The managing director of the ABC, Michelle Guthrie, has issued a rallying cry to women urging them to reject sexist questions in the workplace and to lobby their bosses for pay equal to their male counterparts.
Speaking at the Telstra Australian Business Women’s awards in Melbourne on Tuesday night, Guthrie shared her own experiences of being underpaid and overlooked in workplaces, despite her credentials.
She said her experiences echoed those of many women in the workplace and said it was why the US election result, which saw Republican Donald Trump elevated to the presidency, had been “a bruising experience for women everywhere”.
“Are we really going to ignore what this might mean for women everywhere on the basis we apparently don’t understand what this election is really about?” she asked the room, which included chief executive officers, professors and entrepreneurs.
“Of course not. And so the question becomes, what do we tell our daughters and sons?”
Guthrie continued that she had thought a lot about the legacy she would leave her own children, both as a parent and the head of the ABC. When she was interviewed for the position by the ABC board last year, Guthrie said she made a point of saying that a “critical reason” for her wanting the job was the importance of ensuring there was a public broadcaster for her children and grandchildren.
“It is important that we make a difference in our workplaces for our daughters and our sons,” she said.
She described how when she became the managing director of Star TV in Hong Kong, she was “stunned at the rush of male executives to form a queue outside my office to brazenly ask for a pay rise”.
“Some of them had just signed new contracts,” she said. “Women aren’t raised to show such audacity, to make such demands, they aren’t told to build yourself up and display such sheer confidence and audacity, to take advantage of the leverage of a new CEO.”
Guthrie said she later found out that at the time she took the Star TV executive role, she was the lowest-paid member of her team.
“Some will interpret what I am saying tonight as a whinge,” she said. “Well, given my boardroom experience here and overseas, I am eminently qualified to speak on the subject. When I consider my own career and the professional experiences that have shaped me, I often remember the things no man is asked as he forges his own career. Have you had children yet? Will you have children? Will you be able to maintain a full-time and demanding role while also managing a family?”
She added that when hardworking women did stand up for themselves, they were often dismissed as “difficult”.
Guthrie concluded by telling the audience that work and leadership was most effective, and children and society flourished, when there was a balance of men and women. Steps could be taken towards this, she told them, by demanding an equal relationship, equal child rearing expectations, and equal access to flexible work practices.
“Don’t feel beaten by the US election result,” she said. “Feel empowered instead, use the feeling to fuel your ambition. Demand equal pay to the guy next to you, and speak up when a female colleague deserves a promotion. And above all tell each other as often as you can – go for it and don’t let anyone stand in your way.”
