WOMEN IN DECISION MAKING
The Government wishes to see more women appointed to
both private sector and public sector boards. To draw
out best practice and strategies for success, OSW commissioned
two research papers: Women's Participation on Commonwealth
and Private Sector Boards and Women in Public and Private
Sector Senior Management. It is expected that these
papers will be available later this year.
Executive
Search Pilot Programme in government
A focussed strategy will be tested in Commonwealth
Departments. OSW is implementing a pilot programme
with a small number of government departments aimed
at evaluating the effectiveness of an executive search
process on improving the participation rates of women
on Commonwealth boards and bodies. A similar successful
scheme has operated in South Australia and elements
of this project have served as a model for the pilot.
Appoint database
The Appoint database is a monitoring system used by
the OSW to provide whole of Government information
on the appointment of women to Commonwealth bodies.
Appoint data is collected on a six monthly basis. OSW
is currently the only user of this aggregated information.
Some departments use the system for annual reporting
purposes.
Political
representation
A revised and updated version of Every Woman's Guide
to Getting into Politics, a non-partisan, user-friendly
handbook providing information and advice to women
interested in getting into parliament was published
in December 1996 and is expected to be available on
the Internet by June 1997 (http://www.nla.gov.au/osw/).
The handbook is available free of charge on request.