Women At Work

For some people, their authenticity shines through as soon as you meet them, and today’s guest Aubrey Blanche-Sarellano is one of those people. With her pink and purple hair, a nose ring, and a big warm smile, she doesn’t look like your typical tech person, but she’s doing amazing work to embed equitable people & culture (more on what that is later) and responsible AI (more on that later too) into organisations. The world is changing, the workforce is changing, and Aubrey is doing work to make sure everyone can succeed. In this episode we’re talking about what it means to construct your career and non-linear pathways, how we each have influence over ourselves and the people around us, and getting clear on what you need.  Enjoy the show!  

Every woman has a story about ‘that guy’ at work, the who says inappropriate things – or worse. And many women, myself included, have a story about making a complaint and then their contract suddenly comes to an end. In December 2022, Australia’s Respect @ Work legislation came into effect, introducing a new positive duty for companies to proactively prevent sexual harassment, not just respond after the fact, and definitely not by firing the woman who made the complaint. Dr Anna Cody is Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner with the Australian Human Rights Commission, working at the frontline of how these laws work, where there are gaps, and what we can do about it. She has just released a new report titled Speaking from Experience – The HRC listened to women who have experienced sexual harassment or sex based discrimination, and created 11 recommendations. In the words of one of the woman interviewed, “talking is lovely, but action is what gets it done” So if you want to know what action your organisat

Here's a career pattern you'll recognise: first, you’re young, ambitious and driven, then kids arrive and you step back. A Nobel prize was actually awarded for research into that step back - so it's officially very common.  Side note, Your husband's career carries on uninterrupted while you manage everything. Then as the kids get older, you step forward again. And if you had school-age kids during the pandemic, that was a huge couple of years of homeschooling and – generally – pretty difficult work experiences. This path describes today's guest perfectly. Sarrah Le Marquand is Head of Entertainment at News Corp Australia, founding editor-in-chief of Stellar, and host of the award-winning podcast Something To Talk About. She's also an ambassador for Women's Community Shelters, supporting women and children experiencing domestic violence. Now, she's got teenage kids and is navigating separation - all while running this incredible career she's built back up. She's here to talk about those distinct career chapter

This conversation with Susanne Legena exceeded my expectations, and I obviously only invite people on who I expect will be interesting in the first place! Susanne has dedicated her life to supporting equality and rights for girls, as CEO of Plan Australia. Susanne is a passionate feminist and champion of young people, and is navigating her big career whilst raising her own 12 year old daughter. We covered so much in this conversation – from climbing 10,000 steps in Sri Lanka and the life lessons she took away about wanting to stop, taking small breaks, and the value of encouragement and support, to putting herself forward as CEO of Plan so that she would at least be the worst candidate, to the fact that whatever is for you can never really be lost to you – opportunities and the right thing, will come back around. Susanne is enthusiastic, incredibly knowledgeable, and so relatable in the way she shares her passion. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did…

“The truth is you do need to be a superwoman to have a successful career and be a present parent and we need to be honest about this”. Wise words from today’s guest, Stacey O’Dea. This honesty is exactly what I want to bring to this podcast. Because when you hear that in order for someone to have a big job and a family, they’re dropping balls all over the place that you just can’t see, then it makes you feel less alone in your own juggle.  Stacey has a few non-negotiables to support her blend of work and family, and – maybe more importantly – to help change things for other working mothers around her. She loudly works flexibly. No hanging a jacket on the back of her chair and pretending she’s in a meeting She’s honest about the trade offs, and the compromises she’s chosen to have a big job and be a present parent She picked (and kept) a partner who supports her career ambitions and does plenty of heavy lifting at home – and she’s not afraid to ask, well what is their partner doing at home? When a woman

Sally Hasler took a new job when she was 36 weeks pregnant, then immediately went on maternity leave. Far from being the career handbrake we’ve been led to expect from a move like that, she’s now CEO of Women's Health Victoria. And women’s health is in focus. Almost $800m was committed in the last budget to fill the gaps in women’s healthcare – and let’s be honest we all know there have been plenty of gaps! Sally’s a first time CEO, on the Board of Lifeline, and a St Johns Ambulance volunteer, all while raising three young kids, so she really gets what it's like to navigate career and family, while also working to positively change things for all women. She's refreshingly honest about the challenges, but also incredibly optimistic about what's possible when you get the right people around the table. In this episode, we're diving into everything from why Australia's women's health system still has massive gaps, to how Sally’s approaching leadership differently, to what it's actually like trying to change the s

I tried to cheat and get ChatGPT to help me write today's intro, and it gave me a bunch of waffle about how Chief Executive Women sounds like a group that comes together to drink champagne and whinge about their husbands.  That tells you everything we need to know about AI bias.  In reality, CEW's 1300 members oversee more than $750 billion in revenue, and they're the most senior women in corporate Australia.  Today's guest is their CEO, Lisa Annese. Lisa came on the podcast previously in her role as the CEO of the Diversity Council of Australia, where she spent a decade creating the first National Index on Workplace Diversity and Inclusion, conducting seminal research into the economics of the gender pay gap and so much more.  Now she's working directly with the women who have the power to drive change. Lisa has been named one of the AFR's 100 Women of Influence. She's on the board of non-partisan organization Women for Election. She served on the New South Wales Women's Advisory Council and the Respect@Work

The technology industry has a persistent gender gap. And according to RMIT university, the biggest single opportunity to close Australia’s digital skills gap is (drumroll please)… women.  But here's the kicker - this isn't just about tech. This is about power, money, and who gets to shape the future. When women make up only 30% of the technology workforce in an industry that's literally building tomorrow, we're all missing out. And with a critical shortage of skilled workers in tech, fixing this gap isn't just nice to have - it's economic survival. That's exactly what today's guest, Emma Jones, spends her time fighting for. Emma founded Project F with the express purpose of reducing the number of women abandoning technology mid-career - because yes, they're leaving in droves, and it's not because they can't code. She launched Australia's first national industry standards for the tech sector, the T-EDI standards, alongside the Tech Council of Australia. And as a busy mother of four, she embodies the balance be

Having a favorite podcast episode is like having a favorite child, so officially I loved all conversations equally, and learned so much from all of the guests. Consistently the guests on Women at Work reject that notion that we need to fix the women and instead agree we need to fix systems and cultures. But while we wait for that to happen, we are individually trying to cobble together solutions and need support with that. What I want from this podcast is for you to feel less alone in the juggle. The topics this season ranged from leadership, to why confidence isn’t he solution, to collective action, every woman knowing one of ‘that guy’, to structural support like childcare, parental leave, flexible working and politics, to anti-racism and intersectionality, to real life stories of managing it all and how we support ourselves through the juggle. Guests this season (in order of appearance) were: Jane Caro, Joy Adan, Dr Charlotte Middleton, Dr Rae Cooper, Allegra Spender, Georgie Dent, Katherine Boicuic, Lael

The first time Kayshie Tilak Ramesh experienced racism was in year three. Later, despite being born in Griffith, NSW and raised in Bendigo, VIC, when she was the multicultural youth commissioner she was asked to share her refugee story. Now, she’s changing systems, one conversation at a time. In this conversation, Khayshie will share her recent experiences representing Australia at the United Nations Commission on the Status of women, how workplaces represent our greatest opportunity for systemic change, and we’ll dig into conversations about meaningful antiracism. Khayshie’s resume is impressive - Senior Industry Fellow with RMIT FORWARD: The Centre for Future Skills and Workforce Transformation Multicultural Youth Commissioner of Victoria Inaugural Youth Mayor of the City of Greater Bendigo, Young Citizen of the Year, Law Student of the Year, Premier’s Volunteer Leadership Award and Victorian Multicultural Award for Excellence for Service to the Victorian Community Now, she runs her own consultancy, alongsi

Louise Baxter had a very successful career in advertising, when she hit a moment of truth, and realised she wanted to do something more meaningful with her life. Fast forward, and Louise has now been CEO of Starlight Foundation for 16 years, proving through action (and results) that a culture of positivity doesn’t just feel good — it drives every business metric that matters. Under her leadership, Starlight has topped the AFR’s MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES list, landed in the Top 20 Great Places to Work, and built a workplace so relentlessly positive that one team member confessed she kept waiting for the façade to drop… four years later, she’s still waiting. Louise also knows the juggle — she’s a mum, a leader, and someone who’s managed to balance impact, ambition, and the everyday chaos of real life. This is a conversation about values, leadership, workplace culture, and the kind of optimism that’s less about slogans and more about systems that actually work.

Professor Nareen Young is Associate Dean, Indigenous Engagement and Leadership at UTS Business School, and leads the Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research. She is one of Australia’s most respected workplace diversity practitioners and thinkers. For 15 years, prior to UTS and Jumbunna, Nareen was the Director of PWC Indigenous Consulting, CEO of Diversity Council Australia and Director of the NSW Working Women's Centre, and was nominated for an Australian Human Rights Award and Medal for her work during that time. Nareen is influenced by both her Indigenous and culturally diverse heritages in all her work and has received numerous awards and acknowledgements, including the inaugural Westpac 100 Women of Influence honour for Diversity, and she commentates and publishes her work widely across media and academia. In this episode Nareen mentioned: Talking up to the White Woman, by Aileen Moreton-Robinson Sister Girl, by Jackie Huggins Gari Yala Gendered Insights Report

Sophie McCarthy had some big shoes to fill. Her mother Wendy has been at the forefront of feminist activism for decades, and Sophie picked up the mantle and is making her own huge impact on gender equality. As CEO of McCarthy mentoring, Sophie partners with leading companies to design programs that drive change, engage people and develop leaders. With her upbringing, it’s no surprise that Sophie participates in her own advocacy work, As Chair of Sydney Community Foundation, she helps support the most vulnerable women in Sydney, giving a voice to women who don’t get heard. Sophie’s passionate about doing work that actually makes a difference, and breaking down barriers that prevent equality. 

In Apolitical’s list of 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy, you find Jacinda Ardern, former PM of NZ, and you also find today’s guest Dr. Leonora Risse. Leonora is an economist who specialises in gender equality. Her focus is women in the workforce, gender pay gaps, why there aren’t more women in leadership, societal norms that see women doing the majority of care work, gender biases and resistance to equality initiatives. And she VERY much believes that we need to fix the system, NOT the women. With a PhD focused on paid maternity leave in Australia, she is co-founder of the Women in Economics Network in Australia, a Research Fellow with the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University, and a Research Fellow with the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia. She’s one of the most passionate advocates for gender equality I’ve had the privilege to chat with. I hope you enjoy this episode with Dr Leonora Risse!

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’m so excited to hear about what it takes to manage a family while having a career driven by passion and hard work, and I hope you enjoy the show!

I asked ChatGPT, and it told me that men still hold 70-80% of formal positions of power, across most domains, globally. And because of that very power imbalance, women can’t achieve equality on our own. We need men to be involved, and to use the power our current systems grant them, to  shift things. And that’s exactly what Champions of Change Coalition do, led by today’s guest, CEO Annika Freyer. The Coalition aims to achieve gender equality, advance more and diverse women into leadership, and build respectful and inclusive workplaces. But as we know here at Women at Work, you can’t increase women’s representation without shifting the systems. It’s not about fixing the women.   Annika was appointed as the inaugural CEO of the Champions of Change Coalition in 2016, and has grown the coalition from its Founding Group of 10 CEOs to more than 250 members. And she’s done that while getting herself to Barry’s bootcamp at 5am every morning, and raising two young daughters. I really enjoyed this fun, candid chat wit

Spoiler alert: when women leaders leave organisations after having kids, it's not because they "lack confidence" or "opt out." But the reality is, organisations are struggling to recruit and retain women in leadership, and women are struggling to stay. Dr Amanda Sterling's groundbreaking PhD research exposes how the denial of women's physical experiences (pregnancy, breastfeeding, sleep deprivation, menopause) creates impossible conditions for mothers in leadership. As a leadership consultant and neuroscience-trained coach, she's calling bull on trying to "fix the women" and instead shows organisations how to fix their cultures so women can thrive in leadership positions, not just in support roles where so many of us get stuck. Her work has been featured everywhere from Global Women to Radio New Zealand, and she's about to drop some cold, hard truths about what really needs to change to get  - and keep - more women in leadership.

We talk about changing the system, not the women. Sometimes we’re talking about workplaces when we discuss structural change, and today we’re talking about the government’s role in gender equity with Kate Thwaites MP, the Assistant Minister for Women. Kate co-wrote Enough is Enough, about the pervasive culture of sexual violence and harassment within Australia's Parliament House, and her portfolio of work focuses on Women, Ageing, and Social Security. We got the chance to hear about her new bill aiming to make gender equality targets compulsory for large employers, the unique challenges older women face as a historically invisible but increasingly visible part of the workforce, and why it even matters if Parliament is a positive workplace. I believe we need more women in all the rooms where decisions are made (just like Ruth Bader Ginsberg), and Kate is doing just that. Enjoy the show! In this episode we discuss: When women succeed, it's good for the bottom line and other employees. Kate's bill to introd

Karina Kallio has a background as a fashion designer, then had a bit of an awakening to the impact of the industry and a calling to what is her role in the world – all of which was strengthened by being a mother. Karina believes we exist best in community - a theme that comes through often in this podcast. The power of community in thriving and driving change. She talks about life's longing for itself, and how we need to find our role within the world. The systems that we work, parent and live in hold us in isolation but we can’t do this work alone, and this is a beautiful conversation about Karina's heart’s work, and how she navigates life and work as a mother. In this episode we discuss: Karina's background in fashion, and moving to sustainable fashion. How destructive the fashion industry is - to self esteem, the world, the level of waste, and the feeling of being treated as a number in workplaces. The importance of community  The unique contributions we all make to the circle of life. The interc