Click on any article referencing gender imbalance or the dearth of women in leadership positions and the phenomena of the leaky pipeline is bound to make an appearance. Against a backdrop of increased targeted regulatory reporting requirements, there can be no doubt that gender diversity is now a high priority across corporate Australia.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has long measured participation of women on corporate boards and in senior executive positions on a bi-annual basis.  More recently, the ASX Corporate Governance Council stepped up the ante introducing a comprehensive diversity disclosure regime, requiring all listed companies to include gender diversity policies, objectives and progress in their annual reports. The impetus behind this push is a growing recognition that diversity makes good corporate and economic sense.

In October 2013, Catalyst released a Gender Equality Snapshot into the Australian market. One of the more interesting take-outs from that report is the following conundrum. Despite a growing number of women appointed to boards, and the implementation of diversity policies with measurable objectives and concrete targets across our boardrooms, women remain substantially under-represented in many of the key management positions that are an important precursor to leadership roles. Simply put, despite wide ranging best intentions and much effort to build a robust pipeline of upwardly mobile women, it now appears that the momentum may be stalling.
Here at Elustria, we’re re-imagining the leaky pipeline and challenging the status quo by asking two very simple but provocative questions:

• Is the “leaky pipeline” merely a convenient excuse masking the lack of progression of women into coveted leadership positions?
• What more can organisations do to redress gender imbalances in a proactive way?

To illustrate the dynamics of the leaky pipeline, we’ve taken a snapshot of workplace participation percentages in an industry we know well, but is mirrored across all industries in the wider economy.

Consider this.

It’s difficult to deny that the story painted by these percentages is stark. Despite a rigorous implementation of generous across the board parental leave schemes, flexible work arrangements, mentoring and high potential leadership education programs, it seems our traditional pipelines are unable to facilitate career progression for women on an equal footing as they do for men. If the modern phenomenon of the leaky pipeline is truly to blame, perhaps attention now needs to focus on practical solutions to stem the flow and redirect the leaks of this important talent pool.

In broad terms, at the earliest stages of their careers numbers of female graduates and high-achieving professionals at least equal their male peers. Over time, their progression into the ranks of senior management steadily and sharply declines. It has long been suggested that unconscious bias embedded in corporate decision making, practices and stereotypes is at play. These erect powerful but invisible barriers, collectively combining to hamper career progression for women, contributing to a self-perpetuating cycle of traditionally gendered career paths, a general lack of positive role models and restricted access to mentors and sponsors.

The irrefutable fact is that every day capable and highly successful professional women come to a crossroads and leave their careers. Whilst a myriad of reasons contribute to why women take this decision, the crux of the problem is that once a female executive steps aside from her career for an extended period of time there simply is no clear route back. Progressively, a valuable pipeline of well-educated, experienced female talent is lost not just to the organisation but to the wider economy as well.
With a new focus on metrics rather than rhetoric in the gender diversity space, mandated targets will only work where there is a sufficient pool of available female talent. It follows building sustainable pipelines must become a corporate imperative if organisations are to successfully achieve their goal of grooming women for leadership.

Investment in recruitment to attract the best and brightest at graduate level is just one part of the equation. In the longer term, to progress greater numbers of women into leadership roles, organisations need to rethink recruitment, engagement and retention strategies around these important issues. Let’s re-imagine the leaky pipeline in terms of a dynamic flow mechanism with stops and valves to allow the movement of talent back in and out.

Here at Elustria we believe consideration should be given to the introduction of reintegration career pathways for valued alumni and other capable and talented professional women currently lost to the leaky pipeline. Innovative, high impact and low cost, a powerful but simple change of corporate mindset has the ability to change the future in terms of how we harness female talent across all stages of their professional careers.