Several ARA members attended Consult Australia’s workshop, Breaking Barriers and Building Inclusion last week to learn more about how unconscious biases may be formed.
The workshop, also attended by ARA Policy Manager Lauren Ascah, was specifically tailored for the rail and engineering sectors, and offered insights into how history, culture, society and childhood may form unconscious biases.
These biases may influence our behaviours at work and our perceptions of others, even if unintentional, resulting in significant barriers to women in the workplace.
The ARA’s recent publication, Progressing gender equality in the Australasian rail industry, supports these findings, having identified that women working in rail are still exposed to career-limiting discrimination and perceptions of tokenism. Additionally, more women than men feel limited in their opportunities to progress their careers and ability to call out exclusionary behaviours.
The report also found that education and awareness programs, especially for senior leaders, are an essential avenue for promoting respectful behaviours and improving organisational culture – making opportunities such as this Breaking Barriers workshop even more valuable.
Workshop facilitators Coleen MacKinnon and Paul Collings walked the participants through a range of Critical Success Factors for developing and implementing diversity and inclusion plans and initiatives within their organisations. These included:
- Visible leadership commitment and communication – having a leadership team willing to “walk the talk”
- Supportive policy and programs – embed diversity within the organisation’s culture
- Measurement and accountability – have a means of monitoring and incentivising success
During the workshop, participants also collaborated with each other to identify levels of progress within their own organisation, and pinpoint priority areas for improvement. Paul and Colleen provided excellent examples and suggestions for organisations to implement, regardless of what stages of the journey they were currently at.
Participants also openly shared their various successes and lessons learnt from diversity initiatives within their own organisations, and it was incredibly valuable to learn from each other’s experiences, particularly around implementing equality-focused policies and targets.
While the representation of women in the rail workforce has improved in recent years, from 17 per cent in 2014 to 28 per cent in 2023, there is still work to be done to ensure our workforce continues to grow in a way which will sustainably meet the industry’s future needs.
Workshops such as Breaking Barriers provide a critical opportunity for senior leaders to reflect on their own organisations and show commitment to inclusivity and diversity. The ARA looks forward to future opportunities to collaborate with Consult Australia and support our members in their ongoing diversity efforts.
Find out more information on gender diversity in rail
Find out more about professional development opportunities available for women in rail