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I asked ChatGPT, and it told me that men still hold 70-80% of formal positions of power, across most domains, globally.
And because of that very power imbalance, women can’t achieve equality on our own. We need men to be involved, and to use the power our current systems grant them, to shift things.
And that’s exactly what Champions of Change Coalition do, led by today’s guest, CEO Annika Freyer.
The Coalition aims to achieve gender equality, advance more and diverse women into leadership, and build respectful and inclusive workplaces. But as we know here at Women at Work, you can’t increase women’s representation without shifting the systems. It’s not about fixing the women.
Annika was appointed as the inaugural CEO of the Champions of Change Coalition in 2016, and has grown the coalition from its Founding Group of 10 CEOs to more than 250 members.
And she’s done that while getting herself to Barry’s bootcamp at 5am every morning, and raising two young daughters.
I really enjoyed this fun, candid chat with Annika, and I hope you do, too!
In this episode we discuss:
- Integrating gender equity into the core of business, rather than DEI being a separate thing a few people do
- Champions of Change Coalitions, Seven Switches are a codified way to take action against the system glitches
- Examples of everyday gender inequity, like PPE equipment only fits 14% of women
- The omission of women is unintentional, so the Switches are simple interventions that anyone can do
- The challenge of bringing it to life in specific circumstances
- Change needs to be driven both top down and bottom up – through collective action we drive change
- She suggests making implementation simple, and not trying to ‘boil the ocean’
- At the heart of Champions of Change Coalition, with 250 members, is collective action
- Anyone can be a leader and implement the seven switches, and we all need to ensure women’s voices are being heard
- This work is about correcting historical disadvantages faced by women, and the fallacy of merit
- The value in helping women see the system, understand how to navigate it
- Annika’s own experience with sponsorship and how valuable it has beenALli
About Annika Freyer
Annika Freyer was appointed as the inaugural CEO of the Champions of Change Coalition in 2016.
As CEO, Annika has led the strategy and evolution of the sustainable and scalable model enabling the Champions of Change Coalition to grow from its Australian Founding Group of 10 CEOs to the internationally recognised Coalition of more than 250 CEO-level leaders, with a strong focus on innovative and disruptive actions to shift systems of inequality – many of which are now considered global standards for organisations aspiring to be employers of choice.
Annika spent 15 years working in both the public and private sectors in Australia and internationally. She has held policy and program leadership roles for the US government, the United Nations Development Program, Earth Institute Columbia University, and multiple international NGOs.
As a McKinsey & Company consultant Annika worked across private equity, government and the retail sector. She was also engaged as a strategic advisor and consultant designing several programs for Chief Executive Women and financial services clients.
Annika was a contributor to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s ‘Supporting Working Parents: Pregnancy and Return to Work National Review’, and a consultant to UN Women’s Private Sector Leadership Advisory Council, convened by Under Secretary General Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. She served on the Global Summit of Women Steering Committee (2018).
Annika is a Member of Chief Executive Women and serves as a Member of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Women in Leadership Steering Committee.
Annika holds a BSc (Foreign Service/International Politics), Georgetown University, Washington DC and LLM (International Law), University of Sydney.