FIVE MINUTES TO SHAPE WHAT GETS BUILT NEXT FOR WOMEN AT WORK
Last year, we asked over 500 women a simple question: what's getting in the way of your career progression?
The answers weren't what most organisations expect.
It wasn’t a lack of skills – only 14% said that. It wasn’t flexible work – 21%. It wasn’t even caring responsibilities – 26%.
The most significant barriers were a lack of clear career options (43%) and a lack of visibility in the workplace (31%). Almost a third of women said their efforts and achievements were going unnoticed.
That research, conducted in partnership with Women's Agenda, shaped how we designed our programs and how we talk about sponsorship publicly. It changed the conversation.
But it also revealed a gap we couldn't fill with that data alone.
This year, we're going deeper.
The 2026 Women's Agenda × Cultivate national survey is now live, and this time, we're specifically exploring how workplace invisibility is experienced differently depending on cultural background, language, and identity.
Because the barriers don't look the same for every woman. And we can't design programs that work until we understand that properly.
Recent research continues to confirm what many women already know: that existing data rarely captures how race, culture, and gender combine to shape career progression. Leadership diversity data is almost never broken down by ethnicity or migration status. Without that level of detail, systemic exclusion stays hidden — and targeted reform stays out of reach.
This survey is designed to close that gap.
Five minutes. Completely anonymous.
Open to all women working in Australia.
Your experience – not as a data point, but as something that directly shapes how the next generation of sponsorship programs are built is exactly what this research needs.
The survey closes 30 April 2026.
If you've already completed it – thank you. If there's someone in your network whose experience should be in this data, please share the link with them. The more diverse the response pool, the more powerful and representative the findings.
Workshop
Hold your boundaries under pressure
Our research found that almost a third of Australian women feel invisible at work, their efforts and achievements going unnoticed. The instinct is to work harder, say yes more, and take on more. But that's precisely the pattern that keeps you invisible.
Visibility doesn't come from doing more. It comes from knowing what to say yes to and what to stop absorbing.
Sam Trattles’ Power to Ask: Boundaries Workshop is a four-hour, face-to-face session for leaders who are known as “the reliable one” – and who are paying for it with their time, energy, and priorities.
Thursday 23 April | 8:45am | Cuppa CoLab, Barangaroo
You'll leave with clarity on what's yours to own and what isn't, and the language to hold your boundaries calmly and confidently when the pressure is on.
$447 per person | Bring your work bestie half price
I'll be joining Sam as a guest speaker at the post-workshop lunch – an intimate roundtable on what visibility actually requires and how to advocate for the changes you need.
What’s Happening at Cultivate Indigenous
AECOM WARRA 2026 is underway.
Congratulations to AECOM, who have commenced the 2026 WARRA Cultivate Indigenous Sponsorship Program. Now in its sixth year of partnership, AECOM continues to lead in what structured Indigenous sponsorship looks like inside a major organisation.
Each year, WARRA reveals the same truth: when senior leaders sponsor Indigenous talent, they don't just change someone else's career – they begin to see leadership potential differently. Opportunity starts to move in new directions across the organisation.
We'll share more about this year's cohort and their experiences in the coming months.
Gari Yala 2: Speak the Truth
The second Gari Yala report — Australia's only national survey on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workplace experiences conducted by mob, for mob – was released by the UTS Centre for Indigenous People and Work earlier this year. The findings are significant.
Of over 1,100 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers surveyed, only 40% reported that their workplace was culturally safe. More than half experienced racism as a recurring part of their working lives. And just 17% worked in organisations that offered Indigenous leader or elder sponsorship of new and young staff – making it the least common workplace initiative, despite being one of the highest impact.
This research reinforces why programs like WARRA exist. Structured sponsorship – built with community, not just delivered to it – remains one of the most effective ways to shift what leadership looks like inside Australian organisations.
Read the Gari Yala 2 Synopsis Report
Watch
Inside the Warra Program: Sponsorship, Safety, and Real Change
What does structured Indigenous sponsorship actually look like in practice? What changes when senior leaders and emerging First Nations leaders are paired with real intent?
In this conversation, Cultivate's co-founders sit down to talk about the WARRA program – how it was built, what it asks of organisations, and what happens when sponsorship is grounded in cultural safety and lived experience.
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