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Choosing a favorite podcast episode is like choosing a favorite child. I thought last season was the best it could be and then this season came along – and I love all the conversations, and learnt so much from all the guests.
Consistently the guests on Women at Work reject that notion that we need to fix the women and instead agree we need to fix systems and cultures. They also recognise that we are still individually trying to cobble together solutions to the systemic issues that remain, and we all need support with that.
My hope for this podcast is that you feel less alone in the juggle, and learn something about what we can all do to move towards gender equity.
The topics this season ranged from leadership, to why confidence isn’t he solution, to collective action, every woman knowing one of ‘that guy’, to structural support like childcare, parental leave flexible working and politics, to anti-racism and intersectionality, to real life stories of managing it all and how we support ourselves through the juggle.
Links below are to every episode from season 4, in order of appearanve!
Jane Caro – Outspoken writer and feminist, the invisibility of aging, her anger at the invisibility of motherhood, redirecting angry energy into impact and using humour in her activism. The fallacy of merit, and the distraction of #notallmen
Joy Adan – Giving yourself permission to rest, play and be creative. She never saw her mother rest, and so many women still feel they can’t sit down when there’s so much to do. Her personal story of postnatal depression and anxiety – ‘whatever the reason you might be drowning you don’t need to keep drowning, you can go get help’. Creating community from a wholehearted and spiritual place and the work of challenging gender norms in our own homes.
Dr Charlotte Middleton – Perimenopause, symptoms, treatments and bringing it into public conversation.
Dr Rae Cooper – founding Director of the Australian Centre for Gender Equality and Inclusion at Work, her research interviewing women about their experiences at work – ‘that guy’, and the career scar caring leaves, the midlife collision of work, care, the mental load, the physical load, caring for parents and general exhaustion, plus tips to give us agency whilst we wait for systemic change to come.
Allegra Spender – Independent MP, her platform of women, climate, and kinder communities. Wanting to have a fulfilling career doesn’t make you a bad mother, her personal story managing the juggle, and her passionate belief that women should be equally represented in parliament and involved in all of our national decision making.
Georgie Dent – CEO of The Parenthood. Advocacy to improve access to high quality early childhood education across the country, her own experiences as a young mother looking for affordable childcare, and normalising fathers taking extended leave, to change caregiving patterns in the long term.
Katherine Buicoic – EY’s Oceania Chief Technology and Innovation Officer. How to use AI, the bias that is currently built into it, the importance of women not being left behind in the AI revolution, and how she deliberately designs her life with her family.
Lael Stone – Parenting and humaning expert, on connection, community, bringing compassion to our parenting journey, how we build emotional intelligent, and our work to be open and curious. It’s ok as mothers to put ourselves first, and when we don’t, we become resentful which is no good for anyone.
Karina Kallio – Finding what is yours to do in the world, and building a life of meaning around that. Finding meaning, and our obligation to look beyond ourselves to have a positive impact in the world.
Kate Thwaites – Assistant Minister for Women, her bill introducing gender equity targets for companies with more than 500 employees, her work with older women who are less financially secure, the positive impact on the bottom line when women thrive, and why it’s important that Parliament is a gold standard workplace
Amanda Sterling – PhD on the embodied experiences of motherhood in leadership, and if you’re not a leader that looks like a white man then you have to work harder to prove yourself. Her work in organisations bringing men on the journey to drive systemic change.
Annika Freyer – CEO Champions of Change Coalition. You don’t need to boil the ocean, but can make incremental change using CCC’s Seven Switches Framework to take action against inherent bias and build gender equity in. The power of collective action.
Libby Lyons – Chair Science in Australia Gender Equity and ex Director of Workplace Gender Equality Agency, taking risks and being brave – it will be the best thing you can ever do, the superannuation gender gap, the slow pace of change achieving gender equity.
Claire Harvey – Editorial Director of The Australian. Her dual loves of work and parenting, what she loves about it, and the compromises it takes to have a family and a big job. The importance of maintaining financial independence, and the gift to her children of seeing a mother who’s excited by her career.
Dr Leonora Risse – An economist who specialises in gender equity, debunking lean-in rhetoric, her research on confidence – for men it leads to better professional outcomes but for women it doesn’t. Men taking on caring responsibilities is one of the key levers that we had to pull.
Sophie McCarthy – Leadership, self-leadership, executive engagement and driving change. You build confidence by taking action. Put your hand up and be brave because what’s the worst thing that can happen?
Nareen Young – from Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, what is intersectionality, what it means to be ‘othered’ and the ongoing racism and microaggressions still faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in (and out of) the workplace. Focusing on high impact activities, and her own experience of grasping opportunities so that she can make an difference.
Louise Baxter – CEO of Starlight Foundation, on how a culture of positivity increased every one of their business metrics, what it means to be a good leader, the incredible work Starlight do, and her moment of truth leaving advertising to join Starlight.
Khayshie Tilak Ramesh – her own story of racism starting in year three, her work in antiracism, and the ‘travelator’ taking us automatically to a destination we might not want if we don’t challenge it, and her work at the UN Commission of the Status of Women and what it’s like to negotiate to hold ground.
About Women at Work
It started with the question, ‘how do you do it all?’.
As my understanding of the systemic barriers that women face, structural inequalities at work and in our homes, and what we can do to change it evolved, so, too, has the conversation.
Now, I speak to thought leaders in the gender equity industry, women making waves through their activism, and women who work in big jobs and aren’t afraid to speak the truth of what it takes.
I am so passionate about this project, and if you want someone to be featured please message me and I’ll try to get them on.