'Hardwiring' helps close gender gap
Ms Bryan, appointed as a member of the Order of Australia on Monday for significant service to the financial services and superannuation sectors and to corporate governance, says companies are changing to make it easier for women to progress.
"I've seen a lot of ebbs and flows on this women in the workforce business but what's happening now in the big companies, and the companies that are good at it, they're actually making structural changes in the way their company operates," Ms Bryan said.
"They're doing things like saying to the CEO 'OK, here are your key performance indicators for your bonus and on one of them you should target for the number of women you have at certain levels'.
"They're hardwiring it into the system ... it becomes a part and parcel of what a company has got to do."
Ms Bryan said flexible working hours have come to the fore.
"Our greatest loss of women now is at the middle management and upper middle management - where you get up the pyramid a bit and the jobs are not so easy to get hold of," she said.
"Plus, you get hit with the full burden of your second job - kids, young kids, running house - and it all becomes too hard and we lose a lot of women at that level.
"And the thing that I think is making it easier for them to be more flexible with their workplaces is that men of that age also want more flexibility."
Ms Bryan - who estimates she has been on 25 boards since the 1980s - said the focus should be women in management, rather than boards.
"The number of women you've got on boards, fine, is good and important," she said. "But, for the bulk of the women, it's being able to have a career and not just counting the ones that get to the top."
Frequently Asked Questions about this Article…
Elizabeth Bryan is the chairman of Caltex and a director of Westpac who was recently appointed a Member of the Order of Australia. She has served on about 25 boards since the 1980s and is experienced in corporate governance and the financial services and superannuation sectors. For everyday investors, her perspectives matter because governance and leadership practices influence how companies operate and respond to workforce and diversity issues.
Hardwiring gender diversity means making structural changes so diversity becomes part of daily business. According to Elizabeth Bryan, that can include setting measurable targets for female representation at certain levels and embedding those targets into executive performance metrics and company systems.
The article notes companies are asking CEOs to include KPIs tied to the number of women at specified levels in leadership. In practice, that means a CEO’s bonus can partly depend on reaching agreed female participation targets, making diversity outcomes part of executive reward frameworks.
Bryan says flexible working hours have become important because many women leave at middle and upper middle management stages when job demands collide with childcare and household responsibilities. Greater flexibility — which men in the same age groups are also seeking — can make it easier for women to stay and progress in their careers.
The greatest loss of women is at middle and upper middle management, where roles become harder to obtain and people face the full burden of a 'second job' at home (young kids, running the household). For investors, persistent drop-off at these levels can indicate talent pipeline issues and potential leadership diversity gaps in the future.
Elizabeth Bryan suggests the focus should be on women in management rather than only counting women on boards. While board diversity is important, she emphasizes that enabling the broader pool of women to build careers and progress through management is critical for meaningful change.
Investors can look for clear, measurable diversity targets, disclosure that CEO KPIs or bonuses include female participation goals, published policies on flexible working, and reporting on female representation across management levels. Those signals suggest a company is making structural changes rather than relying on symbolic gestures.
Bryan notes that men of the same age groups increasingly want more flexibility too. When both genders push for flexible arrangements, it reduces the stigma and practical barriers for women to request flexible work, helping more women remain in and progress through management roles.
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