Catherine Fox on why we need more women at the top and breaking the boss bias

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Catherine Fox is a Walkley Award–winning journalist who has spent two decades writing about women at work. In 2022 she was made a member of the Order of Australia for services to journalism and gender equity.

She is mother to adult daughters, and is a beacon of a woman opening as many doors as she can for women following behind her.

In this episode we discuss:

  • How assumptions and bias make us think of a leader as a tall white man
  • The imapact of everyday sexism and how we can challenge it
  • The ‘Mummy Track’ and being sidelined after having a baby – and the way women internalise that
  • The importance of women remaining in paid work to support progress
  • “We want what you’re not” research that highlights the multitude barriers and biases women face
  • Women in leadership improves the outcomes for women because the bring a different set of priorities – the gender pay gap closes and women progress more quickly
  • Debunking the Queen Bee myth of women pulling the ladder up behind them (and humans can behave badly regardless of gender)
  • The importance of considering intersectionality – non-caucasions make up only 4% of all Board members
  • Backlach and resistance to the gender equality movement where people think women’s progress comes at the expense of men
  • There is hope of the future!

About Catherine Fox

Walkley Award–winning journalist Catherine Fox spent two decades at the Financial Review, writing the popular Corporate Woman column, and has consulted to many of Australia’s largest organisations, including the ADF. She is the author of Better than Sex (with Helen Trinca), Women Kind (with Kirstin Ferguson), The F Word (with Jane Caro), 7 Myths about Women and Work and Stop Fixing Women. In 2022 she was made a member of the Order of Australia for services to journalism and gender equity.

She was on Women at Work previously talking about her book Stop Fixing Women. Find it here!

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