Entrenched Sexism Is Very Australian. Let’s Uproot It

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- From the boardroom to the workplace, it’s been a horrible year for women. And one of the worst places has been Australia.

Company boards — still overwhelmingly male — are failing to meaningfully hold executives accountable for bad behavior. Large institutional investors must double down on insisting diversity in the C-suite is non-negotiable, as gender-parity initiatives stall.

A sex scandal at an Australian technology company is the latest in a recent spate of cases alleging bad behavior toward women. Richard White, who stepped down as chief executive officer of WiseTech Global Ltd. last week after allegations of inappropriate relationships with several women, got away with little more than a slap on the wrist. The billionaire founder and largest shareholder of the freight-software firm stays on as a consultant with a new 10-year contract. (The board said it’s reviewing the full range of matters raised by a series of media reports. White said he remained committed to the company.)

Investors were placated. Shares rebounded after plunging as much as 18%. AustralianSuper, the country’s largest pension fund and WiseTech’s fourth-largest shareholder, is sticking with the investment. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. told investors to buy the stock again.

WiseTech is not simply another source of tabloid fodder. It raises serious questions about corporate governance amid an alarming number of reports detailing alleged mistreatment of women at some of the country’s major publicly listed companies.  

Days before WiseTech made headlines, an independent review at Nine Entertainment Co. found a toxic culture of sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination. (The board apologized and pledged to implement all the report’s recommendations.) Women in particular were mistreated as part of a “brutal” culture at the rival television network of billionaire Kerry Stokes’s Seven West Media Ltd., according to an investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Four Corners program. (Seven said it had taken action to address issues raised by the program.)  Meanwhile, the reputation of ANZ Group Holdings Ltd. was dealt a blow over allegations of a problematic culture on the bank’s trading floor. (ANZ has said it’s taking action against staff relating to cultural and conduct issues.)

It doesn’t stop there. Two of Sydney’s high-profile hospitality groups have been investigated over allegations of sexual abuse and discrimination. And the nation’s Parliament became a hotbed of bullying, sexual harassment, and even actual or attempted assaults. Political leaders failed to set standards themselves.

Australia is not unique. But the recent prevalence of bad behavior mainly targeting women in business and government is notable and worrying in a country of just 27 million people.  

Also perplexing is that it’s happening despite some of the highest levels of female education attainment, and a long-standing government commitment to gender equality. (Australia was the first country to apply a gender lens to budgets, the second to allow women to vote, and the first to let them stand for parliament.) So where did it go so wrong?

When it comes to economic participation and opportunity, it has been steadily slipping down the World Economic Forum’s global gender gap rankings. Much of the nation’s ethos remains tied to a culture of mateship (think Crocodile Dundee) that defines bonds between men, and is alive and well in business and politics. In 1983, three years before Paul Hogan endeared himself to millions around the world as the knife-wielding crocodile poacher, he threw a shrimp on the barbie and told Americans they need to call everyone “mate” when they visit Down Under. We’ve come a long way since then.  

Or have we? The corporate world is run by a network of old boys whose connections are forged at single-sex private schools. Women continue to be subjected to violence at home at such a rate that the prime minister declared it a “national crisis” after a spate of killings earlier this year. Unwanted and aggressive attention on a night out is far too common. 

“Australia has a cultural problem with women in leadership,” Governor General Sam Mostyn told Bloomberg News three years ago when she was president of women’s leadership advocacy group Chief Executive Women. She noted there was a lack of respect for women at work, and a failure to take advantage of the strides they had made in education. 

Little has changed. A new survey by Our Watch, an independent organization that aims to change culture, behaviors and power imbalances to prevent gender violence, found that 40% of Australian leaders are unaware of new legal obligations to prevent sexual harassment. While  initiatives were becoming more effective, sexual harassment remained a “pervasive” problem, and there were significant differences in how bosses and employees, and men and women, viewed the issue, it said.

This year alone has been sobering for women around world. From the horrific rape trial in France to the arrest of hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs on charges of sex trafficking, #MeToo is having another reckoning. 

City of London firms reported a 72% surge in non-financial misconduct complaints over the last three years following a string of high-profile scandals including sexual harassment allegations. At Elon Musk’s SpaceX, sexual harassment became a joke. Citigroup Inc.’s trading division has been embroiled in claims it fostered a pattern of toxic culture. The list goes on and on and on.

To say women are frustrated is an understatement. Entrenched cultural attitudes take time to dismantle, but we can’t just keep chipping away. We need to take a hammer to norms impeding gender equality. Company directors are best placed to institute change from the inside. It is unacceptable if they foster a consequence-free environment until they can’t ignore shareholder pressure anymore. The backlash against DEI is already resulting in efforts to improve diversity being dialed back. In the US in the first quarter, women filled the lowest percentage of new director positions since 2017.

“Boards need rigor, tenacity, discipline,” Diane Smith-Gander, chair of Zip Co. and Perenti Ltd., and a past president of CEW, told me. They should set gender targets throughout the company and get better at managing risks well ahead of time rather than just being reactive, she noted. “We still have a very, very long way to go.”

It’s also imperative that large institutional managers come up with a disciplined and consistent approach to keep companies accountable and drive cultural changes. They should take a long-term view, not let up when returns are good. As Louise Davidson, the chief executive of the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, told The Australian Financial Review this week in the wake of several corporate scandals, strong financial performance built on poor cultural practices is not sustainable. “Eventually chickens come to roost.”

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This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Andreea Papuc is a Bloomberg Opinion editor.

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