To mark International Women’s Day, Jude Dobson talked to four women from diverse sectors about their journey. Photo / Kellie Blizard
The United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day in 1975. The 50th anniversary is a chance to reflect on how far women have come — and have yet to go.
“Reflecting on my own life and that of my mother’s, women’s equality — or lack thereof — is demonstrated in all sorts of moments,” says TV personality Jude Dobson.
“In the 1950s, my mum was one of only a handful of Teal air hostesses. Marriage signalled an end to her international flying career because the rules stated hostesses needed to be single. That seems absurd now and when you think of the reasoning, sort of creepy.
“When I got the Sale of the Century presenter job in 1989, I was called a co-host instead of a hostess. It was a small but significant step forward. I was also given more airtime to talk than in other countries, which riled a few (male) viewers.
“I asked for time off in my contract should I have a baby, which took some negotiation. I didn’t need to invoke the clause, but I made the point. By the time I had my third baby and shared her with Weekly readers in 2003 (above), I wanted to promote breastfeeding as a normal activity in public. I asked for a photo of me breastfeeding in the story. After a brief discussion, the magazine ran with it. Go the Weekly.
“As a sisterhood, I feel challenging a norm that isn’t favourable to women and making a new norm is integral to who we are. Sometimes it’s little steps.
“At other times, we can all hear the glass ceiling shatter and applaud, knowing women have forged a new path and made it easier for those who follow.
“To mark International Women’s Day, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to talk to four women from diverse sectors about their journey.” These are their stories.
When Dame Theresa became the first female chief executive of Telecom, it was only the start of a foray into leadership. Since then, she’s taken on professional governance roles, entrepreneurial ventures such as My Food Bag, and philanthropy, much of which focuses on women here and abroad.
Global Women, of which Gattung is the New Zealand chairwoman, has a vision “to see remarkable women running and raising our countries, companies and communities”.
She speaks positively about how we are faring.
“The pushback overseas on diversity, equity, inclusion started last year, but we have not seen that here to date. We still see a very strong commitment on behalf of New Zealand organisations to develop all their talent.”
Theresa sees feminism as an unbroken thread.
“We honour the women who made it possible for us to have the right to vote, work, own property in our own name and have our reproductive freedoms. Our daughters, nieces and granddaughters need to understand it was only one generation ago that our mothers often had to give up work after they married and got pregnant. Now they can be a doctor, lawyer or prime minister.”
Gattung, 63, is optimistic about the future but urges action, saying, “Every generation of women faces their own challenges. All of us must do what we can do in our situation to claim and reclaim those freedoms and choices that the women who went before us fought for”.
Dame Margaret is a Distinguished Professor in the School of Chemical Sciences and School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland.
“I remember making aspirin in the lab here in my first-year organic chemistry class and thinking I wanted to help humankind by making new therapeutics/pharmaceutical drugs,” she recalls.
That dream necessitated a PhD. It was not a path many women undertook.
“Only two of us out of a class of 30 stayed on for our Masters. These days, a PhD in chemistry has about a 50% female enrolment.”
Brimble’s skill and determination have also resulted in some wonderful outputs for humanity.
“I led a small medicinal chemistry team that resulted in the first FDA-approved drug for the treatment of Rett syndrome [a rare, genetic, debilitating disease that primarily affects females],” she explains.
“I set up the first Bachelor of Science Honours degree in New Zealand in medicinal chemistry, and when teaching my undergraduate students, I would reiterate that it takes 20-plus years to get an FDA-approved drug.
“I never thought I would get FDA-approval for a drug candidate that was first prepared in our lab. Medicinal chemists in pharmaceutical companies and academic labs across the world spend their careers trying to discover new drugs, and most of the compounds they synthesise never actually end up being approved for people to use. The failure rate is huge!”
Seeing those benefiting from this discovery is hugely satisfying for Brimble.
“Meeting these girls and their families at the World Rett Syndrome Congress last year was a life-changing experience for me and made my long career feel worthwhile,” she says.
In 2018, she was recognised by the Royal Society London for the work she performed here, making her the first New Zealand-based woman to become a Fellow.
“I never thought I would make it, but to be inducted into the Royal Society London as a Kiwi scientist made me feel very proud.”
She was also awarded the Davy Medal for chemistry for her academic work from the Royal Society London in 2023.
Margaret encourages young women to consider a career in science and has trained more than 100 PhD students.
Her advice?
“Rise above the intimidating bravado that many of your colleagues are good at displaying. A lot of it is hype. Good science always takes time and a lot of hard work.”
Windsurfer Barbara Kendall was the first New Zealand woman to compete in five consecutive Olympic Games, picking up a gold (1992), silver (1996) and bronze (2000) medal, making her the first Kiwi woman to win three Olympic medals.
She was the first New Zealand woman Olympic Team flag bearer, and the first woman inducted into the World Sailing Hall of Fame. Barbara and firsts seem to go together.
She’s also a mother to Aimee and Samantha, which she describes as “my proudest achievement”. They, too, have represented New Zealand at the World Championships in 2023 in their respective sports.
Motherhood began for Kendall when she was competing internationally.
“There were doubts that it would be possible to be competitive and there were no other women in the fleet that were mums,” she recalls. “I won the World Champs, which was my first competition, when Samantha was 14 months old, and that set the ball in motion to campaign for Athens in 2004.”
Kendall became a member of the acclaimed International Olympic Committee Athletes Commission, which advocates for athlete representation in the decision-making processes in global sport. Factoring in motherhood was not part of the IOC culture in 2005.
“There were no kids to be seen,” she says. “There were only 15 women out of the 120 memberships in the IOC. I couldn’t afford a nanny and I was breast-feeding, so at my first meeting in Switzerland, my three-month-old baby came with me.”
Barbara is positive about the huge leaps in women’s sport.
“There’s an incredible wave of women coming through who are breaking the glass ceiling on what is possible in the sporting world. It took 40 years after Yvette William’s effort for a woman — me — to win a gold medal, then it was another 12 years until Sarah Ulmer and Georgia and Caroline Ever-Swindells’ success, and now there is a torrent of incredible female athletes breaking all sorts of records. I’ve loved being a trailblazer in pushing those boundaries in what is possible.”
New Zealand has the fourth largest Exclusive Economic Exclusion Zone in the world, and our navy and air force play an important part in protecting those interests.
Lieutenant Tayla Richards, 27, serves as a marine engineer in the Royal NZ Navy, looking after the mechanical and electrical equipment on board a ship and leading teams of technicians to ensure it stays operational.
While she says she doesn’t speak for every woman in the military and everyone’s experience is different, she feels things are moving in the right direction.
“I really enjoy the personal and professional development, the travel, sporting opportunities and the camaraderie,” she says. “The New Zealand Defence Force believes leadership starts with leading yourself and then you grow from there, and I tend to agree.”
In a traditionally male-dominated career, Richards appreciates the women who have paved the way for her.
“These strong, amazing women created a space for the likes of myself to come in now and not even have to think about whether I will be treated fairly or not. It’s important to acknowledge the effort of some of the great men as well.”
Hair and make-up: Chay Roberts. Styling: Angela Stone. Jude wears Flo & Frankie.
A live cook-off featured ox heart, wapiti, wild boar and plenty of edible wildlife.