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:

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:

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!)

Louise Davidson AM is the CEO of the Australian Superannuation Council of Investors, and has had a huge impact on increasing the number of women on the Boards of Australia's largest companies, from 3% in 2023, to almost 40% today.

We discuss merit, the power of collective action, the barriers that working mothers face, and the value of networking. We also talk about her foundation, the Mother's Day Classic, where she has raised almost $48 million for breast and ovarian cancer research. 

Find out more about ACSI at https://acsi.org.au/

Learn about the Mother's Day Classic at https://www.mothersdayclassic.com.au/

Learn more about Louise at https://www.linkedin.com/in/louise-davidson-am-5249a320/

The tables have turned in this episode, and Lisa Corduff is interviewing Samantha about her Beyond the 9 to 5 research, and the experience of working mothers right now. Sam shares what the research is all about, and how sharing stories helps us feel less alone in our challenges.

Sam explains the motherhood penalty and shares stories of women being sidelined after they have children. She shares the widespread challenges women face, being over stretched, feeling guilty, and worrying they're not putting enough in at work or at home.

Sam shares ideas of what workplaces can do to better support women, and how home life and care labour intersects with work. 

Find out more about Sam's work and Beyond the 9 to 5 research at www.SamanthaSutherland.com.au/9to5/

Learn more about Lisa at www.lisacorduff.com

The number one policy that keeps women connected to the workforce is flexible working options, and Emma Walsh defines that as having the autonomy to manage your work around your family, and your family around your work.

Through her work as Founder and CEO of Parents At Work, she is a passionate advocate for improving parental leave rights for families, helping employers navigate the changing expectations of business to bridge the evolving work/home divide.

Emma herself is a mum of three - twin boys and a daughter, and shares her passions and insights about the caring economy, and workplaces that are structured to support it.

Amy Taylor-Kabbaz is an activist, changing the way the world supports mothers - in the board room, the birthing suite and the living room. When I first came across her work I had a giant chip on my shoulder, and the more we talked the more I realised we're fighting the exact same fight, we're just using different language for it.

Amy understands that the system is rigged and we can't 'self care' our way through that. In her world-first Matrescence Coaching Training she supports other women and coaches globally to change the experience of motherhood and the way mothers are supported and valued in the world. 

Amy is doing SUCH important work in the world. I hope you enjoy this conversation!

You can find Amy at:

https://amytaylorkabbaz.com/

https://mamarising.net/

Podcast - Happy Mama Movement with Amy Taylor-Kabbaz