In Australia, we’re facing confronting statistics both around the gender gap between men and women and the number of women in leadership. According to the WGEA, the pay gap average is around 17.9% between males and females and 82.7% of CEOs of non-public sector companies are male. In addition to this only 19% of startups are led by females, according to the recent survey by Startup Muster.
Two Australian female led organizations focused on supporting women – startup DCC Jobs* and angel investment firm Forming Circles Global (FCG) are tackling these issues head on by enabling recruitment of women into companies (DCC) and funding women-led startups (FCG).
DCC Jobs*, launched in May 2015, is Australia’s only job site that screens companies based on policies and culture around supporting women. Founders Gemma Lloyd and Valeria Ignatieva, started DCC Jobs* after seeing common challenges faced by women working in industries under-represented by females.
In the short time since launch, DCC Jobs* has experienced overwhelming success with clients such as PwC, Origin Energy, IBM, Minter Ellison, Laing O’Rourke, Cue Clothing, ThoughtWorks and Curtin University advertising with the company.
Both founders are very active in the diversity and inclusion community – Gemma is a board member of IT Queensland and Females in IT & Telecommunications (FITT) and Valeria has served on the FITT committee for two years prior to DCC Jobs*.
“While we saw first-hand the challenges that exist in the IT industry, we also came across many companies who are passionate about diversity, with a huge focus on ensuring the workplace environment does not exclude women from pursuing rewarding careers,”
DCC Jobs* works hard to raise the profile of such companies and shares stories and commitment from industry leaders, through digital campaigns like the Australian Leaders in Gender Diversity campaign.
Working with clients and partners, DCC Jobs* are strong advocators for flexible working – the next event on this topic will be held in Sydney, with representatives from Telstra, GHD and Macquarie University sharing their insights and practical advice.
The women also provide support to female candidates through a range of events, webinars and free resources on topics such as personal branding, negotiation and other areas of professional development.
FCG, headed by angel investor Renata Cooper, will invest half a million dollars over three years in female-led technology startups, small business grants and Australian social enterprises doing good globally. FCG’s current portfolio of seven companies includes two US-based and five Australian companies. Renata is also a member of Scale Investors and a muru-D mentor.
In August 2015, FCG launched the Kickstart Your Business initiative – a $5000 grant plus mentoring opportunity with industry leaders. This week, DCC* were announced as the proud winners.
“We were overwhelmed with the responses from women-led/owned businesses to our spring Kickstart Your Business Grant. Diverse City Careers stood out and won the grant for showcasing their passion to place women into some of Australia’s top companies committed to creating ideal workplaces for them. Founders Valeria and Gemma have a clear vision of a more gender neutral Australia with inclusive workplaces and we hope winning the grant helps in realizing that goal,” said Renata Cooper.
“We are so pleased to have been awarded this grant. It’s so necessary for women to be supporting other women if we want to make a real change- both in the startup and corporate world,” stated Gemma.
For media enquiries, please contact Valeria Ignatieva: valeria@diversecitycareers.com.
*This article references Diversity City Careers or DCC. This is what WORK180 was known as when we first launched back in 2015. You can find out more about our story here.
