‘I want to issue a wake-up call’: Ita Buttrose on women in media
The majority of women working in the media are unsure or dissatisfied with the progress of their careers – but ABC Chair Ita Buttrose says women in the industry mustn’t give up.
Buttrose delivered a keynote speech on Friday morning at the Women in Media National Conference, reflecting on her career and the hardships she had to go through to get to where she is today.
Buttrose delivered the keynote speech on Friday morning
“It is so important that we have successful women working in the media in Australia,” she told the crowd. “It took guts and persistence to get to where we are today, and yet, there is still more to be done.
According to the latest Women in Media Industry Insight Report, nearly one third of women are thinking of leaving their job, and the majority of senior women are considering changing roles.
“When I read this year’s report, I was dismayed to discover that the majority of women in our industry, 54%, are either unsure about or dissatisfied with the progress of their careers,” she continued.
“This suggests to me that many of you are thinking of giving up,” Buttrose said. “That mustn’t happen.
“It will still require guts and persistence, but you must never give up.”
Buttrose reflected on the “two most important social changes of the 20th century” that she has witnessed and experienced in her career – the employment of women outside of the home, and the change in female education.
“The improvements in female education didn’t happen overnight,” she said. “The Australian education system used to produce women who lacked ambition and self confidence, who considered themselves inferior to men, and whose level of achievement was desperately low.
“But now, girls outperform boys at high school and more women than men graduate from university,” Buttrose continued.
Throughout her career, she said she’d “never miss any opportunity to deliver that message” of hope, change and waking Australia up to the new possibilities and endless opportunities women in media were getting.
Buttrose – who has enjoyed a long career across newspapers, magazines, television and radio – announced last month that she would step down from her role as ABC Chair when her current term ends in March next year.
“I love working in the media, I always have,” she said. “You have to love what you do, life is too short to waste it doing something that you don’t love.”
“I do hope I’ve made a difference,” she concluded.
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Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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What was the wake-up call though?
Quite an intriguing headline, but I always find it confusing (and a tad misleading) when there is a quote in the headline, but that same quote doesn’t appear in the actual article.
If it’s headline worthy, it’s article worthy.
What did she want us to “wake-up” to or do?
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