Cricket's head of People and Culture Marianne Roux will highlight ways in which women in sport can become more visible leaders, when she speaks to a conference on women in sport on Tuesday.
Ms Roux, a member of Cricket Australia’s Executive Team, said it was important for women in sport to put themselves forward for more senior positions and critical projects.
“Leadership is not different in sport to business, but the institutional barriers women face can be stronger or more unique. There are ways to overcome these barriers and become more visible as a female leader. It’s important for women to access networks and be visible to senior leaders as well as having confidence in their own abilities," she said.
“Organisations should aim to set targets and celebrate success stories publicly to create a positive ‘pull’ effect, while taking men on the journey to become champions for women’s issues to create ‘critical mass support’. It’s also important for sporting organisations to aim to provide accelerated and fast track development opportunities for women.”
The Strategy for Australian Cricket 2011-15 has a stated major aim to “grow and diversify cricket’s fan base, especially among young people and females and increase their passion for the game”. CA recognises to be Australia’s favourite sport it needs more female cricket fans, participants and volunteers and has a female engagement strategy designed to encourage more women and girls to watch, support and play cricket. Australian cricket’s aim is to be the number one sport for female viewership, fan passion, participation and women’s team success.
A significant step was taken at a governance level recently with Jacquie Hey nominated to become CA’s first female director. The former Managing Director of Ericsson Australia and NZ, who also held Managing Director roles with Ericsson in the UK, Ireland and Saudi Arabia, is currently a non-Executive Director with Bendigo & Adelaide Bank and SBS. CA Chairman Wally Edwards noted Jacquie was chosen on ability and would have been nominated regardless of gender.
Cricket Australia has also made some progress at the Executive level. For example, Kate Banozic, the Executive General Manager Business Advisory Services has led her department for more than a decade. Steph Beltrame joined the business in 2000 in an administrative role within the CEO’s office, rising to become CA's first General Manager of Media Rights.
The inaugural Asia Pacific World Sport & Women Conference 2012 looks at the world’s most popular sports and provides a global platform to explore ‘how’ and ‘why’ women consume sport and how to leverage this target market for greater commercial and social capital growth.
The conference will be held at Melbourne Cricket Ground from 8-9th October
First Posted 04 October, 2012 12:30PM AEDT
