My career started in institutional banking. I happened to be working at the time when the big banks were coming to terms with how to implement the Sex Discrimination Act and “what do we do about this women thing”. I had always been a feminist; I just didn’t know you could have a career as one.

While at the bank, an opportunity arose with this extraordinary woman, Ann Sherry. I was fortunate to work with her team on the very first privately funded paid maternity leave scheme. I worked as an analyst on the project, and we were successful.

Did you feel the backlash?

Absolutely! One of my first jobs on the project was to run training sessions on workplace sexual harassment. I mean in those days; we all experienced it. You didn’t know what to do, so you just put up with it.

I put my hand up to run the training and I was sexually harassed myself! I am no shrinking violet and not interested necessarily in being a popular person. And I don’t mind being the troublemaker and a bit argumentative. That is how it all started.

For me, you must really believe in the cause. The fight is real, especially in those days and you’re up against it. You need a relentless passion for change.  You wouldn’t have survived in the early days of diversity and inclusion if you didn’t have a bit of resilience!

How is personal resilience different to when people say, ‘I’m resilient?’

When you are a young woman, and you are trying to fight for equity for young women and other women. It can be gruelling.

All my life stages; getting pregnant, having my first baby, breastfeeding and returning to work, miscarrying, and neonatal death experiences have all added to my experience. As I was maturing, I was going through those things in my personal life that hadn’t yet played out in Australian workplaces. I was the one expressing breastmilk at work. When I was doing it, no one was! No one discussed matters around miscarriage or neonatal death. If you started working part-time or flexibly, that was the end of your career.

As my life was unfolding, so were the key issues in the gender space. My personal resilience helped them through that, and it built over the years.

Teamwork is everything. You are always a bunch of individuals working together, but you have to work in a way that’s respectful and connected, collaborative and supportive. Otherwise, you can’t achieve anything.

Yes, I think that diversity and inclusion is no longer a radical thing, and the dial has shifted so much that organisations understand that if you tap into the talents of your diverse population, you’ll be more successful.

You would be hard-pressed to find a senior leader in Australia who, even if they don’t believe it, ever say out loud that they didn’t think that there was a place for diversity and inclusion in their organisation, and that it might make them more productive, more innovative, and better at solving problems.

The challenge really for most organizations now is that there’s so much to do in this space and you must prioritise.

DCA members cover over 20% of the labour market and that’s a lot of organisations committed to diversity and inclusion. When I became the CEO of DCA in 2014, we had 250 members and now we have 1200 members. Our members include all the ASX-listed companies, big multinationals, the top law firms, the top professional services firms, all the major universities and big government departments.

Is there an industry you think would need to be more across this space?

There are always going to be outliers in any industry. I do think that the tech sector, the science space, and the start-up sector are not as far along as we would expect.

I think there’s a lot that the tech and start-up sectors can learn from other organisations that have been doing this work for a really long time. Even those who have been in the space for a long time are  not perfect, but they have a very sophisticated approach and they have learned as they have gone along, like we all do.

I’ve had so many career highlights! Every time we put out a piece of research at DCA, I am so proud of the impact.  We have been successful in stopping particular pieces of legislation from going through. Certainly, the policy agenda has changed now with the new government, but every success we’ve had, that was a real win.

For me, it’s all the big-picture stuff. I think about getting Australia’s very first private paid parental leave scheme done under Julia Gillard, the new reforms around Respect at Work and the work we have done as an organization to map out what the state of inclusion is in Australian workplaces, and then to guide individual organisations on that journey.

Earlier this year, we put out the very first Racism at Work report ever written in Australia. I am very proud of that piece of work and that our 1200 members are looking at the report and the work to be done. That, over time, along with other things that we are doing, will have an impact.

I’m enormously proud of making an impact and I’m so proud of the team because I might be the CEO, but I’ve got an extraordinary group of people that work with me. I learn from them, and we are much stronger as a whole.

I applied and the board took a chance on me. I had only been back in the workforce for a few years following a career break with my third child. I’m very, very grateful I received that opportunity.

I’m the daughter of migrants and they don’t really understand what diversity and inclusion is. I mean, they do in a way. My father’s gone now, but the funny thing is that my sister’s a doctor… When you grow up with a sister who’s a doctor and you’re in a migrant family, your achievements are never at the same level as being a doctor. I think that’s quite funny. I don’t think he ever really understood the concept of what I do. I am sure they are proud!

Diversity and inclusion is a really complex area. But, if you invest in it, as an organisation, you will become more productive, more innovative and you will be more successful. It’s a bit like a superpower.

Ignoring diverse talent will just limit you, especially at this time when there are talent shortages. But you must do it the right way.

Every International Women’s Day, a lot of well-meaning organisations, do their best to elevate the conversation around gender equality.

There’s a lot of ‘girl boss’ stuff that’s happening. But what the research shows is that these things won’t create change in workplaces. What creates change in the workplace for women is a shift in the existing structures and rules around how things are done.

We need to change our definition of leadership and create mainstream, flexible career paths so that women can fully contribute their talent, even when they’ve got caring responsibilities.

We need to fund an early childhood sector that is equitable and affordable across the economy because that will enable women to fully participate.

There’s a big role for government to create structural reform in the economy and support sectors like early childhood to try and focus on increasing the pay in the care economy. Organisations need to take a zero-tolerance approach to workplace sexual harassment and look at how they remunerate, and what they’re going to do about their gender pay gap.