It’s been a big few weeks for (the lack of) women in super – whether it be lack of women as CEOs, lack of women’s super savings, lack of women in upper management.
And so, as a good journalist, I’ve been searching for the angle, the hook, for financial services’ clients and for what they can say that’s newsworthy.
RiceWarner Actuaries has captured the moral high ground for paying 2 per cent more super to women, plus other goodies during maternity leave.
Sex discrimination chief pooh-bah Elizabeth Broderick says, it’s a ‘terrific measure’ but systemic change is needed.
And here’s my segue to the financial services sector. Helen Conway, director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, is calling for super funds and the financial services sector to use their clout as investors to address this inequality.
As cries go up for more disclosure about unethical holdings and portfolio contents, Conway is urging funds to add gender-inequality to the disclosure charter.
‘Funds need to improve their own performance and elevate gender-equality to a disclosure benchmark,’ she told a Women in Super lunch last week.
BlackRock Investments just last month published its report on ASX 200 companies’ annual reports that ‘boards not appearing to take the issue seriously’.
Now, hold that thought, and put it together with estimates that put Australia’s super behemoth at more than $6 trillion by 2035.
And, here’s another tasty morsel: the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustee (AIST) has a program called Super Springboard which women to be on superannuation fund boards.
Go, girrrrrrls!
So, now I have all the threads for a story that gender equality needs to be part of the ESG discussion around human capital management (see the financial angle?) and super funds are being challenged to call for disclosure on the numbers of women in upper management and on boards (see the advocacy angle?).
I have a heavy-hitting research report from BlackRock, and I have an articulate woman in Helen Conway.
Perfection. My clients will LOVE this.
Philippa Yelland, newsroom editor and story development. Chris Hocking Strategies: SMSF and financial services public relations. Sydney based with clients nationwide.