalisation,"
- Catherine Fox, author & journalist
“As somebody who’s been observing this space for nearly 30 years, I was acutely aware we go through different cycles of how workplaces respond to the gender gap,” she said.
“We were I think defaulting back to kind of dangerous space which was pretty much blaming women for their own marginalisation – and then expecting them to solve it.”
A crowd of about 100 at ANZ headquarters in Melbourne were treated to a passionate and informed discussion between Fox, Australian Institute of Company Directors chairman Elizabeth Proust and ANZ head of Talent and Culture Kathryn van der Merwe.
“It’s easy to kind of just rely on the way things have always been done [around equality],” van der Merwe told the event, adding the current wave of disruption is an opportunity to break that pattern.
“A fundamental disruption really forces us to actually have to stop and think: how should we do this?”
On the subject of equality in the boardroom, Proust said there was a “business case for genuine diversity beyond gender around a board table”.
“If we’ve got five or six or seven people around a board table who all come from similar backgrounds and think similarly, why do you think you’ll get great business outcomes?” she said.
Watch the video above to find out more.
Andrew Cornell is managing editor at bluenotes.
The views and opinions expressed in this communication are those of the author and may not necessarily state or reflect those of ANZ.
03 Mar 2017
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