EEO in senior management: women executives in Westpac

This paper reports on a case study of a best practice financial organisation in Australia that is committed to increasing its number of women at all managerial levels. By looking at Westpac’s process of cultural change in general and women executives’ attitudes and experiences in particular, this paper seeks to explain the generally slow and patchy progress that has been made in pursuit of EEO for female employees. Despite the introduction of equal employment opportunity policies in many organisations, gender inequality seems to persist in stereotyped perceptions embedded within organisational cultures. Nevertheless, it is encouraging to find that in the organisation studied here commitment to diversity goes beyond rhetoric. At the same time, it is recognised that more needs to be done to accelerate the rate of progress.