Industry research shows that almost 90 per cent of companies report that they are highly committed to gender diversity, but only 38% of employees believe that their companies are actually making progress.
The ARA has sponsored two men to participate in Women Rising’s Male Allies program as part the ARA Women in Rail Strategy 2023-2026 to improve education to support increased inclusion for women in the industry.
The ARA is very pleased that John Holland, Laing O’Rourke and Degnan are currently enrolling several of their employees into the Male Allies program as part of a Rail Infrastructure Contractors Executive (RICE) Committee initiative to encourage broader industry participation.
We are encouraging rail organisations to consider enrolling their male employees in the program, which is on again in August. The Male Allies program is a virtual program that covers:
- Strategies to become a more effective ally in supporting gender equity in the workplace.
- Identifying and addressing the challenges that women face in the workplace, such as gender norms, double bind, and likability penalty.
- Understanding the current landscape for women in the workplace.
- Developing an awareness of and strategies to manage gender bias.
- Learning effective techniques to mentor and sponsor women.
- Enhancing your leadership skills through exploring topics such as leadership shadow and more.
In Part 2 of our Q and A, we interviewed Mikel Alonso, Principal at GHD and Australian Market Leader, Transport, who participated in the Male Allies program, about his experiences in relation to gender diversity at work.
Why do you think gender diversity is important to the rail industry?
In essence, it is important to drive gender diversity for greater inclusion and diversity as a matter of fairness in society, to ensure the industry is closer to the diversity of our communities. However, very importantly, too, it is a matter of improving productivity by enabling more workers into the industry and also to drive greater innovation and creativity (through diversity of contributions ) to help address the challenges and opportunities in the industry.
What has been your experience of female participation in the workplace?
To some degree, most workplaces are on a I&D journey [inclusion and diversity] and particularly with regards to female participation. My experience is that workplaces range in the sense of urgency they bring into play, i.e. how much they truly care about creating a meaningful change. Closer to home, at GHD we are doing multiple things at many levels, from appointing inspiring and empowered I&D leadership globally, to driving accountability, and so on. In our Transportation Leadership Team we have multiple weekly examples of how we are trying to drive change. The release of our Women in Rail report last November was in response to the need for more women in our industry and we are actively working with our rail leaders challenging them how they will make a difference. There is always so much more we can all be doing.
What do you think women bring to the workplace?
As well as all the positive things men bring to the workplace at the technical, leadership and people level, in my experience women can also bring an enhanced ability to handle our industry’s present and future challenges, which have complex layering with people dynamics as a common factor. In my experience, by having empowered women in a senior team (or at any level) that team is much better at navigating such complexity with balanced and all-encompassing perspectives.
Why did you participate in the Male Allies program?
My main driver was curiosity towards what best practice and improvement could look like in my personal style. Also important was the ability to then share insights and suggestions with the ARA team as well as with my own team to elevate awareness and actions to bring about stronger allyship.
What did you learn from participating in the Male Allies program?
It was a very well-structured program, so I learned many things. What stuck with me the most is gender bias and how it can be positive, negative or neutral. For example, a neutral gender bias means that we may strive for gender not playing a role and therefore ‘ignoring’ that in a particular situation, which could then bring about undesirable outcomes, unaware or disregarding of the societal momentum that holds women back. I found that seeing gender as a positive, calling out the negative and speaking up about the neutral, is a simple and effective way to make a difference, every day.
What value does diversity training provide to an organisation and its employees?
Training is always a valuable aspect for individual or organisational development. However, it is not as effective in isolation. I think organisations, and individuals, need to approach diversity more broadly and find ways to embody it (and good leadership, in essence) in their day to day work. This is much harder to do. The risk is organisations take the shortcut of ticking off diversity with training only, expecting change. It is much easier to do that, albeit without real impact, than to walk the talk at all levels of an organisation, elevating accountability for behaviours that do not work, and praising / telling the story of those that do, etc.
How do you think men can play a greater role in attracting and retaining women to the rail industry?
The only new thing I would add to the above is that each of us needs to be more curious, openminded, and truly practise listening in order to understand. We need to step up and call behaviours that work against this. Also, each of us should advocate for the great women around us in our daily professional practice. Attracting and retaining women is not going to be fixed by ‘the industry’ or ‘society’ or ‘ARA’ – each of us make up our industry, society and ARA. Unless we pursue it at the individual level, proactively, we will see no material change – and that would be such a missed opportunity in the legacy we are all creating. The good news is that I see lots of good examples of strong individual leadership, often amounting to organisational leadership.
The next Male Allies program commences on 12 August and finishes 4 October. If you register before 5 July, you can pay the early bird rate of $899. For more information on the program and to register you can visit the programs website here