This reaction to the Women in Leadership awards list was originally posted to Figueredo's LinkedIn.
The Australian Financial Review has released their rebranded Women in Leadership awards list and I must say, I’m extremely disappointed in the direction they have taken.
This is not an article about tearing the award winners down, the opposite. I’ve scanned through all the category winners and listees and they’re all doing amazing work. However, it’s about the missed opportunity to highlight women from diverse backgrounds, especially those whose work often goes unrecognised.
As a former Westpac AFR 100 Women of Influence Category Winner, I was excited by the March announcement that the awards would be back. But now, I’m angry.
My issue is with the rebranding and the corporatisation of the awards themselves.
It is obvious that what made the original awards special was the active pursuit of equally recognising women from all fields - corporate sector, NFP, public sector, startups etc. In particular, the awards actively championed the inclusion of First Nations, culturally and linguistically diverse women and young women in leadership.
This is the polar opposite of the new awards, which only has one woman of colour in Tammy Bedard, who is of Cuban and Basque descent. While race and cultural background were never a defining factor of 100WOI, each of the previous years' cohorts were substantially more diverse than this year's.
There were three main reasons why the previous structure of AFR’s women in leadership worked:
1. There were 100 opportunities to recognise 100 women each year
2. Expanded categories
3. Impact-driven purpose
The purpose of the previous awards were to ‘recognise the bold and brave women making change in Australia today, and inspiring the women of tomorrow’.
Instead, the new list focuses on ‘highlighting the work and achievements of those poised to enter the upper echelons of corporate decision-making’. It’s no wonder the results are the way they are.
Categories such as Social Enterprise and Not-for-profit, Diversity and Inclusion, Innovation, Public Sector and Business and Entrepreneurship were cut and replaced with categories such as Retail and Resources, industrials & utilities. In my opinion, losing these categories was the wrong decision. How can you fairly compare startups or small NFPs against multibillion dollar companies such as Rio Tinto or KPMG? Simply put, you can’t. It’s sad to think of all the women in my year and others who would not stand a chance against the new criteria.
Whether you like awards or not, recognition by companies such as the AFR changes lives and opens new doors and opportunities. It did for me.
There is a tried and true saying, ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’, and well, AFR you’ve missed the mark.
Do better.
Caitlin Figueredo is the co-founder of the Girls Takeover Parliament program and CEO of Jasiri Australia, former co-chair of the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition, and 2024 ACT Young Australian of the Year. She is the youngest winner of Australia’s 100 Women of Influence 'Young Leader' category.
