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Jane Caro is a renowned feminist author and social commentator, known for saying exactly what’s on her mind. She’s known for her sharp wit, her humour and fearless advocacy for gender equality, and has been a pioneering feminist in Australia.
Jane is a Walkley Award winner, a Member of the Order of Australia, a mother, a grandmother, a wife, a beef producer and a timber grower. She’s also got a new book, Lyrebird, coming out in April.
I’m honoured to have had the opportunity to speak with her, and I hope you enjoy listening!
In this episode we discuss:
- Words and passion as the common thread through her career
- Her early career in advertising, bringing a feminist lens to the work (and being ground-breaking in doing so)
- Being retrenched at 4 months pregnant, and loving her children but being bored at home not working
- The obligation we have to extend privilege to others that are less fortunate
- The fallacy of merit, and how #notallmen distracts from conversations
- Status is defined as getting praised for doing less – less is expected from those with high status
- Bringing up boys to be more self-responsible, and how that ties in with consent and empathy
- The invisibility of aging, and the invisibility of motherhood
- How we can use humour as a constructive way to redirect angry energy
- How to respond to trolls and bullies
About Jane Caro
Jane Caro AM is a Walkley Award winning Australian columnist, author, novelist, broadcaster, documentary maker, feminist and social commentator. She spent 35 years as an award winning copywriter and 7 years teaching Advertising Creative in the School of Communication Arts at Western Sydney University. These days she is a full time writer, social commentator, speaker and broadcaster.
She has published thirteen books, including four novels Just a Girl, Just a Queen and Just Flesh & Blood – a trilogy on Elizabeth Tudor, Mother, and a memoir Plain Speaking Jane. She created and edited Unbreakable featuring stories women writers had never told before, which was published just before the Harvey Weinstein revelations. Her latest book Accidental Feminists about the life story of women over 50 was launched in 2019. She is currently working on a novel, Lyrebird, due out in April 2025
She appears frequently on ABC Radio, The Drum, Sunrise & Weekend Sunrise. She created and presented 5 documentary series for ABC Compass, airing in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. She and Catherine Fox present a popular podcast with Podcast One, Austereo Women With Clout. She writes regular columns in Nine Newspapers and her opinion pieces appear regularly in The Saturday Paper, The Guardian and The Big Smoke.
She is on the boards of Bell Shakespeare and The Public Education Foundation.