​​IWD: Students quiz GI Hub leaders on how innovation and technology can advance gender equality​

The world is not on track to achieve gender equality by 2030, a target that was set in 2015 as goal five of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Eight years later, concerning gender gaps remain across the world, and early research shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a regressive effect on gender equality.

8 March marks UN International Women’s Day (IWD), which provides a opportunity to reflect on this struggle for better gender equality. The UN theme for this year’s IWD is ‘DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality’. This theme is aligned with the priority theme for the upcoming 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, ‘Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.’

To mark IWD 2023, we approached students undertaking a MSc in Infrastructure Investment and Finance at University College London and asked them to quiz the GI Hub leadership on how innovation and technology can advance gender equality. We hope you enjoy the Q&A below.

Q: What are the key opportunities for achieving gender diversity in the infrastructure industry, and how is the GI Hub addressing them?

Marie Lam-Frendo, Chief Executive Officer: There are many opportunities in infrastructure, and not only in the brick-and-mortar roles, but legal, technology, and finance - our industry is more diverse than what many think. However, while we’re seeing increases of women in some fields within infrastructure, more can be done to achieve gender diversity in engineering. One way to grasp this opportunity is for a large push in the early years of education for female participation in STEM. For this push to work, a revision of how STEM is designed and taught is required to address the gender bias in content - too often it’s been developed by men for men. In addition, female quotas could be integrated in STEM degrees to improve participation, just like there are currently female quotas on Boards in some countries.

In infrastructure, as in other male dominated industries, there is a gender drop in female representation at the mid-management level which can be attributed to women not returning to work after maternity leave. Flexible work policies, male parental leave, and childcare on premises would help to reduce this drop. At the GI Hub we have promoted women’s increased participation in the infrastructure sector by having no pay gap and offering equal parental leave to support women returning to work. More generally, we make sure that throughout our events, programs, and initiatives there is a balance of genders.

Diversity is a core commitment for the GI Hub, and our team’s diversity contributes significantly to our culture and the high performance of our organisation. The GI Hub’s Board has a strong commitment to ensuring that women are represented equally across the organisation and as a result of this commitment, 75% of our leaders, 80% of our organisation, and 50% of our Board are women.

Q: What leadership style is most appropriate in a male-dominated industry and have you experienced any gender boundaries that your male co-workers' don't?

Srima McQuillan, Chief Operating Officer: The most important leadership style is your own. When you deviate from being genuine, you aren’t at your best and risk coming across as inauthentic. While being yourself, be confident, hold your ground, and stand up for what you believe in - all genders appreciate those leadership traits. Throughout my career in infrastructure, I’ve seen people get passed over for opportunities, including me, as they didn’t have the right ‘leadership style’ - code words for an out-dated belief that only a male, strict, uncompromising, and loud leader was effective. The good news is that the infrastructure sector has evolved and realised that workplaces with good cultures, high engagement, and diverse employees yield far better financial results than those that stay stuck in historical models of leadership. A win-win for everyone.

Q: Sustainable development strategies are more likely to be adopted by finance firms with a higher percentage of female directors. Does this apply to infrastructure as well?

Henri Blas, Chief Content Officer: Overall the infrastructure finance industry has been faster than the broader market at increasing the percentage of female executives and board members. Part of the reason may be because infrastructure is mainly driven by large banks and institutions who face more pressure from shareholders to evolve their practice. In addition, through their better access to analytics and pool of comparisons they realise that risk-adjusted returns are better with a more diverse leadership. On the question of sustainable focus, while we don’t have global data on infrastructure teams, our data shows that the female percentage in executive teams is a better match than environmental, social and governance scores when considering the percentage of investment in renewables - so yes there is some evidence of that impact. 

Q: Research shows inclusion and diversity drives innovation. What is the GI Hub doing to encourage G20 countries to champion policies to attract, retain, and promote more women into senior management positions?

Katharina Surikow, Head of External Relations: It’s worth remembering that many, if not all G20 countries, or their governments at least, have strong policies and programs already in place to boost women’s participation across the workforce, including in leadership and senior management positions. These policies and programs are both domestically focused, for example in Australia listed companies report the number of women on their boards and in senior leadership positions; or internationally focused, for example Global Affairs Canada requires the programs that it funds contribute to gender mainstreaming.

What the GI Hub can, and does do, is to showcase these types of initiatives where they relate to infrastructure. We also ensure that our own events and those that we agree to participate in have diversity across panels or speakers, as well as in the audience – although the latter is a little harder to influence. We also promote female leaders in infrastructure – this can be on a project level through showcasing those projects or putting them forward as speakers, or at the government and organisation level through representation on our engagement fora or working groups.

From a technical perspective, our Inclusive Infrastructure and Social Equity tool re-emphasises that diversity and consideration of different groups’ needs and views leads to much better infrastructure outcomes. In promoting this work, we remind governments that infrastructure can be about more than just the economic returns.

And finally, particularly at the G20 table, we lead by example. At the Finance Minister level, our CEO Marie Lam-Frendo is one of the few women. And even more rare is that both the ‘front row’ and ‘back row’ seats are occupied by women representing the GI Hub. This is the same at the Finance Deputies’ level. At the G20’s working group/technical level it’s a bit more mixed, but we never have an all-male team.

Q: What is the tangible difference when more women participate in important leadership positions in the infrastructure sector such as the GI Hub?

Rory Linehan, Director of Engagement: We know that diversity drives innovation and improves outcomes in infrastructure. We need more women in positions of leadership not only from a principle of equity but to increase diversity in thought and problem-solving across the infrastructure ecosystem. We cannot solve our infrastructure challenges in sustainability, inclusion, and resilience with the same thinking that created these problems. When women are at the decisionmaking table it brings much needed awareness and solutions to problems women face in accessing and using infrastructure and increases diversity in thought for the broader infrastructure challenges we face. This is particularly apparent in improving gender-related outcomes in infrastructure such as equal access to infrastructure and improving safety and security outcomes for people using infrastructure. Everybody benefits when women are empowered to contribute and make decisions. The GI Hub is proud that three quarters of our executive leadership team are women. But there is more work to be done across an industry dominated by men.

Q: Sometimes it is said that women are not as suitable in this industry as men because the overall working environment is more tiring and dirtier. How do we combat this stereotype and find a proper role in this industry for ourselves?

Monica Bennett, Director of Thought Leadership: There is a perception that working in infrastructure means physically building the infrastructure itself. However, there are many other opportunities in infrastructure where women can play a key role, including in engineering which involves the design, construction, and operation of infrastructure. The key challenge to addressing this stereotype is that there is limited awareness of what these career pathways are in this field. And specifically for women, there are few role models for us to draw on what a successful infrastructure career can look like. There needs to be a greater understanding of what these different roles entail, why they are great careers for women, and examples of women that have gone from graduate to CEO (as the case may be).

Q: More than empowering women, general awareness and institutional support are key factors in promoting greater participation of women in any sector. How can women contribute to the spread of institutional support?

Cinthya Pastor, Director of Economics: Make your voice heard. Institutional support is crucial for gender equality to be seen as the norm; however frameworks are difficult to change because they have been internalised and deep-rooted. Institutions need to evolve and offer women equal participation. Let’s not wait for this to happen but speak up - we can be drivers of change by sharing our opinions. As women, we can pave the way for each other and future generations by forging together in solidarity to diminish bias and preconceptions and spread institutional support towards greater participation of women. With continued support that links diversity to business goals and indicators of success, permanent change can happen.