*This summer we're re-releasing previous episodes that we loved. Here is Tracey Spicer episode from 2018*   Equality starts in the lounge room before the boardroom.

Tracey Spicer is a television presenter, journalist and author. Recently appointed a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia for her work in journalism and for her ambassadorships for social welfare and charitable organisations. She led the public voice of the #MeToo movement in Australia, breaking the Don Burke story. Tracey's lifelong passion is amplifying women's voices, and in today's conversation we discuss creating equality in the home and in the workplace.

We discuss:

• ½ of women experience pregnancy discrimination in the workplace
• Your job is to be prepared by finding out the state and federal legislation and creating a strategy
• The gender pay gap
  • Tracey didn't ask for a pay rise for 14 years
  • Now she says to always ask for more than you think you're worth
  • The gender pay gap in her own household
• Do your research and keep notes
  • Know when the best time to ask for a pay rise is
  • Keep a detailed diary of positive feedback, so provide proof of your performance
  • Know what the share price is, and what other people received as bonses
  • Figure out a way to make sure everyone can benefit - it's not a zero sum game
• How we can change expectations in childhood, which may lead to different outcomes in the gender pay gap
• Having difficult conversations with your partner
  • long term resentment is a huge risk to a relationship
• The 30% tipping point for sexual harassment, where it peaks and then drops off
• Quotas, targets and the inexistence of any true meritocracy
• There's no such thing as work-life balance
  • Let's change the conversation so MEN are being asked how they manage it all
• Legislative changes that could be put in place to better support families

An invitation from Tracey:

• Sit down and write out the amount of time it takes you to do your hair, makeup, buy your work wardrobe, and do all the things that come with society's pressure on women to look a certain way
• Write down how much all of these things cost you financially
• Consider what else you can do with that money and time, and be deliberate about whether you want to keep spending it on meeting society’s unreasonable expectations of women's looks
• Have a think about these cultural expectation
• If you want, then slowly start to pare it back. See if you don't start to feel more authentic and truly yourself

Resources

We mention some resources throughout the conversation, here is where you can find links to them all!

Outspoken Women, for women who want to amplify their voices within the professional environment –

Tracey's book, Good Girl Stripped Bare 

Tracey's TED Talk on the topic 

Mental Load cartoon; Tracey suggests women need to have more difficult conversations with their husbands

Jamila Rizvi Not Just Lucky

Gender pay gap calculator

Amy Cuddy power poses

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. 

Mary Wooldridge is the CEO of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. Her career goals have all been about making an impact and driving change, and although change is slow, she hopes to accelerate it in the future.

In this episode, we cover:

• The recent (slight) reduction in the gender pay gap, driven by increases in aged-care industry salaries
• The benefits of part-time and flexible work
• Men, parental leave and valuing care
• The connection between gender stereotypes and the gender pay gap
• What women do with their spare time
• Gender segregated industries 
• Grasping opportunities to be part of change

Mundanara is the Managing Director/ Co-Founder and workshop facilitator of the BlackCard PtyLtd, a 100% Aboriginal owned business certified with Supply Nation. BlackCard's co-founder is Dr Lilla Watson, a respected Aboriginal elder, artist and educator. 

BlackCard’s purpose is working with people, not for people, with the genius of Aboriginal Knowledge.

In this episode we cover:

• How to introduce ourselves based on humanness, and who you are is more important than what you do. 
• Mundanara's work with the BlackCard, reducing conflict and racism within organisations
• Creating a university-level education where elders are the cultural reference point
• What it means to live by Aboriginal terms of engagement
• Some shocking statistics on life expectancy, poverty levels and the Stolen Generation - of which Mundanara's mother is one
• Breaking intergenerational cycles of trauma and poverty
• Mother guilt, and feeling our emotions
• Hope she has for the future, and to one day be a grandmother

Imogen Hewitt is Chief Media Officer of Publicis Media and CEO of Spark Foundry, having spent 25 years in creative agencies. 

Recently, she was named #3 in Mediaweek Australia’s 2023 Agency 50 Power List and has been recognised on the B&T Women In Media Power List every year since 2017. She was also previously named as one of Campaign Asia’s ‘Women to Watch’ in 2017 and 2020.

The themes throughout her conversation are presence, imperfection and partnership, to move us towards more happiness on the happy to chaos scale of life. 

This was a really fun conversation!

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why telling the truth helps stop unrealistic expectations
• An illusion of perfection does a disservice to those coming after you
• The importance of true partnership in realising your dreams and making life better
• Imogen and her husband tested out both working part-time, each working full-time, and now he’s a stay at home parent while she is the full time earner
• Being flexible in your approach, and stepping back to make space for your partner to do things their way too
• How perfectionism can drive us to achieve, but letting go of it helps make space in your life
• Imogen’s desire to always be better connected to the people in her life
• How being vigilant about presence helps Imogen find balance on the happy chaos scale of life
• The story that working mothers should make up work time in the evening, and that we need downtime too
• Giving yourself permission to get things wrong
• The value of tiny transformations
• Her husband’s transition to being the stay at home parent
• The Andrew Tate-ism of young men, the lack of nuanced conversation, and the challenges facing men
• The most powerful thing you can be is yourself

Lisa Grinham runs the Sydney Women's Fund, founded on the idea that when you invest in women, communities benefit.

Leaving her corporate career behind Lisa moved into the charitable sector, and loves that her work makes a maningful impact. We talked about the challenges women are facing right now and how SWF supports them, the importance of community and creating solutions from within, the bais women still face, and so much more.

This was a really fun conversation, I hope the time flies by for you too!

In this episode we discuss:

 

• The Sydney Women's Fund's mission to improve the lives of women and their families.
• They have given out $18m in funding to support women!
• The Sydney Women's Portrait research that now covers 10 years, looking at the trends of life and experience for women in Sydney
• For 80% of women, cost of living is currently their greatest concern.
• 47% of women are overwhelmed, and the same percentage have little time to pursue things that matter to them
• The imperative of maintaining finacial security and independence, as a lack of access to funds can keep women stuck
• The introduction of superannuation on parental leave as an important stepping stone
• The tipping point with domestic and family violence earlier this year, and SWF's appeal to raise money to support women escaping abuse
• "Pink" jobs, and how they contribute to financial inequality
• Some of Lisa's own stories of bias (she was once told women are getting all the jobs now!)

Padma Raman's CV is impressive, to say the least.

Currently Executive Director of the Office for Women (OFW) at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, previously CEO of Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety Limited, Chief Executive of the Australian Human Rights Commission and CEO of the Victorian Law Reform Commission, all while raising two daughters with her husband and overcoming the additional barriers of being a women of colour in Australia.

 

Having made a huge difference in her career, she puts it down to 'luck' but I don't imagine anyone makes such an impact because they got lucky. 

She talks about Australia's Working for Women gender equity strategy, bringing others on the journey with us, the additional challenge of being a woman of colour, and how we can disrupt the status quo. 

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

Cathy Ngo is an entrepreneur, sought-after keynote speaker, and presenter. As the founder of Keynoteworthy, she is on a mission to add more minority voices to speakers and events.

She is a mother to two human babies and two fur babies and is open about the peri-natal mental health challenges that have led her to be an ambassador for the Gidget Foundation.

A vulnerable, honest discussion, Cathy opened up about the realities of being a working mother. I hope you enjoy this conversation!

Find out more about Cathy and her work here:

https://keynoteworthy.com.au/ https://www.gidgetfoundation.org.au/ 

Yolanda Beattie is a leadership and high-performance team coach and facilitator. She's a career feminist and self-confessed growth junkie and brings personal development and the inner game into her work creating high-performance teams. 

Her recent report, Path to Parity, looks at the state of play for women in investments, with insights that reach beyond the industry.

Find out more about Yo and her work here:

https://future-impact.com.au/ https://www.yoandco.com.au/

Sally Moyle has over 30 years experience in gender equity. She helped introduce paid maternity leave across Australia as part of her work at the Human Rights Commission. She contributed to the HRC's It's About Time research into how men and women spend their time - who works, who does the caring, and how government policy still supports a male breadwinner model.

Sally has a lot of energy for gender equality, having already made such an impact on equal rights for women in Australia. I really enjoyed this conversation, and I hope you do too!

(listen out for the interruption half way through by my 10-year-old son - the interruptions on working mothers everywhere!)