Pru Goward 

Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner

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Pru Goward was appointed Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner for a five-year term from 30 July 2001.

Ms Goward has brought a range of private and public sector experience to the position and has worked closely on women's rights issues for several years, in particular as head of the Commonwealth Government’s Office of the Status of Women from 1997 to 1999.  Before that, she had been a national affairs journalist and political commentator with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for 19 years.
 
Ms Goward completed an Arts Economics degree with Honours from the University of Adelaide while teaching high school in Adelaide during the 1970's. Over the past 10 years she has also run her own media management company, been a freelance newspaper and magazine columnist and a part-time lecturer in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Canberra. She is also a published author.

Ms Goward is married with three daughters.

 

Interview with Pru Goward

How did you come to be of the view that favours Paid Maternity Leave for women? Was this a personally held view or did it emerge from researching the issue?

It emerged from researching the issue. It was only after seeing the return to work figures that I realised so many women were coming back to work with young babies (not the case in my day). Hearing the evidence from employers’ groups and unions only confirmed that many young families have no choice but to have both parents working when their babies are tiny. While the idea of enterprise bargaining fixing the problem seemed attractive, it is unlikely to ever extend to lower-paid and lower-skilled workers, and for this reason I believe a national scheme is necessary. Primarily, I saw it as a health and wellbeing issue for women and their babies that was well over due, and was strongly supported by evidence I received from health professionals. However, as we increasingly examined the conditions under which women in Australia work with children, it was clear that the lack of support was also affecting the number of women wanting to have children and the number of children they could have.

What difficulties have you encountered in wanting to secure a national scheme for Paid Maternity Leave for women and how are you mentally coping with this challenge?

There are a range of social critics and people in political and business circles who are opposed to the proposal. The scheme is very affordable ($213 million a year for 85,000 women) so the objections are not about the cost. This is frustrating, but completely understandable and it will be a challenge winning them over. I am a strong believer in evidence-based arguments, and I think the Australian public is always interested in factual information. The facts are on the side of paid maternity leave, so the facts will do me.

Given that the disadvantages that women experience in the workplace, for example, the gender pay gap and lack of opportunities for promotion for women employees, is as a consequence of being the bearers of and the primary carers for children, what do you see as being necessary to change policies and mindsets that continue to not accommodate the life experience of women who work and mother.

Firstly, we have to value parenting more and encourage the development of work and family practices that create and maintain happy families rather than work against them. We have tried ignoring the needs of working parents and all we have achieved are unhealthy levels of stress that result in not having enough family time. It’s time to take positive steps to strengthen families and paid maternity leave is a fundamental step along the road to stronger parent-child bonding.

We also need a change in mind set to ensure men feel part of families and want to take an equal share of the parenting load. No man ever died wishing he had spent more time in the office and we need to ensure our young fathers have the opportunities to care for their children that their fathers did not.

What do you see as being some of the significant successes you have achieved in your appointment as Sex Discrimination Commissioner?
That’s really for others to answer, but clearly the country is now having a very vocal and thorough discussion about these issues which was not the case even two years ago. The discussion needs focus though and paid maternity leave has provided this focus.

What are your thoughts on the proposed amendments to the HREOC Bill, which as I understand, will lead to your position and the other commissioners being replaced by 3 generic commissioners and will require the new Commission to seek approval by the Attorney-General to intervene in court proceedings that raise human rights issues.

The Commission's position on the Australian Human Rights Commission Legislation Bill 2003 can be accessed on our website at www.humanright.gov.au 

 

Since taking on the position of Sex Discrimination Commissioner, I have found the Sex Discrimination Act to be badly in need of jurisprudence and case law so I am keen to see that we are able to intervene as often as we believe to be useful. The potential loss of specific titles such as Sex Discrimination Commissioner would be frustrating for members of the community who want to take their concerns to someone who is identified with the issue and has expertise in this area. The problem for Commissioners is that this expertise takes time and experience to develop. If Commissioners were responsible for any and every form of discrimination it makes it much harder to develop an expertise in any of these very complex social and legal areas. However, with good will, the Commission should be able to ensure that, regardless of our titles, we will retain our specialist areas of interest. We will be de factos rather than de jures!

What action are you taking about these proposed changes to HREOC?

The Commission has already provided a submission to the Senate on the proposed legislation and it is now a matter for parliament. (see website above)

What advice would you give to other women who are interested in being employed in senior leadership positions related to women’s issues in the public sector?
Ensure you have a very thick skin, because even among women you will never please everyone and sometimes not even a majority.

Like all leadership positions, it is important that the positions you take and the changes you propose are evidence-based and relevant to community interests. If this is not the case then you should be asking why you are spending time on it.

Have patience and learn the joys of repetition and iteration - saying or doing something once is never enough.

If you are in the public sector, remember that you are a public servant and there are certain limitations accompanying this. If you are in public life, remember that yours will never be the only view point. Learn to understand and proactively out-argue your opponents.

To view the speeches and Reports by Pru Goward on Paid Maternity Leave see the Website of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission at
www.humanrights.gov.au