Giving our future women leaders a hand up

Women are under-represented in key decision-making roles across almost all industries, and the social sector is no different.

According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, just 19 percent of women in Australia are CEOs and only around a third are board members and chairs.

We want to do what we can to change that for our sector.

So, I’m really pleased to about a new collaboration between NCOSS and Chief Executive Women (CEW) called the Harrison-Church Women’s Leadership Scholarship- which will provide places in CEW’s Leaders Program for fifteen women, who are NCOSS members, over the next three years.

This is a specific scholarship for women in sector leadership roles that will help to elevate leadership capability, build retention, build networks within and outside our sector, and create an executive-ready pipeline. It’s a great way that we can give our future women leaders a hand up, when we know our member organisations are investing everything they have into serving their communities.

The reason I’m so passionate about this course is because I know first-hand how transformative it is. In 20XX, I was a participant in the CEW Leaders Program, gaining clarity and confidence to pursue Executive Leadership. I was heavily pregnant at the time, somewhat questioning why I had signed up for the course when I probably would have preferred to be at home in comfy clothes! But what I got out of it was an extremely supportive group of women, new network contacts, many whom I connect with regularly, and the tools to use my strengths in executive leadership.

The scholarship is made possible by funding from a generous philanthropic donation to NCOSS by long-standing supporter Chris Harrison-Church.

There’s five scholarship places per year over three years, and we really encourage applications from women leaders in small-to-medium-sized NCOSS member organisations, who are based in rural and remote NSW, as well as First Nations leaders working for ACCOs or ACCHOs.

You can read more about the Harrison-Church Scholarship and apply here.

So hurry as applications for the first round of scholarships close on February 1st.