With a wealth of wisdom to share, two high-achieving women discussed all things business with young leaders at a round table event at Federation University to celebrate International Women’s Day on Thursday.
Hosted by CPA Australia’s Gippsland Branch and Federation Business School, the round table was the first of its kind in Gippsland.
CPA and McMillan director Wendy Glasson and Committee for Gippsland chief executive Mary Aldred, who will leave C4G in March to take up the role of chief executive of Franchise Australia, shared their experiences as women in professional leadership positions.
The only woman amongst seven directors at McMillan, Ms Glasson said it was important for women with experience to share “the hills they’ve climbed” with other young professionals.
“I think it is good to take a step back and see what we’ve achieved – see where we’ve come from and what females can contribute to the workforce and to society and to leadership roles and so on,” she said.
Ms Glasson was optimistic about the future of the workforce and the ways in which men and women would work together in professional environments into the future.
“With the last few years with digital that is impacting everyone, it means people can work, not necessarily in the office, they can work from home … and at night,” she said. E”I think also, the main thing for females is that males are different now too.
“Males want to be a part of family, they want to have a home life balance the same as what we do, so that certainly helps females to achieve what they want to do because the men want the same.”
Ms Glasson said a challenge would be convincing employers to realise that a man or a woman could be the right person for a particular job. “I think males also wanting to have a work/life balance will give opportunities to females to be able to take on the roles that the males may have traditionally done,” she said.
