Taking action to listen, learn and lead
Glen Eira City Council’s 2021 audit revealed a gender gap in leadership. Women made up 66% of the total workforce, but only 44% of senior leadership positions.
In its gender equality action plan, the council set out a strategy to address this.
The CEO Listen, Learn and Lead initiative embraced curiosity to create cultural change. It had 3 areas of focus:
- Listen: a structured way for the CEO to hear from employees about their experiences
- Learn: build understanding of structural and cultural barriers to women’s leadership progression
- Lead: the CEO championed inclusive leadership practices.
Glen Eira partnered with Women’s Health in the South East to hold focus groups. The CEO heard from 36 women and gender-diverse staff members with leadership aspirations about their experiences. Twenty-four senior leaders also met as a separate group. They discussed what had supported their career progression, and what barriers they faced.
Re-designing leadership
One message was resounding across every focus group. The lack of part time options for leadership roles was a critical barrier for women.
In response, Glen Eira re-designed leadership positions to support flexibility. From 2023, all new and vacated leadership roles include part-time options.
This was supported by:
- job advertisements promoting flexible work at all levels
- advice from People and Culture about job re-design
- implementation of a job-share pilot
- addressing unconscious bias in recruitment.
Alongside this, Glen Eira built its reputation as an employer of choice for women.
Change takes time
As Glen Eira's experience shows, change takes time, and it isn't always linear.
Audit data from 2021 showed the gap for part-time work among leadership.
The CEO Listen, Learn and Lead initiative took place in 2023 as part of the gender equality action plan.
Glen Eira's 2023 audit found that part-time leadership had decreased from 12 roles in 2021 to just 6. This showed that the problem had worsened. This highlighted the importance of the work underway.
Two years later, the introduction of flexible leadership design has reversed that trend.
What changed
Audit data from 2025 shows 17% of coordinators and 25% of team leaders now work part time. That's an increase from 6 part time leaders to 29. The number of women working at the coordinator level has also increased.
Removing full-time work as the default has improved gender representation in leadership. Glen Eira’s growing reputation as an employer of choice for women has also helped. Women now make up 54% of senior leadership, up from 44% in 2021. There are now also more women in the leadership pipeline, which will help to maintain this improvement.
This is a huge achievement. Glen Eira City Council is now building on this in its next gender equality action plan.
It is developing toolkits and resources to further help with job design for part-time roles. Work to remove barriers to higher duties opportunities for part-time staff and carers is also planned.
Advice for others
- Progressing gender equality requires shared leadership responsibility.
- Remember: the status quo is rarely neutral. Unchallenged norms and ways of working can reinforce inequality. Leaders must listen to staff on their experiences of the workplace.
- Bring in the experts. At Glen Eira, the partnership with Women's Health in the South East helped create safety. It also showed staff the council was serious about improving gender equality.
- Consider what your organisation’s workplace gender equality audit reveals about your leadership pipeline.
- Does the composition of leadership reflect overall workforce composition?
- Does it reflect the overall part-time workforce composition?
- Do recruitment and progression practices show gaps?
More information
Read about how you can address this through strategies in your gender equality action plan.
Use our leading practice resources guidance to strengthen your strategies.
Updated