When Women Win

When women win, we all win!

Ariarne Titmus. Mollie, O’Callaghan. Jess and Noemie Fox. Arisa Trew. Nina Kennedy. Kaylee McKeown. Saya Sakakibara. If your household is anything like mine, you have followed these women along with our other wonderful athletes in Paris. You’ve held your breath waiting for scores to come up, winced when things went wrong and cheered and celebrated victory through the course of the Paris games.

These names represent just a handful of the women athletes who claimed medals for Australia in Paris. Women won 13 of the 18 gold medals and 32 of the 53 total medals in Australia’s Olympic haul. A fitting outcome for the first Olympic games to achieve gender parity in competitors on the field.

It is a great result and one that extends beyond the individual women involved. The whole Olympic team and Australia as a sporting nation have enjoyed the success, the entertainment and the friendly rivalry of the games.

At this Olympics, a win for women has been a win us all!

A contributing factor to our Olympic success, according to that Matti Clements,  Executive General Manager of High Performance at the Australian Institute of Sport, is the focus on female athlete health. She has stated that “most research in high performance sports is done on a male population and what has historically been done … in Australia, has been that we’ll use that research and assume that females are just another version of a male athlete.” The focus for elite training and coaching has shifted in Australia to consider what it takes to be a female athlete. A big step forward for equity, and one that certainly appears to be paying off.

The International Olympic Committee’s stance on gender parity, along with more media exposure, equal representation, federal funding, local initiatives and increasing presence for female sports is almost certainly contributing to the positive uplift for women athletes too.

Excitingly, the Olympic example translates into the world outside of Paris. When it comes to gender equity, a win for women is a win for everyone.

A win for women is a win for business

Diverse and inclusive workforces are proven to achieve increased productivity, efficiency and innovation.  Increased gender diversity on boards and in senior executive positions is strongly associated with better financial performance.

According to the Australian Government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency, companies that create more equal and fair workplaces see increased performance, stronger reputations and are better able to attract and retain employees.

A 2017 study by McKinsey & Company found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on their executive teams were 21% more likely to experience above-average profitability.

McKinsey also reports that high performing executive teams had more women in revenue-generating roles. Conversely, that companies with low representation of women and other diverse groups were 29% more likely to underperform on profitability.

This correlation exists globally. A 2014 study that involved almost 22,000 companies in 91 countries saw that those companies with more female leaders in top leadership positions had increased financial profitability.

So, a win for women is also a win for business! Strong, successful and profitable organisations translate into opportunity, job security and growth; and this is a win for the broader community.

A win for women is a win for the Australian economy

Advancements in gender equity contribute to improved national productivity and economic growth according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. Economic modelling undertaken by KPMG and published in their 2018 report Ending workforce discrimination against women, showed that our annual GDP would increase by $60 billion over the next 20 years if the gap between male and female workforce participation rates was halved.

So, a win for women is also a win for the Australian economy!

100 years ago, Australia sent an all-male team to the 1924 Paris Olympics. This year we had 256 women athletes represent our nation and we achieved the best medal tally in our history. While we are still in the throes of celebrating our Olympians’ achievements and wins, it’s a good time to consider the progress, the changed attitudes, the changed regulations, the improved equity that has enabled those achievements. While the work continues, improving equity in sport has unquestionably had a very positive outcome.

Improving equity in the other areas of our world can be equally as powerful and have far reaching benefits. I want to see a world where gender equity and the achievements of women in workplaces, education, government and community settings are celebrated with as much joy and gusto as all of those gold medals.

For now, it’s just a few short weeks before we have the chance to cheer on our Paralympic athletes, and I can’t wait!