I’m delighted to welcome two guests for this episode of the For Love & Money Podcast: Jade Collins and Alanna Bastin-Byrne from Femeconomy.

Femeconomy educates consumers, budget owners and business owners on how purchasing decisions can create gender equality.

Femeconomy certified businesses have at least 30% of women on the Board of Directors or are 50% female owned. So far over 850 brands have met Femeconomy’s criteria.

More on that in the episode. For now, let me introduce my guests:

Jade Collins has 20 years’ global experience in corporate executive Human Resources and management consulting roles in the Mining, Energy and Aerospace industries, leading large scale, complex multi-million-dollar change management programs. Jade finds the combination of her HR, Psychology and MBA qualifications and her leadership experience is invaluable for creating networks and engaging others to increase gender equality in leadership across industries. Jade was a member of the Queensland Government's Strategic Advisory Group for the Toward Gender Parity: Women on Boards Initiative and the 2019 CQU Alumni of the Year for Social Impact for her work with Femeconomy.

Alanna Bastin-Byrne has over 20 years’ experience in Marketing, Communications and Community Development leadership in the UK and Australia. The diversity of Alanna’s leadership experience has been instrumental in building Femeconomy’s engaged community to advance gender equality. In 2018 Alanna was announced as one of 80 Women2Watch in Business Disruption in US, Canada, Australia and Europe. In 2020 Alanna was a Telstra Business Woman of the Year finalist and Griffith University’s Entrepreneur in Residence.

We chat about the female economy. What it means for businesses and for society more widely. Despite the progress that we’ve made over the years, some of the stats that Jade and Alanna share are mind-blowing and really tell a very powerful story of unrealised opportunity.

Here are some of the areas of discussion we get into:

Why Femeconomy was started – the purpose inspiring the business
Why we need more balance in leadership representation: the value of lived experience; and why female representation is not a zero sum game
The economic value exercised by women’s spending power
The reality of female representation of CEOs in ASX companies and on ASX boards
The stats that tell a surprising story about Australia’s position when it comes to gender equality within businesses.
NOTE: One of the stats provided was out of date - at about the 22.45 minute mark of the interview, the stat references under 5 per cent of female CEOs are represented at ASX 200 organisations. Update to this with a couple of stats:
- Zero new female CEOs appointed to ASX 200 companies in 2021 https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/management/asx-200-companies-failed-to-appoint-a-single-female-ceo-last-year-20210907-p58piz
- Just six per cent of ASX300 companies employ female CEOs https://www.businessnewsaustralia.com/articles/-wake-up-call---just-six-per-cent-of-asx300-companies-employ-female-ceos.html
How Femeconomy are building a movement to educate, advocate for and support women-owned businesses
The progress that has been made and the role of culture in society in empowering or limiting the rate of progress
Why female-led businesses are more profitable than their male-led counterparts

If your business is female-owned, led, has at least 30% of women on the Board of Directors or are 50% female owned, then you’ll want to check out Femeconomy.

Equally, whether you’re male or female, if you want to support businesses that are Femeconomy accredited (as a customer or an employee), then head over to their website and find the businesses that are leading the way.

Connect with Femeconomy

Alanna Bastin-Byrne

Jade Collins

Femeconomy website https://femeconomy.com