The Gender Balance Changemaker

Phoebe Gane is the Safety and Compliance Team Executive within our Environment, Health and Safety group.

Friday, 15 March 2024 - Australia

Phoebe has been a longstanding advocate of women in the safety industry, developing and creating opportunities for women through her leadership roles. She has also recently been appointed as the vice-chair of WSP’s Gender Balance Employee Resource Group, allowing her advocacy to reach even further.

Phoebe presenting the 2023 Women in Safety Professional of the Year Award to Christine Normoyle

Phoebe recently celebrated her 10-year work anniversary with WSP. She didn’t come from safety originally and instead came to her current role through a path of engineering, environmental science, people and operational leadership.

“A core responsibility of safety professionals is to effectively communicate, build rapport, and influence decisions and behaviours. They have to be able to tell a compelling story and get people on side to effect positive change. This is particularly critical in our high risk industries, such as construction, manufacturing, and mining, which also tend to be male-dominated."

Phoebe says, "Women pursuing or acting in safety roles in these industries are presented with a unique set of challenges: the lack of inclusive and flexible workplace cultures, under-representation of female leaders and mentors, physical work environments and equipment not designed for women’s needs, and subconscious organisational gender bias."

To tackle the gender gap in safety and create a more diverse safety workforce; industry, organisations and teams need to empower and celebrate women, and advocate for inclusive workplaces.

There are many amazing groups who are actively driving change in this space, such as Women in Safety, which Phoebe is a member of.

Phoebe presenting at the Women in Safety 2023 Awards

“Women in Safety is committed to empowering and uniting professional women within the health and safety sector. WSP is an active industry partner of Women in Safety, and sponsored the 2023 Professional of the Year Award. I was privileged to speak on a panel with some trailblazing female safety leaders and we had a great discussion about how we can collectively tackle the challenges facing women in safety.”

Phoebe and her family.

Walking her dog in nearby forest

Phoebe is an incredibly thoughtful and considered leader who strives to provide opportunities, autonomy, and balance for her team. Her commitment to values-driven leadership has fostered a diverse and energetic team, who constantly inspire her with their knowledge, passion and adaptability.

Phoebe on a discussion panel at the 2023 Women in Safety Awards

Phoebe says, “The WSP community gives so much; empowering and valuing me, and creating opportunity in a way I have not previously experienced in my career. WSP has also fully supported me in my part-time leadership role, which as a working parent, affords me a healthy work-life balance and a demonstration of WSP’s commitment to inclusion and belonging."

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Phoebe Gane

Director of Environment, Health & Safety (EHS)

Australia

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The Gender Balance Changemaker - Phoebe Gane

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