KIAMA’S Diann Rodgers-Healey has been named as one the Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence for 2014.
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Dr Rodgers-Healy was placed on the list in the diversity category in recognition of her work in trying to better leadership equality between men and women.
Dr Rodgers-Healy is the founder and executive director of the Australian Centre for Leadership for Women (ACLW), an on-line resource that aims to help increase the number of women in leadership positions.
“I think of it as a research think tank, it allows us to bring together men and women from different social groups and look at the things like conscious and unconscious bias that are keeping women out of leadership positions,” Dr Rodgers-Healy said.
“We produce a lot of research into those areas and it’s a great way to bring the issue to the mainstream .”
Dr Rodgers-Healey founded the ACLW in 2000 and was drawn to the issue after seeing women passed over for leadership positions due to their gender.
‘‘I could just never understand why extremely capable women with proven track records are seemingly barred from positions of leadership just because of their gender and I think we need to encopurage more women to be confodent with about their abilities and attributes.
‘‘I think in away this is a testament to the (ACLW) program, over the last 14 years it’s been a great platform for men and women to give back and try to develop new pathways to help women into positions of leadership.’’
For Dr Rodgers-Healy, being named on the list is a source of personal pride, but she is also hoping it will make things easier for the ACLW.
“I was shocked to be named, the awards have been running for two or three years now and some really influential women have been named and it’s a real honour to be included.
“For me it’s also recognition of the women and men who have contributed to the programs and research we’ve done and it’s also great publicity for the ACLW.
“Being a non-profit organisation means that everything we do is through people volunteering, so hopefully an award like this might be able to help us attract some funding.”