Plan for gender equality

Council’s strategies to hit target by 2025

THE City of Greater Geelong aims to reach its gender equity target by 2025 through the implementation of a raft of innovative strategies.

The council’s Ba-gurrk Gender Equity Framework Foundational Implementation Plan states the council should reach a balance of at least 40 per cent men and 40 per cent women of managerial level and above in the next nine years.

Currently just three of 11 City of Greater Geelong councillors are female, comprising 27 per cent of the council.

The council’s online organisational structure lists 20 men and 14 women in senior positions.

Cr Sarah Mansfield said she was optimistic that council could achieve its target by 2025, but said there needed to be cultural changes in the organisation that better supported women.

“I think it’s important all levels of government reflect the make-up of community,” she said. “Half of the community identify as female.”

Cr Mansfield said women, including single mothers, who had a lot to offer as a councillor could face barriers that prevented them from applying.

“I think it starts at putting your hand up. For a lot of women it’s about confidence and believing they have the skills and ability to do it,” she said.

“I think understanding how to campaign is another thing where women might not necessarily have the support that other people have in the community.

“In the role itself there are barriers there for women with family responsibilities, we have a lot of after hours meetings.”

In the next 12-24 months the council plans to prepare an annual audit of exits by gender and develop a gender pay gap strategy.

The strategy includes “analysis of the City of Greater Geelong as an employer and identify in what levels, roles or directorates the gap is more prevalent”.

Other gender equity plans in the framework include; CREATING an inclusive language guide for use throughout the organisation; and RESEARCHING the use of a gender decoder for all job advertisements across the City; AUDITING and scrutinising the current process and recruitment practices that remove bias from hiring processes across the organisation; EVALUATING employee uptake of flexible working arrangements and work life balance; IMPLEMENTING gender sensitive design practice, starting with the new Civic Precinct and use the UNESCO City of Design designation; DEVELOPING a gender mapping tool to capture community safety and rates of discrimination/ harassment complaints by gender from community that inform budget decisions.

Meanwhile, at nearby Surf Coast Shire, three of eight councillors are women. In the 2012-2016 term, five of the nine councillors were women.

In the Borough of Queenscliffe, only one of the five councillors is female.

The City of Greater Geelong framework considered the expected Victorian Gender Equality Bill, which may be enacted by November, and proposes new obligations on the Victorian public sector to plan and report on gender equality.