[Music]
[Applause]
anyone who knows me knows that I love to
talk I’m a chatterbox just ask anyone I
like to think that I’m pretty good at
building rapport with my clients and
having spent just under a decade working
as a lawyer I told this is one skill
that really came in handy now I remember
this one
interstate client in particular we got
on like a house on fire we spent months
corresponding over email and chatting
out the phone and then the day finally
came when we would meet face-to-face so
walk into the meeting room and know
she’s I say hello and she kind of gives
me this odd look and she says oh you
must work for Miriam and I’m thinking
what what does she mean and then it
dawns on me she must think I’m the legal
secretary or the assistant perhaps not
that there’s anything wrong with having
those jobs but it seems that in her mind
the voice that she’s heard on the phone
all these months doesn’t seem to
correspond to the person standing in
front of her
rather unconvincingly at that point I
say no I am Miriam and then I start to
doubt myself and all those months of
rapport building just goes down the
drain at that point as I start again
from scratch to win her over I do of
course eventually win her over but it
was a lot of time and effort wasted and
ultimately yet another hit to my
confidence everything is I have other
experiences like that one and I know
plenty of other folks who do too so
today I want to reflect on how
stereotyping
unconscious bias and societal privilege
operates in such a way that creates an
unequal playing field for diverse
minority groups now let us start with
privilege privilege is basically
unearned advantage hey what the hell we
really didn’t do much to earn it
it’s basically access to or enjoying
rights because you belong to a
particular identity you’re part of a
club and here’s the thing I am owning up
to mine I am privileged hey and if you
could afford the ticket price you
probably are too and here’s the thing
privilege is relative and it’s
ultimately subjective and those who have
the most amounts of it they’re probably
not entirely conscious of it because for
the most part and as they say privilege
is largely invisible to those who have
it now workers of diversity and
inclusion consultants so I do spend a
hell of a lot of my day thinking about
these concepts think about this whose
faces do you see reflected back at you
on your television screens who holds the
top positions in the top ranks of
society now except for the few examples
here or there notice the general lack of
cultural diversity yeah of course the
photos that you’ve seen up there are
some of our top CEOs both Chancellor’s
of universities federal cabinet and TV
personalities in particular now what
we’re actually exposed to everyday fees
the assumptions that we make about
people we all tend to possess a strong
tendency towards people who physically
resemble ourselves
it’s called affinity bias now experiment
some show notes that the brain actually
categorizes by race in less than a
hundred milliseconds and hiring
decisions they’re actually made in the
first 10 seconds of a job interview now
according to Nobel Peace Prize recipient
neuroscientists Eric Kandel
he argues that up to 90% of the brains
behavior is actually unconscious so
these little shortcuts that the brain
makes is little implicit associations
these biases for the most part they are
done unconsciously and here’s the thing
inherent societal privilege means that
some of us are given a head start and
what I like to call the race of life and
it’s because of that head start not just
because we work extra extra hard but
they’ll always be miles ahead even if
all the participants are running at the
same speed and with the same ability
so that’s code for the same amount of
merits or in this case running the same
distance now it’s well documented that
women of minority groups face even
greater hurdles as you can see the face
both social and institutional barriers
to full equality not just because
they’re chicks but because of things
such as race religion sexuality or
disability they basically have a double
whammy and that concept is referred to
as intersectionality now as an
Australian woman who’s originally from
Afghanistan Ana Muslim I get the triple
whammy
I get sexism I get racism and I get a
slimmer phobia you know some people
boast about having a fan base well
ladies and gentlemen I have a troll base
such a clever bunch they’ve totally
mastered the art of intersectional
insults that’s not easy to do now if
only I had a dollar for every time
someone said I bet all appointments
should be on merit well of course they
should be but here’s the thing
are we assuming that the existing status
quo is somehow based entirely on merit
I’m not convinced that it is but hey
don’t take my word for it plenty of
other people think that too now I recall
the comments
not having with two senior managers it
was about corporate Australia shift to
start focusing on cultural diversity
within its leadership ranks now that
we’re doing better around gender
diversity one of them was a woman of
Asian Australian heritage and she was a
former colleague of mine the other a
colleague of hers a man of anglo-celtic
origin now it’s in the contests of this
discussion in which he turns to her the
Asian Australian woman and says there
you go another leg up the people like
you so she’s shocked cuz they’re
colleagues so she says nothing but I
can’t stay silent I literally put hand
out like this got up on my pedestal and
I said when you extend a hand to a group
of people who for far too long have been
effectively walking in the gutter
while others comfortably stroll the
streets
that ain’t no leg up that certainly is
not a hand out that’s simply leveling
the playing field now studies have shown
us that to simply attain the same number
of interviews as someone with an
anglo-saxon sounding name candidates
from indigenous Middle Eastern and Asian
sounding names have to submit a
ridiculous amount of more applications
so in this case when compared to Lisa
and Andrew and these are the real names
used in the study Nadine and Hassan have
to submit 64% more applications while
Ming and hung have to submit 68 percent
more applications guys we’re talking
about getting a call back to secure an
interview we’re not even talking about
the kind of biases that will kick in
once you actually add the interviewing
table now I can’t tell you the number of
crappy dad jokes I’ve had to make to
make interviewers feel comfortable when
they first meet me early on in the cup
in my career thanks for laughing now
despite the fact that up to 40% of
Australians have at least one parent
born overseas no doubt that’s probably
true of this arena that general
diversity is not reflected in the top
ranks of society now of course I’m not
suggesting there’s anything wrong with
this assuming it is truly based on a
meritocracy and for culturally diverse
women like me well you know that glass
ceiling it double-glazed for people like
me and that’s why I’ve got heels like
this to be able to crack through it only
a tiny percentage of ASX directors are
culturally diverse women at a CEO level
it is even worse so think about all
those stats that I’ve been telling you
about all those biases that we know
about what message does this send to a
generation of top HSC graduates who are
culturally diverse I’m hoping that by
this point some of you are convinced the
moral case for why change is required to
level that damn playing field but then
there’ll be others who won’t be
convinced unless we show them the dollar
figures hey don’t worry I’ve got it
covered
there is a thing called the diversity
dividend now gender diverse companies
are 15 percent more likely to outperform
their industry average while culturally
diverse companies they’re thirty five
percent more likely to outperform this
so diversity brings with it a
competitive advantage and here’s the
thing anyone at this point who’s
thinking oh she means tokenistic visible
diversity now I’m not asking you to
whack on photos of people that look like
me onto your website and tick a box
although that might be nice
no that’s not what I’m talking about
real diversity brings about diversity of
perspective and diversity of views and
diversity of thought ultimately and of
course the inevitable flow on effects is
that Australian businesses will be able
to better reflect and understand the
needs of a multicultural Australia who’s
ultimately their customer base so with
everything I’ve said I want us to pause
at this point and I’m going to ask each
of you to please stand yes please stand
if you can’t stand then I’ll ask you to
please raise one hand instead then you
get to stretch your legs now we’re not
doing a gogo lesson okay I’m going to
ask you a series of questions if the
answer to the question is yes I want you
to remain standing or with your hand up
if the answer to the question is no then
I want you to take a seat and the rest
of the questions will be directed at
those people who are still standing
please be as honest as you can question
one did you have a job during high
school
if yes keep standing if no please take
your seat
I quite like the power of ordering or
four thousand of you to do things cool
question two have you been discriminated
against vilified or abused because of
something you cannot change about
yourself and let’s watch the room as we
start to see people sit question three
at some point in your life you have felt
like you’ve been one of the few or the
only persons of your gender race faith
sexual orientation or disability in a
room in an educational or professional
setting a final question have you
attended a public school for the
majority of your education what knew
that would get a few of us okay thank
you for being brave enough to
participate by the way if I answered
those questions I would be standing at
this point with those of you that are
still standing in the arena I want us to
reflect on our own levels of privilege
and what that means for each of us I
want you to reflect on who’s standing
and who’s sitting without making anyone
feeling uncomfortable but let’s think
about that thank you for being brave and
please take a seat now
I want to tell you this there’s never
been a more important time for us to be
conscious of our unconscious biases and
societal privileges you know when you
driving and you know you’ve got a blind
spot back here you know it exists but
you can’t see it but you make it
concerted effort to turn your head each
and every time to look and to adjust
it’s not enough to know that we’ve got
these biases and that we have these
levels of privilege you’ve got to do
something about it we’re living in an
era where divisive politics has
successfully other eyes diverse minority
groups and normal eyes than a phobia
against them but constantly reading
derogatory headlines about diverse
minority groups and what’s worst as some
of these remarks are made by our elected
officials now I believe that when you
excuse bigotry in words you lay the
framework to give bigotry in action a
free pass we know that we have an urgent
issue of disenfranchisement amongst the
youth particularly those of diverse
backgrounds we want them to reach for
the stars but the thing is you can’t
aspire to be someone that you can’t see
you can’t address inequality equally you
can’t this is why I believe targets are
required across industries where
diversity of this kind is lacking now
why you are why targets because the
definition of insanity is doing the same
thing over and over again and expecting
different results
the existing status quo has not allowed
us to reach a true meritocracy so we
need additional measures to give us a
bit of a lunch because let’s face it
what gets measured ultimately gets done
thank you very much ladies enjoy
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
anyone who knows me knows that I love to
talk I’m a chatterbox just ask anyone I
like to think that I’m pretty good at
building rapport with my clients and
having spent just under a decade working
as a lawyer I told this is one skill
that really came in handy now I remember
this one
interstate client in particular we got
on like a house on fire we spent months
corresponding over email and chatting
out the phone and then the day finally
came when we would meet face-to-face so
walk into the meeting room and know
she’s I say hello and she kind of gives
me this odd look and she says oh you
must work for Miriam and I’m thinking
what what does she mean and then it
dawns on me she must think I’m the legal
secretary or the assistant perhaps not
that there’s anything wrong with having
those jobs but it seems that in her mind
the voice that she’s heard on the phone
all these months doesn’t seem to
correspond to the person standing in
front of her
rather unconvincingly at that point I
say no I am Miriam and then I start to
doubt myself and all those months of
rapport building just goes down the
drain at that point as I start again
from scratch to win her over I do of
course eventually win her over but it
was a lot of time and effort wasted and
ultimately yet another hit to my
confidence everything is I have other
experiences like that one and I know
plenty of other folks who do too so
today I want to reflect on how
stereotyping
unconscious bias and societal privilege
operates in such a way that creates an
unequal playing field for diverse
minority groups now let us start with
privilege privilege is basically
unearned advantage hey what the hell we
really didn’t do much to earn it
it’s basically access to or enjoying
rights because you belong to a
particular identity you’re part of a
club and here’s the thing I am owning up
to mine I am privileged hey and if you
could afford the ticket price you
probably are too and here’s the thing
privilege is relative and it’s
ultimately subjective and those who have
the most amounts of it they’re probably
not entirely conscious of it because for
the most part and as they say privilege
is largely invisible to those who have
it now workers of diversity and
inclusion consultants so I do spend a
hell of a lot of my day thinking about
these concepts think about this whose
faces do you see reflected back at you
on your television screens who holds the
top positions in the top ranks of
society now except for the few examples
here or there notice the general lack of
cultural diversity yeah of course the
photos that you’ve seen up there are
some of our top CEOs both Chancellor’s
of universities federal cabinet and TV
personalities in particular now what
we’re actually exposed to everyday fees
the assumptions that we make about
people we all tend to possess a strong
tendency towards people who physically
resemble ourselves
it’s called affinity bias now experiment
some show notes that the brain actually
categorizes by race in less than a
hundred milliseconds and hiring
decisions they’re actually made in the
first 10 seconds of a job interview now
according to Nobel Peace Prize recipient
neuroscientists Eric Kandel
he argues that up to 90% of the brains
behavior is actually unconscious so
these little shortcuts that the brain
makes is little implicit associations
these biases for the most part they are
done unconsciously and here’s the thing
inherent societal privilege means that
some of us are given a head start and
what I like to call the race of life and
it’s because of that head start not just
because we work extra extra hard but
they’ll always be miles ahead even if
all the participants are running at the
same speed and with the same ability
so that’s code for the same amount of
merits or in this case running the same
distance now it’s well documented that
women of minority groups face even
greater hurdles as you can see the face
both social and institutional barriers
to full equality not just because
they’re chicks but because of things
such as race religion sexuality or
disability they basically have a double
whammy and that concept is referred to
as intersectionality now as an
Australian woman who’s originally from
Afghanistan Ana Muslim I get the triple
whammy
I get sexism I get racism and I get a
slimmer phobia you know some people
boast about having a fan base well
ladies and gentlemen I have a troll base
such a clever bunch they’ve totally
mastered the art of intersectional
insults that’s not easy to do now if
only I had a dollar for every time
someone said I bet all appointments
should be on merit well of course they
should be but here’s the thing
are we assuming that the existing status
quo is somehow based entirely on merit
I’m not convinced that it is but hey
don’t take my word for it plenty of
other people think that too now I recall
the comments
not having with two senior managers it
was about corporate Australia shift to
start focusing on cultural diversity
within its leadership ranks now that
we’re doing better around gender
diversity one of them was a woman of
Asian Australian heritage and she was a
former colleague of mine the other a
colleague of hers a man of anglo-celtic
origin now it’s in the contests of this
discussion in which he turns to her the
Asian Australian woman and says there
you go another leg up the people like
you so she’s shocked cuz they’re
colleagues so she says nothing but I
can’t stay silent I literally put hand
out like this got up on my pedestal and
I said when you extend a hand to a group
of people who for far too long have been
effectively walking in the gutter
while others comfortably stroll the
streets
that ain’t no leg up that certainly is
not a hand out that’s simply leveling
the playing field now studies have shown
us that to simply attain the same number
of interviews as someone with an
anglo-saxon sounding name candidates
from indigenous Middle Eastern and Asian
sounding names have to submit a
ridiculous amount of more applications
so in this case when compared to Lisa
and Andrew and these are the real names
used in the study Nadine and Hassan have
to submit 64% more applications while
Ming and hung have to submit 68 percent
more applications guys we’re talking
about getting a call back to secure an
interview we’re not even talking about
the kind of biases that will kick in
once you actually add the interviewing
table now I can’t tell you the number of
crappy dad jokes I’ve had to make to
make interviewers feel comfortable when
they first meet me early on in the cup
in my career thanks for laughing now
despite the fact that up to 40% of
Australians have at least one parent
born overseas no doubt that’s probably
true of this arena that general
diversity is not reflected in the top
ranks of society now of course I’m not
suggesting there’s anything wrong with
this assuming it is truly based on a
meritocracy and for culturally diverse
women like me well you know that glass
ceiling it double-glazed for people like
me and that’s why I’ve got heels like
this to be able to crack through it only
a tiny percentage of ASX directors are
culturally diverse women at a CEO level
it is even worse so think about all
those stats that I’ve been telling you
about all those biases that we know
about what message does this send to a
generation of top HSC graduates who are
culturally diverse I’m hoping that by
this point some of you are convinced the
moral case for why change is required to
level that damn playing field but then
there’ll be others who won’t be
convinced unless we show them the dollar
figures hey don’t worry I’ve got it
covered
there is a thing called the diversity
dividend now gender diverse companies
are 15 percent more likely to outperform
their industry average while culturally
diverse companies they’re thirty five
percent more likely to outperform this
so diversity brings with it a
competitive advantage and here’s the
thing anyone at this point who’s
thinking oh she means tokenistic visible
diversity now I’m not asking you to
whack on photos of people that look like
me onto your website and tick a box
although that might be nice
no that’s not what I’m talking about
real diversity brings about diversity of
perspective and diversity of views and
diversity of thought ultimately and of
course the inevitable flow on effects is
that Australian businesses will be able
to better reflect and understand the
needs of a multicultural Australia who’s
ultimately their customer base so with
everything I’ve said I want us to pause
at this point and I’m going to ask each
of you to please stand yes please stand
if you can’t stand then I’ll ask you to
please raise one hand instead then you
get to stretch your legs now we’re not
doing a gogo lesson okay I’m going to
ask you a series of questions if the
answer to the question is yes I want you
to remain standing or with your hand up
if the answer to the question is no then
I want you to take a seat and the rest
of the questions will be directed at
those people who are still standing
please be as honest as you can question
one did you have a job during high
school
if yes keep standing if no please take
your seat
I quite like the power of ordering or
four thousand of you to do things cool
question two have you been discriminated
against vilified or abused because of
something you cannot change about
yourself and let’s watch the room as we
start to see people sit question three
at some point in your life you have felt
like you’ve been one of the few or the
only persons of your gender race faith
sexual orientation or disability in a
room in an educational or professional
setting a final question have you
attended a public school for the
majority of your education what knew
that would get a few of us okay thank
you for being brave enough to
participate by the way if I answered
those questions I would be standing at
this point with those of you that are
still standing in the arena I want us to
reflect on our own levels of privilege
and what that means for each of us I
want you to reflect on who’s standing
and who’s sitting without making anyone
feeling uncomfortable but let’s think
about that thank you for being brave and
please take a seat now
I want to tell you this there’s never
been a more important time for us to be
conscious of our unconscious biases and
societal privileges you know when you
driving and you know you’ve got a blind
spot back here you know it exists but
you can’t see it but you make it
concerted effort to turn your head each
and every time to look and to adjust
it’s not enough to know that we’ve got
these biases and that we have these
levels of privilege you’ve got to do
something about it we’re living in an
era where divisive politics has
successfully other eyes diverse minority
groups and normal eyes than a phobia
against them but constantly reading
derogatory headlines about diverse
minority groups and what’s worst as some
of these remarks are made by our elected
officials now I believe that when you
excuse bigotry in words you lay the
framework to give bigotry in action a
free pass we know that we have an urgent
issue of disenfranchisement amongst the
youth particularly those of diverse
backgrounds we want them to reach for
the stars but the thing is you can’t
aspire to be someone that you can’t see
you can’t address inequality equally you
can’t this is why I believe targets are
required across industries where
diversity of this kind is lacking now
why you are why targets because the
definition of insanity is doing the same
thing over and over again and expecting
different results
the existing status quo has not allowed
us to reach a true meritocracy so we
need additional measures to give us a
bit of a lunch because let’s face it
what gets measured ultimately gets done
thank you very much ladies enjoy
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
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