MAYOR Karen Williams had a restaurant full of women giggling as she recounted times being a woman had been difficult.
Cr Williams, who worked in the money markets and ran her own florist shop before taking to politics, was speaking at the 11th anniversary of the Redland Chamber of Commerce’s Women in Business meeting.
She said every failure had made her more determined to succeed.
The crowd laughed as she dismissed having a “boob job” to win the mayoralship and how some Japanese bankers called her “Madonna” after the pop star.
But there were gasps as she told how a male boss threw a book across the room at her after she mistakenly deposited $14million into the wrong account while working for a merchant bank.
Although the treatment of women in the workforce has changed since the 1980s, Cr Williams said there was still inequity in many workplaces.
She said a Curtin University study into women leaders in 2010 found 51 per cent of ASX200 companies did not have a woman on the board.
It also found women held 10 per cent of executive leadership roles in ASX200 companies and 45 per cent of those companies did not have a woman on in their executive leadership team.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data released last week showed the gender pay gap in the country was 18 per cent, the worst it has been for 20 years.
“This means women are earning 81.8 cents for every dollar a man makes,” Cr Williams said.
“So issues exist not only ensuring women are given opportunities to lead, but also in ensuring all women are given equality in pay and conditions.”
However, Cr Williams said conditions for women were improving and at the highest level in council, women had equal representation.
She said three of the city’s six general managers are female and include the chief financial officer, human resources general manager and the community and customer care general manager.
A third of the city’s senior management group and executive leadership team were women.
Cr Williams also told the group domestic violence was an issue that affected many women and the city would hold an event to raise awareness about the issue on November 29.
A further fundraising event, White Christmas, would be held on December 13.
