The Maureen Bickley Centre (MBC) was established within the Curtin Graduate School of Business (CGSB) in March 2008 as a centre promoting and enabling the increased representation of women in leadership roles. The name of the centre honours the late Associate Professor Maureen Bickley. Amongst her many achievements Maureen made a significant contribution to the advancement and promotion of gender equity and women in leadership.
Past Events:
The lack of women at executive level in Australia has received considerable attention over the past year. Of further concern is the disproportionately low representation of women at senior and board levels in Western Australia.
The highly regarded Women as Leaders program is based on 20 years of research and has run successfully at Cranfield University for over 10 years. This year the program was offered for the first time in Australia by Cranfield University UK’s International Centre for Women Leaders in partnership with the Maureen Bickley Centre for Women in Leadership, a centre within the Curtin Graduate School of Business, Curtin University.
The program is designed for experienced women professionals and managers who feel that they would like to accelerate their careers. It is expected that participants would have a high level of experience, be very good at their job and have more than 10 years of experience in a managerial role.
Major Focus
The MBC brings together researchers and consultants from within the Curtin Graduate School of Business (CGSB) and across Curtin with an interest and expertise in gender and leadership. Its vision is to be recognised nationally and internationally for its expertise in women in leadership in organisations.
The aim of the MBC is to work with organisations to promote and profile the increased participation of women in leadership and senior management roles in industry, business and the not-for-profit sector. Through its research, executive education and consultancy the MBC will increase the understanding of the issues that confront women leaders and those aspiring to leadership roles and how organisations can address these issues. Research findings will inform the development of targeted executive development programs.
Major activities of the MBC include:
- Contributing to the wider debate on women in leadership through a range of activities including speaking at conferences, meetings and at women’s networking events
- Identifying emerging issues in relation to gender and leadership
- Undertaking sponsored research for organisations that are seeking new and innovative ways to address gender imbalance in senior teams
- Offering high quality women in leadership programs
- Undertaking contract research
- Sharing research findings nationally and internationally
- Convening events to encourage active discourse on leadership, and gender and diversity in organisations.
Current areas of research interest include:
- Women in science and engineering
- The transition to leadership roles in professional engineering organisations
- Women’s experience in leadership roles
- Emotional labour and leadership
- Women on university boards
- Relational work in the academy
- Effective leadership development
