Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace: Gender Equality and Equity

Diversity and inclusion in the workplace is imperative for a sustainable, competitive and innovative company and society at large. Diversity also goes beyond the outward perception of a company – it includes how the internal structures work and signal the value systems of an organization’s management or leadership team.

Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace: Gender Equality and Equity

In the wake of international women’s day, celebrated on the 8th of March, we will look at how gender is incorporated into diversity metrics. It is important to acknowledge that gender diversity is more than just men and women. Moreover, even though Norway is positioned well with regards to the inclusion of women, there is more to be done here and abroad to include the LGBTQI+ community, minority groups and people of colour.

Once again we will look at both equality and equity. In a previous session we learnt that equality ensures that everyone has the same resources, whereas, equity mandates that resources are distributed based on the needs of the recipients. In this conversation we will look at how a history of gender discrimination requires attention and a conscious allocation of resources so that our gender diverse community is truly included within our workplaces.

Speakers

Astrid Sundberg

Astrid is Chief HR Officer at Shortcut, a fast-growing tech company that produce apps. Given her background in innovative, hyper-growth companies, she’s a pioneer of the employee experience with a particular passion for diversity & inclusion, employer branding, culture and wellbeing.

Starting off her career at BBT, (now integrated into Randstad), she has 25 years experience within the field of human resources and leadership, specialising in STEM sector recruitment. Her biggest strength is being an integrator who helps create and grow workplace communities that cultivate a sense of belonging and purpose.  Astrid is a positive advocate of workplace diversity for understanding, accepting, and valuing differences between people as well as an ally for gender equality. Astrid is a Google certified #IAmRemarkable facilitator – a workshop empowering women and underrepresented groups within the workplace and beyond.

Chisom Udeze

Chisom is an Economist and entrepreneur who holds multiple undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. She is Nigerian and has lived and worked in six countries across three continents. In addition to actively building and driving growth at her companies, Chisom works as a consultant for intergovernmental organizations and SMEs across industry sectors. She is highly skilled in areas such as strategy, research, project design and execution, data analysis, and monetization. She is a fearless advocate for diversity, opportunity, and inclusion across social, economic, political, and professional lines. She believes in accountability and actionable processes, and that our words have no value if our actions contradict them.

Jacob Thomas

Jacob Thomas is one of Australia’s most prominent leaders in sexual orientation and gender identity. A nonbinary person living in Melbourne, Jacob uses the pronouns they/them and works at the Monash Warwick Alliance as their International Partnerships Manager, where they also guest lecture in Global Studies and Community Development.

In 2016 Jacob received the Queen’s Young Leader Award, recognising Jacob’s work on suicide prevention for Australia’s LGBTIQ community. Jacob previously sat as the Coordinator of the Commonwealth Youth Gender and Equality Network (CYGEN) and represented the network at international levels such as the 61st session of UN Women’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and the ECOSOC Youth Forum in New York, the (former) Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the 11th Commonwealth Youth Forum in London, and at AIDS2018 in Amsterdam.

Jacob advises public, private and non-profit organisations on issues related to the LGBTIQ community, diversity and inclusion policies, and queer-friendly work environments. They are a mentor to many queer, allies and senior leaders in Melbourne and internationally.

As a speaker and facilitator, Jacob has presented a TEDx Talk at QUT on the ideas around gender identity, is a contributor to Archer Magazine and Star Observer, and has written a personal essay for BuzzFeed about their experience coming out as nonbinary.

Jacob is interested in queer perspectives in intercultural learning, feminist methodologies and youth leadership. They are currently undertaking their PHD in Public Health and Preventative Medicine at Monash University. In their spare time Jacob is a performer, designer and sometimes drag artist.

Moderator

Hyacinth Walters-Olsen

Hyacinth is a seasoned professional with a wealth of knowledge and experience from her varied roles in senior management positions across several industries, over the past 20+ years. The key focus area of these roles has been in developing customer relationships and people/team/business development. Hyacinth is highly adaptable and has strong interpersonal competence, cognitive flexibility, has great attention to detail and is emotionally intelligent. She is a talented leader whose main passion is developing people.