1. LOCATION AS A FACTOR
IN GENDER EQUITY IN
LOCAL GOVERNMENT – A
work in progress
Exploratory research

2. What we know:
Numbers:
 175,000+ employed in LG
 Close to 50% are women
 Less than 30% of senior managers are female
 Fewer than 20% of CEO’s
 29% of councillors are women
 19% of mayors are women

3. What we know:
Gender balance in local government is important
because:
 National skills shortage:
 Local government has to compete with cashed up
resource and community sectors for small pool of
candidates
 Ageing workforce means that some councils are
looking at losing up to 50% of their workforce over
next 10 years

4. What we know:
Gender balance in local government is important
because:
 Effective leadership:
 Companies with gender diversity on boards and senior
management teams fare better on any measure of
success
 Senior managers, directors and CEO’s nearing
retirement age and no women being groomed for
succession

5. What we know:
Gender balance in local government is important
because:
 Strengthening democracy:
 “A council that does not reflect its community cannot
hope to represent it”
 Where women are not represented at senior levels
within government, gender analysis of issues such as
the work and family area is non-existant, or poorly
framed
 Strong female role models in local government
encourage grass roots participation in community and
government

6. What we know:
Barriers to increasing representation of women
in local government*:
 Corporate culture and attitudes
 Limited communication and awareness of equity
issues
 Lack of performance measurement and
accounting
 Perceptions and self-perceptions of women
 Complexities of people management and
leadership
 Scope, scale and diversity of flexible work
arrangements
*Identified in 2010 LGMA Management Challenge – Pre Challenge Task Summary (Kerry
Sefton)

7. What we don’t know:
Extent to which those barriers apply across the
sector:
 By size of council
 By remote/rural/regional/urban location

8. About the research:
Methodology:
 Desk research
 Environmental scanning
 Qualitative, semi-structured interviews –
electronic and telephone

9. About the research:
Sample:
28 semi-structured interviews with both elected
representatives and senior managers/ceo’s*
State: NSW VIC TAS SA WA NT QLD
Type: P E P E P E P E P E P E P E
Rural: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Remote: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Regional 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Metro: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
*Not all interviews have been finalised yet, so these are interim findings

10. What we found:
Corporate culture and attitudes
Issue Remote/ Regio Urban
rural n
Councils can be a “boy’s club” and hard
for women to break into   
Cultural issues around gender equity are
not explicitly addressed in policy and  
programs
Lack of organisational awareness of the
need for change   
Poor understanding of the advantages for
the organisation which would flow from   
gender equity
The culture of the organisation is at odds
with the intention that staff work   
reasonable hours

11. What we found:
Limited communication and awareness of equity
issues
Issue Remote/ Regio Urban
rural n
Need for information on family and leave
policies and the process for application   
Lack of internal communication about
policies, reviews, events lead to staff 
being uninformed
Limited community perception of a
woman’s role in Local Government   
Lack of visible examples of successful
senior women in LG leading balanced   
lifestyles
Lack of sector wide business case to
  

12. What we found:
Performance and Accounting
Issue Remote/ Regio Urban
rural n
Reporting of labour-force gender and
occupational segmentation is very limited   
EEO Plans lack effective measurement,
review and public reporting processes   
Lack of gender sensitive indicators and
targets to allow monitoring of gender   
imbalances within Council
No statistics on how many of employees
work part-time because they are parents,   
or have other carer responsibilities.
A lack of commitment by municipalities
and government to collect and analyse   
data

13. What we found:
Strong perceptions and self perceptions of
women:
Issue Remote/ Regio Urban
rural n
Women tend not to apply for job , whereas
men tend to apply even if all selection   
criteria are not met
Many women underestimate their
significant experience in fields outside   
their workplace
Some feel they lack experience for
leadership roles, although they possess   
strong leadership skills
Limited number of women in senior
management positions as role models   
There is a belief that successful women
leaders women must be competitive and   

14. What we found:
Complexities of people management:
Issue Remote/ Regio Urban
rural n
Councils should be outcomes focused,
for part-times to get same level of respect   
for performance
Rural and remote councillors are required
to travel long distances to attend work 
/meetings
Most GM’s have moved around –spent
time in different councils. More difficult to   
do with partner and family
Perception that management roles are not
just full-time, they are 24/7   
Councillors sacrifice career opportunities
for Council obligations.  

15. What we found:
Scope, scale and diversity of family friendly
options
Issue Remote/ Regio Urban
rural n
:
Maternity leave seen as a "career killer"
  
Organisational reluctance to support staff
working from home   
Flexible working arrangements not
supported by senior management   
Lack of work flexibility in senior roles
  
Lack of consistency in application of
family friendly policies and practices   

16. Where to from here:
 Interviews completed and research/discussion
paper released in January – feedback sought
from sector
 Booklet containing profiles and experiences of
respondents released in Feb/March
 Electronic survey for open participation
 Paper to make draft recommendations for
councils
 Convene group of CEO’s (male and female) to
consider draft recommendations and advise
on implementation

17. Where to from here:
 Your thoughts, ideas, suggestions?