Chief executives unplugged: Business leaders get real about women in the workplace has a simple message: Women are severely disadvantaged in the workplace and are not competing with men on an equal playing field. The book sets out to investigate the interviewees’ attitude towards women and the manner in which the potential of both sexes can be best utilised in the workplace.
This book is the effort of the Federal Government’s Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) and is a compilation of interviews with 10 of Australia’s leading CEOs. Although equality in the workplace is often in the news, it is a real eye-opener to read about the workplace attitude towards women from a top-down perspective. Even where a CEO is committed to giving women a “fair shake”, ingrained and systemic bias in the workplace often blunt their good intentions.
In order to utilise the untapped potential of women in the workplace, leaders need to lead by proactive example. Through the discussion of their own experiences of bias, prejudice and even hostility, the CEOs present a frank, and at times disturbing, insight to corporate Australia at the start of the 21st century.
A number of lessons are provided which will assist other business leaders in undertaking a similar journey of enlightened equality.