Family Friendly Workplaces

When engineering executive Diana Zagora got her start in the engineering and construction industry, it was the late 90s and family-friendly workplace policies were nonexistent. The sector was so male-dominated at the time, her first worksite – setting up for the Sydney 2000 Olympics – didn’t even have a women’s restroom.“A port-a-loo had to be brought in for me because there were only men’s toilet facilities,” Zagora tells Women’s Agenda on episode four of the Family Friendly Workplaces podcast. “The dunny that was brought in was nicknamed Diana’s Dunny.“And then as the project went on there were more women on-site and better, more permanent facilities were established.”While the industry has made a lot of progress since then, engineering and construction still don’t have the strongest reputations when it comes to being family friendly, or even women-friendly.The latest data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency shows that the gender pay gap in heavy and civil engineering construction significantly exceeds the national private sector average across all gender pay gap metrics. “The culture has definitely shifted to be more inclusive,” says Zagora. “As a young engineer back in the late 90s, there were a lot of challenges.“Now, there’s more acceptance and greater awareness of people of different ages and from different ethnicities, genders, sexualities and religious backgrounds.”Looking back, Zagor says progress in the industry over the last 25 years has come in “leaps and bounds”.But she, like other leaders advocating for working parents and carers in the sector, believes there’s room for growth.“We need to increase female participation in engineering,” she said.“Having a workplace that promotes flexibility, that has parental leave and access to carer’s leave and promotes those benefits, as well as recruits and values diversity in their workforce is tremendously important.”The CEO of Infrastructure Australia, Adam Copp, has led his organisation through the Family Friendly Workplaces accreditation process. He shares the process it took on the podcast and explains how he built a business case to show what kind of benefits his organisation would reap by taking steps to become more inclusive. Since making the changes, Copp says the benefits are even more than they could have expected. “A family-friendly workplace is actually a really good thing to do, I think morally, but it's also good for business,” he said.“It helps with your talent attraction and wellbeing, helps with productivity, and helps with the brand of you as an employer.”

Working in media was once no place for working parents but that’s changing.The media industry, where workers are expected to stay connected, informed and deliver 24/7, may not at first glance seem like a place that’s inclusive for parents and carers.  But broader trends towards family-friendly conditions, flexibility and inclusivity have seen employers in this space driving change in unexpected ways.  The media landscape is constantly evolving, and professionals in the industry are regularly having to evolve with it, whether that be through developing new skills, working across multiple platforms or staying on top of algorithms.  Speaking on the Family Friendly Workplaces podcast, the Village co-founder, Lauren Thornborough, says the “fast-paced” industry is an exciting one but can be challenging.  Her own experience as a parent navigating the media world inspired her to co-found a support and advocacy group for parents in the industry.  “When I had my first child, I took six and a half months off, which is a short timeframe for some people,” Thornborough says.  “But I was quite shocked when I came back from maternity leave, how much had changed and evolved in such a short space of time.” “I was used to being a high-functioning employee, and yet, I had to come back in and almost retrain myself. You cannot just rest on your laurels. You need to constantly be learning.” Thornborough and her co-founder, Louise Wilson, are ambitious professionals with more than three decades of combined experience in the industry, and both also happen to be working mums.  “Media has one of the worst churns of all the industries,” she says.“[It’s] such a shame to see talent going out the door because we can’t support them appropriately.“Media is quite a young workforce, so it’s great when you’re in your 20s – all the social occasions that are available to you – but as you move later on in life, maybe that’s not so important to you, and of course if you have family that sort of compounds that issue.“[It’s] not often that you see people in their 40s, in their 50s, in their 60s thriving in this industry.”Thornborough says this is mainly because of a lack of visibility and support for staff juggling family obligations with career goals.In Australia, employers in many industries are working to improve conditions for working parents and carers, but the media world has a long way to go. According to data from the Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency, the advertising and media sector has a gender pay gap of up to 26 per cent, which is higher than the national average.  Nevertheless, there is progress being made to improve conditions, with 60% of the media firms that completed the Family Friendly Workplaces benchmarking assessment passing, as well as certified employers ranking high on flexible work and work-life balance. Speaking on the latest episode of the Family Friendly Workplaces podcast, the founding editor of Women’s Agenda, Angela Priestley, says she’s been lucky...

'Family comes first': How innovative executives in the pharmaceutical sector are creating family-friendly workplacesIn this special podcast series produced by Family Friendly Workplaces and Women’s Agenda, we will step into different sectors in Australia to spotlight the challenges working parents face while also speaking to employers carving out new ways of working.  In this episode, we find out how employers in the pharma sector are redefining corporate culture and making workplaces a space for workers to thrive, regardless of their caring obligations or gender. Women's Agenda podcaster Dinushi Dias has a chat with leaders at Novartis and Medicines Australia to hear how they're doing it.

From mining and engineering to tech and media, can employers in fast-changing industries grappling with both global and local challenges really function as family-friendly workplaces? In a special podcast series produced by Family Friendly Workplaces and Women’s Agenda, we will step into different sectors in Australia to spotlight the challenges working parents face while also speaking to employers carving out new ways of working. These employers are helping to design a blueprint for workplaces that will enable more workers to thrive, no matter what their caring responsibilities are at home. In this week’s episode, Women’s Agenda founding editor Angela Priestley takes a closer look at the mining and energy industry. Horror stories around sexual harassment, bullying and misconduct have emerged from the sector in recent years, even prompting a government inquiry in Western Australia. At the same time, the industry is grappling with talent shortages, with its male-dominated teams scattered out to some of the most remote parts of the country and many working in fly-in-fly-out roles. 

Episode OverviewThe legal sector has long been considered a demanding and often inflexible career path, particularly for parents. But is the tide turning? In this episode, we unpack the evolution of family-friendly policies in the legal profession. From the increasing adoption of flexible work arrangements to gender-neutral parental leave, the sector is seeing promising shifts—but challenges remain.Key Topics CoveredThe impact of remote work, AI, and evolving tech on flexibility in the legal profession.A look at gender disparities in leadership and pay across the sector.Personal stories of resilience and advocacy from legal professionals who balance family and career.Insights into how leadership and culture are shaping more inclusive workplaces.Special GuestsAlison Deitz, Managing Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright, shares her groundbreaking journey as one of the first partners to navigate parental leave and flexible work arrangements.Silje Andersen-Cooke, Lawyer and Director at the Australian Multiple Birth Association, offers a personal perspective on managing a demanding career with four young children.Emma Walsh, Founder of Parents At Work and Family Friendly Workplaces, explores the role of leadership in driving culture change and shares her vision for a family-friendly legal sector.Fast FactsWomen make up over 55% of solicitors in Australia but represent just 35% of partners in the top 50 firms.34 out of 69 legal workplaces report a gender pay gap larger than the national average.Women are significantly underrepresented at the bar, with only 23% of barristers in NSW.Tune In To Learn:How leading firms are transforming their policies to support family life.The role of AI in creating efficiency and flexibility for legal professionals.Why leadership and culture are critical in enabling family-friendly workplaces.