When I was a younger woman I determined to be a lawyer — 'Not a very feminine career choice, dear,' as my careers mistress told me — at a time when female university graduates were so rare as to be celebrated in gold leaf on school honours boards.
It is no longer so. Women have, since the 1970s, been graduating with first class honours in what were once men-only disciplines (engineering, astrophysics, law, medicine, business administration) and starting out in a career which, we were told, would over time be rewarded through the 'pipeline' principle.
One of the hardest lessons for women to learn is that merit and hard work will not be rewarded like that.
The latest report from the EOWA, Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency's 2008 Australian Census of Women in Leadership discloses a lamentable truth. Over the past two years the proportion of women in leadership roles has gone backwards faster than any 'shrinkage' of leadership opportunities.
Just 2 per cent are chairs of the boards of ASX 200 companies. There has been a drop from 3 per cent to 2 per cent of women CEOs, and a drop of 0.4 per cent in the numbers of women board members to 8.3 per cent.
Even the 'pipeline' has been scoured. Women executive managers (that is, managers who report directly to their CEO) make just 10.7 per cent — 182 women out of a total of 1700 — which is an inadequate representation of powerful, smart, savvy and committed women.
These companies make policy decisions that affect investors, business operators, employees, customers and consumers, without the input of women. They include our major financial institutions (and just look where they have taken us).
The facts speak. The proportion of companies with no female executive managers has risen over two years from 39.5 per cent to 45.5 per cent.
Anna McPhee, the chief executive of EOWA, attributed the flop in women's progress to outdated workplace practices, hostile environments and fewer opportunities for women.
Other commentators have predicted, with the economic crisis, that women who have recently taken advantage of 'diversity' and leadership programs will be the first, and worst, affected by cutbacks and safe practices in firms and other institutions falling back on the tried-and-true experienced male managers among their colleagues.
Some women assert that they have never experienced discrimination, and that the poor representation of women