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Claire Harvey has opinions. But as Editorial director of The Australian she’s also very good at waiting to hear what you think. With an interest in journalism that started at her parents dining table piled high with newspapers, and the radio and TV news on, she’s gone from copy girl working for free to her current role.
Now, she has two kids, leaves work loudly to support mothers and parents following behind her, and has a husband with an equally big career as political staffer. So she knows what it means to find balance, and she knows the compromises it takes to manage having a big career and a family.
She hosts a daily podcast from the Australian called the front, 12-minute explorations into a story a day, and when she took her current role, that itself made the news.
I was so excited to hear about what it takes to manage a family while having a career driven by passion and hard work, and hope you enjoy the show!
In this episode we discuss:
- The unhelpful impression of perfection in work and parenting
- Forgiving our imperfections, letting go, and accepting support
- Manager roulette and the importance of a work environment where you are trusted
- The real logistics of how Claire’s life works
- What drives her, why she works, and why she loves it – even though having a big job makes finding balance hard sometimes
- Her dual loves of work and parenting – and the Columbia University research into exactly this challenge for working mothers
- The disillusionment many women feel with work when our kids are little, and why Claire thinks it’s important to keep working
- We owe it to ourselves to remain in the workforce and maintain our financial independence
- And why we work – well beyond money
- Her own stories navigating journalism as a young women, and what “a leader” looks like in the industry
- Her greatest work adventure, living and working on Pitcairn Island, in the Pacific Ocean
About Claire Harvey
Claire Harvey started her journalism career as a copygirl in The Australian’s Canberra bureau in 1994 and has worked as a reporter, foreign correspondent, deputy editor and columnist at The Australian, The Sunday Telegraph and The New Zealand Herald. Now, she is Editorial Director at The Australian