Targeting gender equality at CFA

 

To mark 16 Days of Activism and the theme of respect, members of the Gender Equality Working Group speak about what the Gender Equality Action Plan means for CFA.

 

CFA’s Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP) was released in 2021 and is the four-year roadmap to reducing barriers and to help achieve gender equality in CFA.

One of the ways CFA is delivering this activity and measuring action is through the Gender Equality Working Group (GEWG).

Mario Marii is Manager, HR Business Partnering and Talent Acquisition and is the People and Culture representative on the GEWG.

“Fifty-eight per cent of our paid workforce is female,” Mario said, “and we’ve grown female representation in leadership and management with appointments in key executive and operational roles. But more work is needed.”

“In my nine years here, things have changed a lot.

“CFA isn’t immune from the recruiting challenges and candidate shortages affecting all industries, so our focus will increasingly be on upskilling our current workforce. Developing capability from within.

“We’re also proactively promoting CFA roles to women that are in the non-traditional sectors. A lot of effort is going into recruiting women to vacant district mechanical officer roles as an example of this.”

Mario is a strong advocate for GEAP and believes it is worthwhile.

“It will require a rethink of many aspects of how we go about attraction and retention of women into the organisation," he said. "The GEAP is a good thing and it will force us to challenge ourselves and create positive culture where broader diversity initiatives will follow and grow. And while the targets are for employees I believe it will filter through to volunteers.”

Mark Narayan agrees. Mark is the Acting ACFO for D22 and is the Service Delivery representative on GEWG. He sees himself as a conduit between volunteers and other areas of CFA.

While relatively new to the role, Mark has a lot to offer. He’s acted as a mediator in the past and believes this skill will be useful in driving the activity that comes with the GEAP.

“I’m really proud of CFA as an organisation – we’re inclusive and equitable but we can always do more. I see myself as an advocate, a champion, bridging the gaps in areas where we need to do better.

"We need to take small steps and have honest conversations. If you push too hard it's counter intuitive. With volunteers we need to be asking what’s a realistic goal? As a volunteer, what do you want to achieve? What can you do right now?

"When I talk to BASOs and captains around recruitment and they’ve gotten enquiries from potential members I’ll often ask them ‘does this person have a sister who might be interested in joining, have they considered CFA, would they be interested in volunteering?’

"With lots of small steps change will happen before you know it rather than big large-scale change.”

 

Submitted by	Lerna Avakian