Finsia is currently conducting follow up research to its 2010 survey of financial service professionals about their perceptions of the gender divide in the financial services industry, and is calling for volunteers to participate by completing an online survey. This year's survey aims to see whether recent policy initiatives to improve gender equity in the industry have resulted in real cultural change.  Read More

Two economists have released a report that says if a female HR professional receives a resume including a photo from an attractive female applicant, the resume is likely to land in the bin because of jealousy and rivalry. The researchers sent bogus applications to more than 2,500 real job vacancies. For each job, they sent two very similar resumes, one without a photo and one with a photo of either an ‘attractive’ or a ‘plain’ applicant. Read More

Women around the world today will be celebrating at morning teas and lunches to mark the occasion of the 101^st International Women’s Day.  That’s a good thing, right?  Well that depends.  If the celebration is to recognise the contribution of women, it’s a good thing. If you want to improve the status quo for women, and mark real change and progress towards gender balance in your workplace, and community, I would argue that a once-a-year celebration does more harm than good, it creates a perception that people care about change without actually doing much. Read More

We need to talk about recruitment. Specifically it seems we need to talk about recruiting women into key leadership roles, because still I keep hearing there aren’t enough suitable women out there.  So who makes this assessment anyway?  The recruiters? Business leaders? The women? Read More

At a networking event recently a businessman mentioned that his wife – a highly educated, highly experienced professional – had left her role in an accounting firm after their children were born because “after the cost of childcare it was hardly worth her while to continue to work”.  Their children are now in school and with that, a new challenge: how to deal with the months of combined school holidays throughout the year, when the average worker in Australia gets four weeks leave a year.  So she continues to manage the household, and having been out of the workforce for several years now is uncertain when or if she will return. Read More

From 1^st January 2011, Australia's first universal Paid Parental Leave scheme will be available to employees and the self employed alike – heralding in a new era for Australia’s working families. While many employees of large companies and government agencies have had access to varying forms of paid and unpaid parental leave programs, many small business owners and self employed will be getting their first taste of paid parental leave under the scheme.   Read More

Panty hose.  Make up.  Hair cuts and colours.  And an ever changing wardrobe.  Being a woman is expensive - don't we know it.  And made all the more so by the increasing gender pay gap in Australia.  This article not only points out what we've long known about the costs of being a woman, but also gives some good tips and resources to help you plan for the future without relying on the Cinderella Syndrome for your retirement plan. Read More

Women may be perpetuating the gender pay gap through their attitudes towards asking for money, according to a survey of 250 men and women conducted by authors of Sheconomics, a book that examines women and their attitudes towards managing money.  The survey - conducted earlier this year - found that women are two and a half times more likely than men to find pay negotiating humiliating, and that men would rather ask another male for money - and women would too.  Other survey findings include: Read More

If you’ve ever been responsible for establishing employee development programs, conferences or leadership offsites, you’ll know just difficult it can be to find fantastic, out of this world, leading-edge service providers.  In a sea of social media and spin, my vast network send me calls for help every day – by email, LinkedIn, twitter and the sphinxx website - all looking for advice about who they should hire for their own professional development needs, or to supplement their in-house women's programs. Read More

Now that we are seeing more people change jobs I’m consistently asked for salary negotiation advice: something near and dear to my heart, because it can be the source of much mis-understanding, frustration and disappointment on the part of the employee.  There is nothing worse than starting a new job feeling as though you are being underpaid.  This issue is especially prevalent for women.  We have a hard time asking for what we deserve and backing ourselves when challenged.   Read More