Why male leaders champion gender diversity

When it comes to gender diversity, chairman of Exxon Mobil Australia John Dashwood says we need to look at the progress that has been made, not just how much further we have to go.

Mr Dashwood has seen a lot of change since he joined Exxon Mobil in 1982 as part of the first graduate intake to include women – two women in fact.

Addressing the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace business awards as keynote speaker this month, Mr Dashwood said that the energy giant sees gender diversity as crucial to fostering the sort of problem-solving thinking needed to deliver to the world’s energy needs. The philosophy has been: “if two people have the same qualifications pick diversity – someone who is a bit different.”

Exxon Mobile initiatives include gender pay equity, fostering female talent and promoting them through the ranks. Four of the nine members of its key leadership team are women and two of its five operation managers running its offshore rigs in Bass Strait are women. The oil giant is also focused on supporting women into a range of “non-traditional” job roles. Dashwood reckons Exxon Mobile would even like to see women working on its oil rigs in Bass Straight but discussions around the idea have met resistance from the female spouses of males rig workers.

He says Exxon Mobile is also up for the challenge of tackling new territory around gender diversity and the life stages of employees. An example might be how to provide maternity leave to an Australian employee posted to Canada.

“If you find solutions to such problems then they are worth their weight in gold,” he says. “Keeping women employed at a time when their skills are most exportable [within the Exxon Mobile global network] is vital.”

Mr Dashwood also urged employers to identify and develop technologies that support female advancement as well as create programs that mentor, develop and promote female talent.

The CEO of EOWA business award winner gold miner St Barbara Limited Tim Lehany told CareerOne.com.au that gender diversity was good business.

Mr Lehany and his GM of HR Katie-Jeyn Romeyn took home a special EOWA director’s award for its policies promoting women.

Ironically, Mr Lehany started in mining at a time when it was actually illegal to have women in the mines. He says these days, talent sourcing and retention is a hot issue for all mining companies so attracting and retaining the best people – regardless of gender – is vital to having a competitive edge.

“We need three things to succeed: access to resources, access to capital and access to talent,” he says. “Our efforts are not driven by legislation or worrying about being politically correct, it is about what is good for business.”

He tells anyone who doesn’t get the commercial benefits of gender diversity to “build a bridge and get over it … grow up.”

One of St Barbara’s five non-executive board members is female and one of its seven GMs is female – a deliberate decision to generate a diversity of thinking within its senior ranks.

Mr Lehany joked that male mining execs tend to be all ESTJ Myers Briggs thinkers and then added on a more serious note than in the complex, fast changing world of mining, senior teams need a diversity of thinking to find new solutions.