Ep. 173: Celebrating International Women's Day!

Mardi McBrien, Managing Director of the IFRS Foundation, and
Brigitte de Graaff, CMA, CSCA, Chair of IMA’s Sustainable
Business Management Global Task Force and PhD candidate at the
department of Accounting of the Vrije Universiteit Amstedam, join
Count Me In to talk about the role of women in sustainability.
IMA's Manager of Brand Content and Storytelling, Margaret
Michaels, hosts this mini-panel discussion in celebration of
International Women's Day. International Women's Day is a global
holiday celebrated annually on March 8th to commemorate the
cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women. The
special guests for this panel were specifically chosen for their
work in the area of sustainability and to talk about the pipeline
of future female finance leaders as well as their own thoughts on
what unique impacts women are making in the work of
sustainability. In this commemorative mini-panel conversation,
Margaret leads the discussion by addressing various pieces of
research to substantiate the value of women in sustainability.
Download and listen now!


Contact Mardi McBrien:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mardimcbrien/
Contact Brigitte de Graaff:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brigitte-de-graaff-134b408/
Contact Margaret Michaels:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-michaels/


IMA's Website: https://www.imanet.org/
Sustainability CFO: The CFO of the Future?:
https://www.imanet.org/insights-and-trends/external-reporting-and-disclosure-management/sustainability-cfo-the-cfo-of-the-future


Research cited:


2021 Weinreb Group Study 

McKinsey’s 2021 “Women in the Workplace” 

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10997-021-09604-7

Deloitte: Understanding Generation Z in the workplace



Full Episode Transcript:
Mitch: (00:05)
Welcome back to Count Me In IMA's podcast about all things
affecting the accounting and finance world. Today, we have a
special conversation for you as we hosted a mini panel of
speakers in honor, of International Women's Day. International
Women's Day is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8th
to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic
achievements of women for IMA and our management, accounting
listeners, Margaret Michaels, IMA's Manager of Brand Content and
Storytelling speaks with two women about their work in the area
of sustainability. Marty McBrien and, and Bridget Degraph join
Margaret here on, Count Me In to talk about the unique role women
are playing in sustainability and the pipeline of future female
finance leaders in this space. To celebrate this important day
and valuable topic, keep listening as we head over to the panel
conversation now


Margaret: (01:05)
It is such an honor to be facilitating this discussion today. I
have a strong interest in sustainability, and I know other Count
Me In listeners do as well. I want to structure this discussion
around proof points about women in sustainability, which have
been substantiated by research. And I want to hear each of your
reactions to the statements and their implications for women's
work in sustainability. So the first proof point women are
playing an outsized role in sustainability work. According to a
2021 wine group study, women went from holding 28% of chief
sustainability officer positions in 2011 to 54% in 2021, which is
a 94% increase. So let's start with you, Marty, in your role,
you've connected with so many professionals in this space. Would
you share your observations on working with women leaders in this
area? Does it surprise you that women are playing this outsized
role and what might be responsible for the dramatic increase in
their participation and in the work of sustainability?


Marty: (02:26)
Thanks Margaret. And, thank you, IMA it's a real pleasure to be
here on what is, you know, such an important day to celebrate,
you know, the, really amazing community of women that have played
such important roles in leadership both now and in the future and
sustainability across the world. You know, I'm really, privileged
to be , part of such an amazing space. And, and I guess if it
doesn't surprise me the statistics that you have, I've, been
lucky enough actually, to emulate the success of a series of
amazing female leaders before me. I always say I'm so privileged
that I've just had really fabulous female boss, female leader,
female mentor in this space across my 20 plus year career, that
I've just been able to, you know, grow and thrive and build off
them. And so, you know, I'm going to be forever grateful for
that.


Marty: (03:15)
but also if you think more broadly beyond me, you have, you know,
sustainability women are the ones out there that are taking
active steps to educate them themselves on issues linked to
sustainability, whether that be within the home, in their broader
community, in their lifestyles. And so as they learn more and
more, they're actually looking for roles that reflect their, and
I think that's what we're starting to see today. I is women
taking on roles and wanting to jump into roles that you are
increasing. You know, there's never been a bigger demand for
roles in sustainability ever, and, and women more and more
aligning their values. We can cut onto more of that later and
stepping into that space. And if we think about my voluntary
career, so not my professional career, but what would I do in my
free time.


Marty: (04:05)
And, I do a lot of work with, you know, small charities that
focus on livelihoods and empowerment work for women. And, and
it's those women in these developing countries that are being
affected by climate and sustainability issues the most. And
they're the ones that are then taking action and wanting to do
more. And so, you know, that's the space, I think, where we can
all do a bit more maybe to help, help give those, those ladies
that are really trying to take action, which will have, you know,
significant impacts on our future. You know, I think there's,
various different ways to take these statistics, but I think, you
know, it's all encouraging and it's all the right to action of
travel.


Margaret: (04:39)
Bridget, do you have any thoughts on, women's outside role in
sustainability?


Bridget: (04:47)
Well, I think I mostly agree with what Marty just said and, it's,
it's quite funny. I hadn't heard about these numbers before, but,
when I started thinking now about the research I've done within
companies on sustainability and integrated, and also about the
taskers actually, a sustainable business management task forces.
And if I'm thinking about that, I think we are really very much,
I think either about 50, 50% male female, or even with the
leaders, the sustainability officers and the leaders I spoke
within those companies. I think we, a majority were us indeed
female, andI never really realized that actually until now. And I
start thinking about it. and I, agree that there's probably not
ne...