‘Male Champions of Change’ initiative all set for India debut in Bengaluru

Elizabeth Broderick, the former Australian Sex Determination Commissioner, is all set to bring her signature initiative ‘Male Champions of Change’ into India.

BENGALURU: Elizabeth Broderick, the former Australian Sex Determination Commissioner, is all set to bring her signature initiative ‘Male Champions of Change’ into India. The project is most likely to be started in Bengaluru, she said on Saturday.

Broderick, who was in the city as part of an initiative by the Australian government, said she is all set to meet a number of business heads to discuss this over the next week. The ‘Male Champions of Change’ is an initiative that sees the participation of men in top positions in various companies across professions to help create a conducive atmosphere for women at the workplace.

“It involves designing several strategies to make workplaces women-inclusive and minimize gender discrimination. Later, these are implemented at the workplace,” she said. The strategy is to bring more men to step up beside women in building a gender equal world. “In Australia, we started with a small group of six CEOs of different companies. The first one to sign this petition had twins -- a boy and a girl. The fact that his daughter might not have the same number of opportunities as the son disturbed him and he joined hands with us,” she recollected.

Today, the group of 160 includes heads of Australian companies such as Telstra, Rio Tinto, ANZ Bank and Qantas and major sporting leagues, the army and federal police. Together these organisations employ around 6,00,000 people or 5 per cent of Australia’s workforce.
“We start with small changes. For instance, none of the champions for change will deliver talks at events that do not have enough participation from women. When they are invited, they will first check whether the panel also has a good number of women. This ‘Panel Pledge’ is a step towards ensuring equality,” she said, adding, “Bengaluru is one of the most exciting places to start from. It has the right environment for it.”

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The New Indian Express
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