Women in Australia’s Planning profession celebrate International Women’s Day tomorrow
with the message that the gender imbalance in the profession is disappearing.
The Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) currently boasts a woman Chief Executive Officer, a
woman National President, 5 out of 11 Board Directors, 5 of 9 Executive positions and
women Presidents in some of its State/Territory Divisions around Australia.
PIA CEO Kirsty Kelly said while PIA hasn’t consciously set out to achieve gender balance,
by its nature planning is focused on balance.
“Women are half of the population so it makes sense that we are equally represented in
leadership roles,” Ms Kelly said.
In 1978 a national survey conducted for PIA showed just 4.3% of the Institute’s membership
was made up of women at a time when women made up 35.6% of the Australian workforce.
Today, due to the work of influential women in planning and equal opportunity initiatives, the
planning profession in Australia is becoming increasingly balanced. In 2002 the proportion
had risen to 27% and by 2011/2012 the number of women members of the Institute
increased to 35%, a steady growth of 8%.
International Women’s Day is celebrated on the 8th March each year to recognise women’s
achievements throughout history. It is also known as the United Nations (UN) Day for
Women’s Rights and International Peace.
The first International Women’s Day occurred on March 19 in 1911. Eventually in 1977 the
UN General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN Day for
Women’s Rights and International Peace.
In her reflections on International Women’s Day, Queensland planning professional and PIA
Director Sonia Kirby said she was reminded how gender imbalance in the profession was
changing when a male colleague quipped he was outnumbered.
“I was leading a major strategic project to plan for the future of a heavy industry precinct – a
large area of future heavy industry, refineries, meat processing plants, intermodal facilities,
port, roads and rail,” Ms Kirby said.
“The project was successfully completed by a team of more than 20 professionals, but only 5
of them were males.
“I personally hadn’t taken any notice until one of our male colleagues made the observation
he was ‘outnumbered’. I promptly responded with ‘I can relate to that’.”
The story for women in planning is further encouraging when statistics of the younger people
in the profession are unveiled.
PIA figures show that in 2002 a total of 46% of first, second and third year graduates were
women. That number has jumped to just over 50% for 2012/2013.
In its Gender Equality Blueprint 2010, the Australian Human Rights Commission identified
‘women in leadership’ as a key priority finding that women are “seen as having less
leadership potential and their behaviours are evaluated less favourably”.
PIA would appear to be defying traditional perceptions of women in leadership with women
taking leadership roles from within the Young Planners Group to the National President’s
position.
Planning Institute Australia
