Developing a different style of leadership for women

The state of women in Australia:  The bad news

It’s not easy to get up-to-date statistics for the state of Australian women. The last ABS National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing in this country dates to 2009, and back then:

• One in four women was suffering a mental health disorder at the time the survey was conducted, compared to one in six men
• More than twice as many women reported suffering anxiety disorders, compared with men
• 43% of Australian women had experienced mental illness at some time
• Mental health disorders represented the leading cause of disability in Australian women and the highest burden of non-fatal illnesses for women.

Those stats are alarming in their own right, but put them in the context of the additional burdens women have taken on in the past decade, and particularly in the past two years, and we have some shocking implications. 

Earlier this year, the Australian publisher Womens Agenda released its third biennial Ambition report, based on its 2021 survey. Burnout appeared in a significant number of its long-form answers for the first time, and an astonishing 39% of the surveyed women identified burnout as a major obstacle to their career and life ambitions. 

And of course, it’s not just in Australia. 

The health research indicates burnout is an occupational phenomenon, founded in the workplace, which really only permitted women to join in significant numbers around 60 years ago. 

My own mother had to resign from her profession as a teacher once she married – that was back in 1964, so less than 60 years ago, she was not allowed to be a teacher because she had married. 

Things changed quickly in the ‘60s and ‘70s and women joined the paid workforce in big numbers, but we never resigned the responsibilities attached to our more traditional roles as mother, wife, daughter, carer, social connector. 

We’ve been juggling all those roles and responsibilities ever since, and even before the pandemic hit us in 2020, the World Health Organisation had already added burnout to the International Classification of Disorders for the first time.

Burnout’s on the rise

Research by US expert Jennifer Moss suggests there are six causes of burnout:

• Unsustainable load
• Perceived lack of control
• Insufficient acknowledgement and recognition of what we’re doing
• Lack of relationship support
• Lack of fairness (financial, role)
• Mismatch of values and skills

At a time when women have more access to opportunity and more access to power than we’ve ever had, we are burning out in record numbers. And we’re not seeing much shift in phenomena such as the gender pay gap, which in Australia increased almost a full percentage point last year to 14.2%; nor in policy acknowledgement of inequity in childcare affordability and availability; nor in structural changes to keep women safe. 

So how does a woman who wants to step up and make her highest contribution in the world, to step up into leadership, do that in a way which still allows her to be healthy and happy?

The state of women in Australia: the good news

The good news for us women is that we have amazing opportunities right now.

• Women are crushing it as entrepreneurs, and we have some amazing Australian role models. Melanie Perkins at Canva, Katie Page at Harvey Norman, Fernwood’s Diana Williams, Janine Allis from Boost Juice, Leslie Gillespie from Bakers Delight… 
• They’re adopting different kinds of business models, based on different kinds of values, while still building sustainable, profitable businesses.
• The financial markets are affirming and reaffirming that companies with women on their boards and in their executive roles perform better than companies without.
• The hard, courageous work of women such as Grace Tame, Brittany Higgins, Christina Holgate, Rosie Batty and Julia Banks means that the sexual and gender struggles women in Australia have encountered for generations are front of mind.

So: lots of opportunities, but how we can be certain that all of these new opportunities don’t simply turn into even more unsustainable burdens of stress, expectation and pressure? How do we ensure we don’t burn out all this talent, commitment and drive?

THE ONE OF MANY HYPOTHESIS

At One of Many, the UK powerhouse coaching organisation that has accredited the foundation coaching program Women Leading Women offers, we propose that the power it took to get us to where we are now, to create amazing opportunities, to compete and be taken seriously as a force in the world, is NOT the kind of power that is going to be able to sustain us there.

We need a new kind of power to be the women the world needs us to be. We need to develop a new leadership style for women, different to the individualistic, competitive, aggressive, masculine style that’s formed our workplace and community cultures throughout the western world.

If you’re ready to step up and step into your own power — your female power — we’re ready to show you how. Contact us for a discovery chat.