The Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) Trust would like to see a culture shift across all organisations for women to succeed in governing roles.
It is a shame to witness in today’s business world, be it sports businesses or corporate, an on-going discrimination against a highly skilled and capable talent pool. Local and international evidence shows that having a diverse group of directors and senior managers increases morale and profits.
Why do many organisations follow status quo?
Gender imbalance
A recent newspaper series spoke about women facing a ‘glass ceiling’ and confirmed that there is a huge gender imbalance in sports governance and management, apart from a couple of sporting codes swimming and league.
The EEO Trust applauds these organisations and hopes that the Rugby Union’s alleged aim of having a more diverse board of directors succeeds.
Sport NZ (formerly SPARC) is open about knowing that sport, especially Rugby, has the old boys’ club mentality and that boards need to be educated.
The EEO Trust agrees and suggests that Sport NZ should encourage the sporting organisations it helps fund to adopt a culture change and appoint more female directors. I would like to see this organisation following the footsteps of the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges by asking sport organisations to list the composition of their boards and senior managers on an annual basis.
Eliminate clichés
Clichés of a glass or a grass ceiling should be things of the past.
For many businesses, it is not something that needs to be addressed as they are working responsibly and benefitting from doing so. Well done.
For those that are not promoting and recruiting a diverse range of people in all roles on merit, I am asking ‘Why?’
Is it unconscious or conscious bias?
I believe it is a combination.
Bev Cassidy-Mackenzie is the Chief Executive of Equal Employment Opportunities Trust based in Auckland.
