Closing the super gap while you shop with Lucy Kough
Women At Work
Women retire with 28% less super than men on average. Women over the age of 55 are the fastest growing group of homelessness, driven in large part by lower or nil super balances. And that super gap is driven by all the barriers we talk about on this podcast all the time - women are paid less so their compulsory super payments are lower, they take time out of they have children and super paid on that is minimum wage level and zero for extended unpaid leave, they face the motherhood penalty that means their earnings suffer after children, they are more likely to work part time…, whether they...
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A morning routine won’t fix inequality with Jenny Rolfe-Wallace
Women At Work
Australia is one of the wealthiest nations on earth, but your gender can determine how much of that wealth you have. Australian women are almost twice as likely as men to experience financial insecurity, lower levels of financial wellbeing, and poverty throughout our lives as men. Today’s guest is Jenny Rolfe-Wallace a qualified teacher and financial educator, and a former financial adviser. She stood for election as an independent in the 2025 federal election and on her own podcast, "It's Not About The Money", Jenny considers why we need to stop telling individuals to solve the problems...
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Living beyond gender expectations with Vithyaa Thavapalan
Women At Work
What is a fire investigator? Is the first question I asked when a listener recommended I speak with Vithyaa Thavapalan. I don’t know the answer yet, but I know it’s a very male dominated industry. Women make up less than 5% of urban firefighters and cultures of toxicity have been exposed. How do you push against gender and cultural expectations to live a life that has meaning for you is another question that is central to my work, and Vithyaa has spent her life doing just that. Born in Western Sydney, to Tamil parents who fled Sri Lanka during the war, she had to defy their expectations to...
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Why we need more women in politics with Licia Heath
Women At Work
This year, the number of women in both houses of Parliament reached a record-making 50.5%, that’s the highest number of women in Australian federal politics ever. And as Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, "Women belong in all places where decisions are being made.” Today’s guest, Licia Heath, shares RBG’s sentiment, and has dedicated her work to getting more women into politics. Licia is CEO of not-for-profit, Women for Election, a non-partisan group committed to increasing the number of women in public office at local, state and federal levels. She ran in the high-profile Wentworth by-election...
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EvenBetter improving gender pay gaps with Sorrel Kesby
Women At Work
Artificial Intelligence has a gender gap - Women are being left behind and are up to 40% less likely to use AI. You know what else has a gender gap? Pay. The current gender pay gap in Australia is 21.8%, and every industry has a gender pay gap that sees men earning more than women – including women-dominated industries like retail, and healthcare and social assistance. Well, what might happen if you brought the two together, and use AI to solve your gender pay gap? Today’s guest is Sorrel Kesby, and she’s doing just that. She is cofounder of EvenBetter.AI, a start up using AI to help...
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Laura Stewart, the highs and lows of stepping out of corporate
Women At Work
Laura Stewart had a big career. Then she had a baby. She went back to work, and it was a disaster – sidelined, treated differently, and a toxic workplace. So, like the rest of the 30% of women who leave their jobs within a year of having a baby, Laura left. But also like the rest of that 30%, she didn’t leave the workforce, she just left a job that wasn’t compatible with also having a family. She started up a consulting practice called Unravel – helping organisations Unravel complex challenges, and then at the beginning of 2025 joined forces with Vanessa Pilla and co-founded PathMaker...
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Leah Rappuner debunking gender myths and how we change our lives
Women At Work
Leah Ruppanner is the kind of person every single working mother wants to speak to, because she knows all about how your life feels, and how to fix it. She’s debunking outdated gender stereotypes, like women are happier as 'homemakers' and men are bumbling caregivers, often stitching viral tiktok videos to explain, in layman's terms, what the underlying social issue really is. She’s about to publish a book about the mental load and how we better share it, and her podcast MissPerceived is in the top 200 in the US and top 25 in Australia for the sciences. A research professor at the...
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Aubrey Blanche-Sarellano on listening, influence and AI
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...
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Anna Cody on women's stories and the shape of our workplaces
Women At Work
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...
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A Step Back Step Forward Career with Sarrah Le Marquand
Women At Work
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...
info_outlineIn 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!