BALLARAT Tech School associate is challenging organisations across the region to think about what actions, big or small, could make workplace balance for better.
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The Tech School is using the International Women's Day theme to spark dynamic discussion in a breakfast on Friday to drive change and promote mentoring for women across the region.
Ballarat Tech School associate director Sofia Fiusco said it was important men and women realise the impact mentoring could have in supporting women strategically through their careers. Ms Fiusco said both formal mentoring partnerships and taking advantage of the moment could make a dramatic difference.
"We need to look at how we value equality. We're in a time of social change and we've grown a lot but we're still dealing with biased views on gender roles consciously and sub-consciously. For example, we listen differently to men and women when they say something assertive - we tend to expect this tone more from men," Ms Fiusco said.
We all have bias but what we really wanted to do is focus on the potential opportunity in people for all organisations and career paths.
Ms Fiusco said often people did not realise bias within themselves or in the images they continue to portray about women. This was why she said it was vital to keep making visible women working in traditionally male-dominated workplaces or roles.
The Tech School makes a deliberate effort to ensure equal access to technology in class where otherwise girls tended to sit back and wait their turn.
Ms Fiusco said it was important for girls, particularly in decision-making years at high school, to feel confident in realising they could pursue and achieve careers in science, technology, mathematics and engineering.
A big part of this was seeing women in such career paths as the norm.
Ms Fiusco said global statistics on the proportion of women in senior corporate leadership or those as head of nations were telling.
"Given our population of women, this shows equality is not moving as fast as it could be in creating balance," Ms Fiusco said.
"We really want to look at how we can create a community in which men actively seek to mentor women, as well as women supporting other women, to change this."
Ballarat Tech School will host its International Women's Day breakfast in partnership with IBM and Federation University on Friday morning.
All attending will be issued the challenge to find a way they can immediately share or do something better for balance in their workplace or community when they leave.
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