Gerber, 22, is the daughter of 90s supermodel Cindy Crawford, and yes, she has inherited every single cell of her mother’s asymmetrically perfect features. She’s now a successful model in her own right but also a keen reader, a book reader, and in the past few years, she’s made it part of her public identity.

Since 2020, she’s worked hard to cultivate the image of a stylish book-worm. She’s made sure the world knows she reads and that we know she’s a thinker. Gone are the days of the bookworm image, of the girl with glasses reading in her pjs in bed. 

In September 2020, Gerber posted a screenshot to her 10 million followers on Instagram of a scene from Richard Benjamin’s 1990 movie Mermaids, starring Cher and Winona Ryder. 

The image shows Cher in a bathtub, reading Grace Metalious’ 1956 novel Peyton Place, looking beautiful, focused and cerebral. Next to her, Winona Ryder, who plays her daughter in the movie, peers up towards the corner of the camera, obviously distracted by some agitated feelings towards her mother, who seems lost in her book. 

Suddenly, I was interested. 

The book Gerber was promoting that week, Chloe Benjamin’s The Immortalists, had nothing to do with the film, but that single post piqued my interest. 

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A few months earlier in March, Gerber had started a virtual bookclub via her Instagram as a way for her to connect with writers, other celebrities and friends during the pandemic. The first book was Sally Rooney’s Normal People – whose fans are the OG of ‘the stylish reader’. In her first live chat, she spoke with Daisy-Edgar Jones and Paul Mascal, stars of the screen adaptation of the novel. 

Her book selections were diverse, and her intentions were noble. In May, she selected Spring Awakening, the late 19th century classic play by German dramatist Frank Wedekind, in order to “raise awareness for the performing arts industry in nyc. theaters are closed for the time being, putting so many actors, writers, and crew members out of work,” as Gerber described in a post on Instagram.

“It’s really important that we keep supporting the community that plays such a large & important role to the city.” 

Over the next few months and years, Gerber would invite the likes of Lena Dunham, Jia Tolentino, Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) and Raven Leilani onto her platform to talk about their books. These women have huge cultural capital and radiate an equal measure of affable coolness, intelligence and obtainable beauty. 

Gerber would continue to post images on Instagram of beautiful women reading, either from photos, or screenshots from movies. It didn’t matter that most of the images had nothing to do with the books themselves. Gerber knew how to get someone like me interested.

I’m a female reader, a book reader, and I aspire to be beautiful. Inevitably, in my own life, I separate these two pursuits. When I read, I’m mostly always in some loose, flimsy outfit, sprawled across my sofa chair in my study, looking more like a sloth on a tree than a presentable woman. The last thing on my mind is trying to appear beautiful. 

But these women, women like Gerber, and her fellow supermodel friends who read, including Dua Lipa, Emily Ratajkowski and Camille Rowe, have harnessed Instagram’s most fundamental currency — hot privilege, and began a movement to aestheticise book reading.

And by book reading, I mean, actual books. Physical, paper items. You won’t see a kindle anywhere here. 

The books on Gerber’s bookclub list are carefully selected to exude a certain sensibility. Think east-coast elites. Think oat-milk drinking hipsters who wear white linen shirts and own more than two pairs of Birkenstocks. Carrying a book, or at least, appearing to consume its content, has become another gesture towards aspirational living. Not only do we need to appear to be taking care of our outward appearances — we need to cultivate the right kind of intellectual and cerebral agendas. 

This week, Gerber, along with her friend Alyssa Reeder, (a New York City-bred writer and editor who writes for Into the Gloss) launched Library Science. 

The site collects all the books she’s had on her bookclub so far; all 34 books, it’s 33 authors, most of them American. Joan Didion appears twice. And of course she does. Her books (along with her cult status among liberal white women) is the basis upon which all the other books instantiate. 

Another late author on the list is Françoise Sagan, who has an equally pertinent status among women who pay very close attention to the fabric of their clothes. 

The majority of authors on Gerber’s list are women and out of the 33 authors, nine are people of colour, or mixed race. Five are late authors. There is one trans author. Most of them went to Ivy league colleges, or were born into privilege and celebrity, as Gerber has. 

Wealth and affluence can provide one with a certain cultural capital – in Gerber’s case, she’s used it to curate a literary milieu. They can be “taste” makers. But what does it mean to have “taste”? More importantly, who adjudicates this metric? Today, it seems that the answer is beautiful people who know how to market themselves. Personally, I believe the gay American writer, Ocean Vuong was the first to aestheticize that very singular, New York City-artist image. Just check out his IG to know what I mean.

Initially, I was drawn to Gerber’s ethereal beauty. I love looking at pretty people. But pretty people who read?! Irresistible. Before my private divorce from social media, my favourite Instagram account was @hotdudesreading. The female equivalent is @coolgirlsreadingbooks. Somehow, it feels less of a novelty to see an attractive woman reading than it is to see an attractive man reading. The Internet agrees with me, because the former account has more than a million followers, while the latter has only 48.7K followers. 

As I said before, Instagram runs on hot privilege. And Gerber knows how to milk it. Looking to be well read is now a visual pursuit. It’s aspirational to appear to be well-read. And though her Library Science hasn’t inspired me to amend my break-up with Instagram, I agree with the platform’s philosophy: “We learn the most from the stories that aren’t our own.”

The post The gentle, slow, agonising beautifying of book-reading appeared first on Women's Agenda.

Here are our top-rated moments from her interview:

She’s currently in her happy place

“It feels like the breakthrough moment of my career, happening at 33. And for the first time in my life, I was mentally tough enough to take what comes with that.”

“This is the proudest and happiest I’ve ever felt, and the most creatively fulfilled and free I’ve ever been.” 

“I’ve been raised up and down the flagpole of public opinion so many times in the last 20 years.”

“I’ve been given a tiara, then had it taken away.”

“Over the years, I’ve learned I don’t have the time or bandwidth to get pressed about things that don’t matter. Yes, if I go out to dinner, there’s going to be a whole chaotic situation outside the restaurant. But I still want to go to dinner with my friends.”

“Life is short. Have adventures. Me locking myself away in my house for a lot of years—I’ll never get that time back. I’m more trusting now than I was six years ago.” 

Gruelling workouts in preparation for her Eras Tour

“Every day I would run on the treadmill, singing the entire set list out loud. Fast for fast songs, and a jog or a fast walk for slow songs.” 

“I had three months of dance training, because I wanted to get it in my bones. I wanted to be so over-rehearsed that I could be silly with the fans, and not lose my train of thought.” 

Swift hired choreographer Mandy Moore (not the pop star actor) who Emma Stone worked with during La-La Land. 

“Learning choreography is not my strong suit,” Swift said. 

She also stopped drinking, because “Doing that show with a hangover — I don’t want to know that world.”

During a hiatus from consecutive shows, she rests for a full day: “I do not leave my bed except to get food and take it back to my bed and eat it there. It’s a dream scenario. I can barely speak because I’ve been singing for three shows straight. Every time I take a step my feet go crunch, crunch, crunch from dancing in heels.” 

“I know I’m going on that stage whether I’m sick, injured, heartbroken, uncomfortable, or stressed.” 

“That’s part of my identity as a human being now. If someone buys a ticket to my show, I’m going to play it unless we have some sort of force majeure.”

On performing her songs on Eras Tour

“Every part of you that you’ve ever been, every phase you’ve ever gone through, was you working it out in that moment with the information you had available to you at the time.”

“There’s a lot that I look back at like, ‘Wow, a couple years ago I might have cringed at this.’ You should celebrate who you are now, where you’re going, and where you’ve been.”

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On the challenges working in the music industry

Swift’s life changed dramatically after Kanye West’s infamous VMAs disruption in 2009 when Swift was onstage accepting the award for Best Video by a Female Artist. 

“I realised every record label was actively working to try to replace me. I thought instead, I’d replace myself first with a new me. It’s harder to hit a moving target.”

“By the time an artist is mature enough to psychologically deal with the job, they throw you out at 29, typically.”

“In the ’90s and ’00s, it seems like the music industry just said: ‘OK, let’s take a bunch of teenagers, throw them into a fire, and watch what happens. By the time they’ve accumulated enough wisdom to do their job effectively, we’ll find new teenagers.’” 

On the two major career events: 

“It’s not lost on me that the two great catalysts for this happening were two horrendous things that happened to me.”

“The first was getting canceled within an inch of my life and sanity. The second was having my life’s work taken away from me by someone who hates me.”

Kim Kardashian feud 

In 2016, Kanye West released a song, “Famous” where he sings: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / I made that bitch famous.”

West later said that Swift had consented to the lyrics. Swift denied this. A few months later, West’s then-wife Kim Kardashian claimed in a GQ interview: “[Taylor] totally approved that. She totally knew that that was coming out. She wanted to all of a sudden act like she didn’t. I swear, my husband gets so much shit for things [when] he really was doing proper protocol and even called to get it approved.” 

She also called Swift a snake on Instagram. The following month, Kardashian released Snapchat receipts of Swift appearing to give Kanye permission to release “Famous.”

Swift immediately released a Notes app statement: 

“Where is the video of Kanye telling me he was going to call me ‘that bitch’ in his song? It doesn’t exist because it never happened. You don’t get to control someone’s emotional response to being called ‘that bitch’ in front of the entire world.”

“Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination. I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be a part of, since 2009.”

After the scandal, Swift told TIME this week she felt like she was in “a career death.”

“Make no mistake—my career was taken away from me. I had all the hyenas climb on and take their shots.” 

“You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar.”

“That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before. I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.”

“I thought that moment of backlash was going to define me negatively for the rest of my life.”

“The Scooter Thing”

In June 2019, Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings acquired Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine Label Group, which included Swift’s entire catalog at that point, which was valued at US$140 million. 

The sale meant that Braun owned the rights to Swift’s first six albums, and any time someone requested license to a song, he would pocket the money. 

“With the Scooter thing, my masters were being sold to someone who actively wanted them for nefarious reasons, in my opinion,” Swift told TIME. 

“I was so knocked on my ass by the sale of my music, and to whom it was sold.”

“I was like, ‘Oh, they got me beat now. This is it. I don’t know what to do.’”

“I’d run into Kelly Clarkson and she would go, ‘Just redo it.’” 

“My dad kept saying it to me too. I’d look at them and go, ‘How can I possibly do that?’ Nobody wants to redo their homework if on the way to school, the wind blows your book report away.” 

Swift rerecorded her all her songs, and released them as “Taylor’s Version”. 

“It’s all in how you deal with loss. I respond to extreme pain with defiance.”

“If you look at what I’ve put out since then, it’s more albums in the last few years than I did in the first 15 years of my career.” 

“Nothing is permanent. So I’m very careful to be grateful every second that I get to be doing this at this level, because I’ve had it taken away from me before. There is one thing I’ve learned: My response to anything that happens, good or bad, is to keep making things. Keep making art.”

“But I’ve also learned there’s no point in actively trying to quote unquote defeat your enemies. Trash takes itself out every single time.”

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On Feminism

“If we have to speak stereotypically about the feminine and the masculine. Women have been fed the message that what we naturally gravitate toward—”

“Girlhood, feelings, love, breakups, analysing those feelings, talking about them nonstop, glitter, sequins! We’ve been taught that those things are more frivolous than the things that stereotypically gendered men gravitate toward, right?” 

“And what has existed since the dawn of time? A patriarchal society. What fuels a patriarchal society? Money, flow of revenue, the economy. So actually, if we’re going to look at this in the most cynical way possible, feminine ideas becoming lucrative means that more female art will get made. It’s extremely heartening.”

You can read the full interview with TIME here.

The post ‘It’s harder to hit a moving target’: The remarkable evolution of Taylor Swift laid bare in Time’s Person of the Year Interview appeared first on Women's Agenda.

The 40-year old director of this year’s highest grossing film, ‘Barbie’, will join just a handful of other women to have previously won Director of the Year Awards at the film festival. They include Chloé Zhao (‘Nomadland’), Jane Campion (‘The Power of the Dog’) and Sarah Polley (‘Women Talking’). 

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Campion and Zhao went on to win Best Director awards at the Oscars for their respective films. 

This week, the festival’s Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi released a statement, describing Gerwig as a director who has created “the cinematic experience of the year with Barbie, the perfect blend of comedy, emotion and adventure that has both entertained and resonated with audiences.”

“[The movie] became a cultural touchstone around the world,” Chandi said. 

“Gerwig is a masterful filmmaker, and her vision is brought to life so vividly by both the script she co-wrote with Noah Baumbach, and by her clear and singular collaboration with her extraordinary crafts teams, whose visuals are matched only by the outstanding performances delivered by Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and the entire cast. It is our honour to present the Director of the Year Award to Greta Gerwig.” 

‘Barbie’ was one of cinematic history’s highest grossing films — earning almost US$1.442 billion worldwide. Gerwig became the first female director to helm a film that surpassed US$1 billion in global ticket sales. On its opening weekend in July, it broke records, grossing over US$358 million worldwide, making it the biggest debut ever for a film directed by a woman. 

Just last month, it ended its record-breaking streak of 12 weeks on the US box office top 10 List. When the DVD version of the movie was released in October, it topped both the Blu-ray-only and overall packaged media charts in its debut week. 

If the movie takes home Best Picture at next year’s Academy Awards, it will become only the second billion dollar movie to do so, after Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King’ in 2004. Gerwig has also been tipped to be nominated for Best Director. The nominations for next year’s Oscars will take place in late January, 2024. 

Rumors that the movie may have a sequel were quashed this week after its leading star, Margot Robbie told The Associated Press “I think we put everything into this one. We didn’t build it to be a trilogy or something.”

“Greta put everything into this movie, so I can’t imagine what would be next. It doesn’t have to be a sequel or prequel or a remake, it can be totally original,” Robbie said.

“It can still be big ― given the big budget to do that. And just because there’s a female lead doesn’t mean it’s not going to hit all four quadrants, which is, you know, I think a misconception that a lot of people still have.”

A month after the release of ‘Barbie’, Gerwig herself said there were no plans to make the film into a franchise. 

“I feel like that at the end of every movie, like I’ll never have another idea and everything I’ve ever wanted to do, I did,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to squash anybody else’s dream but for me, at this moment, I’m at totally zero.” 

In October, she admitted her movie’s success was possible only due to Patty Jenkins’ 2017 movie, ‘Wonder Woman’. 

“There was absolutely nothing to point to before — we weren’t able to use anything as what they call a ‘comp,’ [comparision], Gerwig said. 

“That’s how they build budgets, and they assess risk. I know we wouldn’t have been able to make this movie had Patty Jenkins not made Wonder Woman. But at the same time, we weren’t able to use Wonder Woman as an example, because superheroes are their own category. You can’t use Disney Princesses because that’s its own category. This didn’t really have a thing that we could point to.”

“Now this is a comp that other people can use and say, ‘Well, it works here.’ It’s a female character, and it’s a comedy, and Noah [Baumbach] and I wrote it, lady director, all of these things — it’s big, and that worked. So hopefully, with other female characters looking forward, that helps.”

Gerwig is now working on adapting ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ for Netflix. 

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The woman behind the project, Mundanara Bayles, hopes that the podcasts give First Nations Peoples and people of colour a chance to reclaim their narratives, strengthen cultural identity and contribute to the inclusive Australia they want to see, and hear.

“This is the next generation,” she said at the launch in Sydney on Wednesday morning, where she was surrounded by several First Nations podcasters and media personalities. “I want you to remember that you’re looking at the next generation of media, business entrepreneurs – they’re gonna do something big.”

“And from today onwards, having our own media platform, these brothers can probably start a podcast tomorrow. They don’t need to wait till they get older or till they get recognised to get that tap on the shoulder.”

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“What’s important about this network is that we inspire the younger generation to do what they wanna do and to be able to reach their full potential in this country.” 

“It is my intention that Black Cast will empower first nations people and people of colour to reclaim their narratives, strengthen cultural identity and contribute to a more inclusive Australia. We are proud to showcase exciting emergent talent from our communities.”

“Whilst also improving cultural and socio-economic outcomes, Black Cast podcast will be conceived of developed by and proudly platform, First Nations, Black and People of Colour.

“I promise that you that we will hold space for the celebration of indigenous knowledge and diverse perspectives just like my grandmother and father did before me again.” 

Mundanara, who has worked as an entrepreneur, educator, and public speaker for several years, roped in the support of Producer and longtime family friend Clint Curtis and Network Advisor Jamila Rizvi to create BlakCast.

Partnering with ARN’s iHeart, Australia’s top podcast publisher, the network will seek to drive revenue and audiences for new and diverse talent across the country. 

BlakCast’s podcasts include Black Magic Woman (which Mundanara launched in 2020 and continues to host) Yarning Up, Curtain the Podcast, Unapologetically Blak, Meet the Moband Coming Out Black. 

The shows range from exploring First Nations queer identity, LGBTQ+ issues that affect Indigenous people, generational trauma, to interviews with Black business leaders, sporting icons and regional community leaders. 

Mundanara’s father, Tiga Bayles was a pioneer in Indigenous media who used his platform as inaugural chair of the NSWALC to champion the rights of Aboriginal people across NSW in the 1980s.

In 2013, Mundanara co-founded consultancy and cultural training organisation BlackCard with Dr Lilla Watson, a respected Aboriginal elder, artist, educator and course developer.

When Mundanara was named this year’s Supply Nation’s Indigenous Businesswoman of the Year, she said that she hoped she can “inspire more young Aboriginal girls to start dreaming big.”

“And to start thinking at a young age of running a business and being an entrepreneur and to know and believe that we are in control of our destiny,” Bayles told National Indigenous Times.

“We are in the driver’s seat, so we need our young people in particular to create positive mindsets and to know that we are in charge of our futures.

“If we want to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty and start creating intergenerational wealth, then being in business will give us a head start.”

Corey Layton, Head of Digital Audio at iHeart, said that he was “proud” of Mundanara’s continuing legacy in producing podcasts. 

“She [is building] on her family legacy in broadcast, guiding, amplifying, and monetising a large array of Australia’s best Indigenous podcasts,” Layton said. “This presents an exciting evolution in the iHeart network which we’re committed to grow”.

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What happened at Open AI last week?

Last Friday, Sam Altman, the popular founder and CEO of OpenAI — the creators of ChatGPT, was sacked by the board of the company.  According to Reuters, OpenAI’s chief operating officer, Brad Lightcap, explained Altman’s sacking in an internal company memo on Saturday was due to a “breakdown of communications”, not “malfeasance.”

A blog post was posted on the company website, stating that Altman was removed following “a deliberative review process by the board.”

Other reports cited the 38-year old tech wonder boy of generative AI had been fired for not being “consistently candid in his communications” with the board, which includes prominent tech individuals such as OpenAI’s chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, technology entrepreneur Tasha McCauley and Director of Strategy at Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Helen Toner.

No further explanations have yet been released publicly. 

Since his sacking, Altman posted on X, “i love the openai team so much” – which has garnered hundreds of likes, including from Mira Murati and Brad Lightcap. 

The news sent shock waves through Silicon Valley and beyond — Altman has an almost unanimous positive public persona, and his company’s board has a charter that pledges to “act in the best interests of humanity throughout its development” and “ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI)—by which we mean highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work—benefits all of humanity.”

Altman has become the global face of generative AI, the technology everyone has been talking about since his company launched ChatGPT one year ago. 

Over the weekend, one research scientist at OpenAI, Andrej Karpathy, wrote on X: “The board had a chance to explain their drastic actions and they did not take it.” 

On the same day, tech news website, The Information reported that OpenAI was “optimistic” they would reinstate Altman into his former position, which he has held since 2019. 

Immediately after Friday’s announcement of Altman’s sacking, the company’s chief technology officer, Mira Murati was appointed as interim CEO. 

Let’s take a look at Murati, who, according to the New York Times, has been described by her company as having a “unique skill set” that would provide “a seamless transition while it conducts a formal search for a permanent C.E.O.”

Who is Mira Murati?

In March this year, Women’s Agenda took a close look at the then 34-year old Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI. (She is still 34, but no longer the CTO).  

Born in Albania, raised in Canada, the Radiohead fan studied at Dartmouth College, where she built a hybrid racecar as a mechanical engineering student. 

Earlier this year, Murati was announced as a board member of Unlearn.AI – a San Francisco-based health startup that focuses on novel applications of generative AI. Previously, she’d worked for huge companies including Tesla where she led the Model X, and at Leap Motion — a Silicon Valley VR company that builds hand tracking software. 

In her position as CTO at OpenAI, she oversaw entire teams devoted to engineering tools such as to ChatGPT to ensure they “don’t mislead people, show bias, or snuff out humanity altogether.” 

In July, Murati, who speaks Italian, Albanian, and English, was interviewed by WIRED, where she revealed her background had been in engineering, aerospace, automotive, VR, and AR. 

Responding to a question about the release of GPT-4, Murati said, “It’s going to change entire industries; people have compared it to electricity or the printing press.”

“We have to make sure that people really experience for themselves what this technology is capable of versus reading about it in some press release, especially as the technological progress continues to be so rapid. It’s futile to resist it. I think it’s important to embrace it and figure out how it’s going to go well.”

Last year, she appeared on an episode of “The Daily Show”, sprucing a similar line of ideology to host Trevor Noah. “It’s very important to bring the public along, bring these technologies in the public consciousness, but in a way that’s responsible and safe,” she said. 

Two months ago, Murati was named one of this year’s TIME100 Next, a list that celebrates emerging leaders whose accomplishments have dramatically inspired societal change. In her profile piece, Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella described Murati as a woman who has “demonstrated ability to assemble teams with technical expertise, commercial acumen and a deep appreciation for the importance of mission.”

“As a result, Mira has helped build some of the most exciting A.I. technologies we’ve ever seen,” Nadella wrote. 

What’s happened in the past 24 hours?

Microsoft is one of OpenAI’s investors who have since Friday tried to get Altman reinstatement as CEO. 

According to some reports, top investor and employees have been pressuring board members to get Altman back to his former position. There has even been reports that Microsoft executives and some venture backers (they include Thrive Capital, Tiger Global, Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital) —have been strategising on how to get Altman back, including “clearing out the board and reinstating Altman”, as reported in Financial Times. 

One individual told the publication, “People in the negotiation say it should wrap today. The sticking point is that he wants the board to step down. This is a board that fired him [only on Friday].”

“The leverage that Sam [has] is support from employees and investors . . . but the board is not beholden to them.” 

Jason Kwon, OpenAI’s chief strategy officer, sent a memo to his staff, saying “We are still working towards a resolution and we remain optimistic.”

“By resolution, we mean bringing back Sam, Greg, Jakub, Szymon, Aleksander and other colleagues (sorry if I missed you!) and remaining the place where people who want to work on AGI [artificial general intelligence] research, safety, products and policy can do their best work,” Kwon wrote. 

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CEO of Media Diversity Australia, Mariam Veiszadeh was named the overall winner of the awards, now in its fifth year. 

The University of Melbourne’s centre for Asian capability, Asialink is a sponsor of the awards that recognise the Most Influential Asian-Australian across a wide range of fields, including  arts and culture, community and advocacy, corporate, education, entrepreneurship, legal and professions, media, public sector, science and medicine, and sport. 

CEO of Asialink Martine Letts, said the awards “shine a light on the incredible leadership talent and potential of Asian-Australians.” 

Mariam Veiszadeh is widely known for her advocacy in diversifying Australia’s media landscape, as well as her work setting up the Islamophobia Register Australia — a collective database of Islamophobic incidents experienced by the public. 

Veiszadeh, who began her career as a lawyer at Westpac, spoke about the importance of workplace diversity and inclusion in 2017 at a TED Talk in Sydney. 

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This week, she told the ABC (a media partner for the 2023 Asian-Australian Leadership Awards) that during the TED talk, she was “the only person on that stage that they hired a security guard for.”

“That was the extent of the risks that I was facing,” she said. 

“It really impacted me. I was physically sick, I had a lot of mental health challenges. It takes a significant toll on you as a person.”

“But I think it also cemented my determination to continue fighting against hatred. So I tried to raise awareness about it. I tried to tackle it head on.”

In 2021, she became the CEO of Media Diversity Australia, a not-for-profit organisation and the nation’s peak advocacy body for diversity and representation in media. 

In October 2022, the organisation partnered with eight inaugural newsrooms to offer them diversity, equity and inclusion expertise to help champion cultural diversity in their workplaces. 

At the time, Veiszadeh said she was “pleased to witness and help drive the palpable push from many newsrooms to have their journalists and commentators reflect the broader community and, by default, the wider national conversation.” 

This week, she told the ABC the organisation is still working tirelessly to create a media landscape that “looks and sounds more like Australia.” 

“That means holding up a mirror to an industry that doesn’t always want a mirror held up to it,” she said.

“My strategy is bringing everyone on the journey, because you don’t drive change through using a sledgehammer. We don’t want to just talk about the media, we want to talk to the media. We want them to be part of the solution.”

Asialink’s CEO Martine Letts said that even when one in five people in Australia have an Asian cultural heritage, only 3 per cent of senior management positions are held by them. 

“It’s not only in the boardroom where this bias exists, it extends across all industries,” Letts said. “There is still a long way to go, and there is a real lack in recognition of and focus on leveraging Asian-Australian grown talent.”

“If overseas markets are more attractive to talent from multicultural backgrounds we risk losing our best and brightest.”

Johnson Partners, a Sydney-based executive search firm affiliated with the Awards, released recent findings which revealed that 93 per cent of board members on ASX-listed companies have either an Anglo-Celtic or European background, while per cent of top CEOs are of white Anglo-Celtic or European heritage.

Jason Johnson, founder and CEO of Johnson Partners, believes that a significant shift needs to happen in corporate Australia’s approach to cultural diversity.

“We need to see a  It is not only the right thing to do but also critical to unlocking the full potential of our economy,” Johnson said.  

“Companies that embrace diversity and foster an inclusive culture will be better placed to navigate an increasingly globalised business environment and increasingly diverse customer sets and stakeholders.” 

Johnson, a former Global Chairman of the Association of Executive Search Consultants, believes that the ‘bamboo ceiling’ is preventing Asian-Australians from taking their share of top leadership positions.

“Our major companies, government departments and universities….[do not] reflect their staff, student populations or customer bases,” he said. 

“The pandemic caused many diversity statistics to go backwards, so we have some serious ground to make up to address the under-representation of diverse leaders.”

Other winners

Lifetime Achievement Award: Ming Long 

As the first woman with Asian heritage to lead a top 200 ASX listed entity, Long is a well-known corporate leader who was appointed Chair of the Diversity Council of Australia’s board in 2021. 

She has held a range of senior executive positions throughout her career, including CEO and CFO roles in both listed and unlisted companies, Chair of AMP Capital Funds Management Limited, and a non-executive director of QBE Insurance (Auspac), CEDO, Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand, and is an advisor on the University of Sydney Culture Council.

Under 25 Rising Star: Rhea Werner

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At just 17, year-old Rhea Werner has been using her platform on social media to talk about body image and mental health. 

In 2021, she co-founded the Body Confident Collective Youth Project, the first, national youth-led initiative supported by researchers from Melbourne University.

Arts and culture: Mindy Meng Wang

Mindy Meng Wang is a Chinese Australian composer and performing artist who specialises in the guzheng — an ancient Chinese zither. She is known for her cross genre collaborations with international artists including Gorillaz, Regurgitator and Paul Grabowsky. 

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This week, she spoke about her latest album collaboration, “Origin of You” which she recorded with fellow Chinese Australian Sui Zhen.  

The album, according to reviewer David James Young, is a musical exploration of their “personal experiences with death, grief, motherhood and diaspora.” 

“Every single time we play this music, it’s a way to help us process these things,” Wang told Young. 

“I want this music to remind people that we all have shared feelings as human beings. My goal in music is to make people realise that we’re inherently the same — no matter your cultural background, how you grieve, how you feel about love, how you feel about your family. If we knew how similar we all were, I feel like the world would be a better place. I want this music to be a sonic hug for people.”

Education, Science and medicine winner: Dr Celina Ping Yu

Having spent her career working towards cultural inclusion, diversity and relationship-building between Australian and Asian academic and business communities, Dr Celina Ping Yu was the clear winner in this category. 

She is the founder of the Global Business College of Australia and since 2014, has been the college’s managing director.

In 2017, she started Edvantage Institute Australia, an international higher education campus of the Edvantage Group, a Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency registered private higher education provider. 

Community & Advocacy/Not for Profit: Marjorie Tenchavez

Marjorie Tenchavez is the founder and director of Welcome Merchant, a social enterprise  supporting small businesses owned by refugees and asylum seekers.

Tenchavez, who is a former finalist for Emerging Leader in Non-Profit at the Women’s Agenda Leadership awards, was also a recipient of the NSW Humanitarian Awards in Business this year. 

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Speaking to Women’s Agenda last year, Tenchavez said many migrants and refugees in Australia struggle to get bank loans “…because of their visa status and/or lack of financial history in Australia.”

“I’ve been in this sector for a long time and there were times when I thought about changing industries but hearing their stories and successes keeps me inspired,” she said.

“It’s really important for me to see them succeed without our help.” 

Legal and Professional Services: Mannie Kaur Verma

As a principal lawyer at Regal Lawyers, Mannie Kaur Verma empowers her clientele, who are mostly migrants, to fight for their rights. 

“This may include demanding a respectful relationship, employee entitlements or justice in a dispute,” she describes on her website. “I place intersectionality at the core of my practice.”

The former Labor candidate for Rowville in Victoria is also the co-Founder of the non-profit organisation, Veera – Brave Girl, an organisation that seeks to educate and empower migrant women to break the cycle of abuse. It also provides a network of resources for vulnerable women to leave violent relationships.

“A lot of women come here on partner visas, so they are dependent on their partners,” she told Women’s Weekly in 2021, when she was nominated for the Women of the Future Awards. “They have no networks. No support systems. No access to resources.” 

Read the full list of winners here. 

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Braverman, who belongs to the right faction of the Conservative Party, was criticised for expressing her views in an article she wrote for Times of London last week where she accused the police of “play[ing] favourites when it comes to protesters” and turning a blind eye to “pro-Palestinian mobs” who she descried as “hate marchers”.

On Saturday, a huge pro-Palestinian rally was attended by hundreds of thousands of people in London. Police said up to 145 protesters were arrested, while nine officers were injured. 

In her article, Braverman said the rally was not “merely a cry for help for Gaza” but “an assertion of primacy by certain groups — particularly Islamists — of the kind we are more used to seeing in Northern Ireland.”

She accused the police of a “double standard” in the way they managed the protests. 

“Right-wing and nationalist protesters who engage in aggression are rightly met with a stern response yet pro-Palestinian mobs displaying almost identical behaviour are largely ignored, even when clearly breaking the law,” she wrote.

The prime minister’s office had not approved the article in advance as is standard practice, causing many to continue their calls on Sunak to fire Braverman.

As Home Secretary, the 43-year old former barrister had one of the most senior jobs in government, responsible for managing immigration and policing.

Media commentators predict Braverman’s sacking will further rupture the tension already brewing within the Conservative Party’s right wing faction. 

On Monday, Braverman said “it has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve as home secretary”, adding that she will “have more to say in due course.”

Controversial figure

Braverman has previously run for the Conservative Party leadership, campaigning on hard-right platitudes against asylum seekers, homeless people and the expansion of charities. 

Last month, she called migration a “hurricane” that would bring “millions more immigrants to these shores, uncontrolled and unmanageable”.

In her keynote speech to the governing party’s annual conference in Manchester, she said that UK governments had been “far too squeamish about being smeared as racist to properly bring order to the chaos.”

Conservatives, she said, would give Britain “strong borders.”

She also said that the Human Rights Act should be called the “Criminal Rights Act.” 

“Our country has become enmeshed in a dense net of international rules that were designed for another era,” she said. 

“And it is Labour that turbocharged their impact by passing the misnamed Human Rights Act. “I’m surprised they didn’t call it the ‘Criminal Rights Act’.”

“Highly controversial ideas are presented to the workforce and to the public as if they’re motherhood and apple pie: gender ideology, white privilege, anti-British history,” she added. “And the evidence demonstrates that if you don’t challenge this poison, things just get worse.”

Around the same time, Braverman appeared on Sky News to express her transphobic views after the health secretary announced that sex-specific language would be used when dealing with women’s health, and that proposals were in place to ban transgender women from being treated in female hospital wards in England. 

“Trans women have no place in women’s wards or indeed any safe space relating to biological women,” Braverman said. 

“The Health Secretary is absolutely right to clarify and make it clear that biological men should not have treatment in the same wards as biological women. This is about protecting women’s dignity and women’s safety and privacy. Therefore I am incredibly supportive and welcome the announcement today by the Health Secretary.”

Earlier this month, Braverman announced plans to establish a civil offence to deter charities from giving tents to homeless people. She suggested imposing restrictions on charities that give tents to people living on the streets. She posted on X: “We cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice.”

Braverman was thoroughly condemned for these views – a joint letter composed by UK charities including Crisis, Centrepoint, St Mungo’s and Pathway read: “Sleeping on the street is not a lifestyle choice. Laying blame with people forced to sleep rough will only push people further away from help into poverty, putting them at risk of exploitation. At the extreme end, we will see an increase in deaths and fatalities, which are totally preventable.”

Sunak has appointed former foreign secretary James Cleverly as the new Home Secretary. 

So who is the new foreign secretary? 

David Cameron. Yes. That David Cameron. The former PM, who led led the government between 2010 and 2016. 

In a statement, Cameron said Britain was “facing a daunting set of international challenges, including the war in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East.”

“While I have been out of front-line politics for the last seven years, I hope that my experience — as Conservative leader for 11 years and prime minister for six — will assist me in helping the prime minister to meet these vital challenges,” he said. 

“I’ve decided to join this team because I believe Rishi Sunak is a good prime minister doing a difficult job at a hard time. I want to support him.”

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While Women’s Agenda is yet to read the book, published extracts have seen the pop legend opening up about some of the most extraordinary moments in her lif and career, including her father’s conservatorship arrangement, dancing with a snake at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards and when she shaved her head.  

In the first of such extracts published by People magazine on Tuesday, Spears opens up about getting pregnant while she was dating Timberlake, with him not being “happy” about the news.  

“For me, [the pregnancy] wasn’t a tragedy. I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated.”

“But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young … I don’t know if that was the right decision. If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.” 

The pair began dating in 1999 when Spears was 18 and Timberlake was 19 and broke up in 2002 when she was 21 and he was 22. Timberlake, now 42, has not commented on Spears’ account.

Her conservatorship

“Thirteen years went by with me feeling like a shadow of myself,” Spears wrote on the controversial period of conservatorship.

“I think back now on my father and his associates having control over my body and my money for that long and it makes me feel sick … I became a robot. But not just a robot – a sort of child-robot. I had been so infantilised that I was losing pieces of what made me feel like myself.”

“The woman in me was pushed down for a long time. They wanted me to be wild onstage, the way they told me to be, and to be a robot the rest of the time.

“Feeling like you’re never good enough is a soul-crushing state of being for a child. He’d drummed that message into me as a girl, and even after I’d accomplished so much, he was continuing to do that to me.”

“I became more of an entity than a person onstage. I had always felt music in my bones and my blood; they stole that from me … I didn’t deserve what my family did to me … It was death to my creativity as an artist.”

In December 2022,  Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, made the following statement about the issue: 

 “Where would Britney be right now without that conservatorship? … I don’t know if she’d be alive.”

“For protecting her, and also protecting the kids, conservatorship was a great tool. Without it, I don’t think she would have got the kids back.”

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Shaving her head

In February 2007, Spears entered a salon in LA and shaved off her hair. 

Spears writes how doing so was an opportunity to push back.

“I’d been eyeballed so much growing up. I’d been looked up and down, had people telling me what they thought of my body, since I was a teenager,” she wrote in her memoir.

“Shaving my head and acting out were my ways of pushing back. But under the conservatorship I was made to understand that those days were now over. I had to grow my hair out and get back into shape. I had to go to bed early and take whatever medication they told me to take.

“If I thought getting criticised about my body in the press was bad, it hurt even more from my own father. He repeatedly told me I looked fat and that I was going to have to do something about it.

“I would do little bits of creative stuff here and there, but my heart wasn’t in it anymore. As far as my passion for singing and dancing, it was almost a joke at that point.”

Her first movie and what acting did to her mind

In 2002, Spears starred in her first film, Crossroads, which was slammed by critics.

“The experience wasn’t easy for me. My problem wasn’t with anyone involved in the production but with what acting did to my mind. I think I started Method acting — only I didn’t know how to break out of my character. I really became this other person. Some people do Method acting, but they’re usually aware of the fact that they’re doing it. But I didn’t have any separation at all.”

“I ended up walking differently, carrying myself differently, talking differently. I was someone else for months while I filmed Crossroads. Still, to this day, I bet the girls I shot that movie with think, She’s a little…quirky. If they thought that, they were right.”

“That was pretty much the beginning and end of my acting career, and I was relieved. The Notebook casting came down to me and Rachel McAdams and even though it would have been fun to reconnect with Ryan Gosling after our time on the Mickey Mouse Club, I’m glad I didn’t do it. If I had, instead of working on my album In the Zone I’d have been acting like a 1940s heiress day and night.”

“I imagine there are people in the acting field who have dealt with something like that, where they had trouble separating themselves from a character.”

“I hope I never get close to that occupational hazard again. Living that way, being half yourself and half a fictional character, is messed up. After a while you don’t know what’s real anymore.”

The Woman in Me is released in Australia on October 25, 2023. 

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The 2018 Australian of the Year was recognised for her pioneering contributions to quantum computing, including her creation of the country’s first quantum computing company, Silicon Quantum Computing, which she founded in 2017. 

The University of New South Wales (UNSW) professor was presented with her award on Monday night, describing the win as “a really special and wonderful thing.”

“I’m over the moon to receive the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science,” she said. “Yet figuring out how to make electronic devices with atomic precision is not something I could ever have done on my own.”

Professor Simmons, who is the Director of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at UNSW, credits her team for helping her develop an innovative way of making atomic electronics that can revolutionise quantum computing. 

Her discoveries will likely improve the manufacturing of therapeutic drug designs, fertilisers for agriculture, logistical patterns to reduce fuel costs and shortened delivery times. 

“For 25 years, I have worked with many amazing scientists and engineers – and I am enormously grateful to all of them,” she said.

“I would add a particular thank you to my current team. They are the most exceptionally talented group I have ever worked with. I can’t imagine a better group of people or a more likely team to deliver an error-corrected quantum computer for the benefit of Australia and the world.”

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Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic praised Australians for putting “huge stock in our world-class scientists.”

“[Our country] understands science and innovation is at the heart of human progress,” he said.

Congratulating Professor Simmons on her win, Husic acknowledged the importance of her research and work. 

“Quantum computing has the power to transform industries and solve important challenges,” he said. 

“From automation on factory floors to rapidly advancing AI, the science and innovation sector is creating secure and well-paid jobs.”

Professor Simmons told Guardian Australia she was initially drawn to the field because she was interested in “building things that have not been made before, with the potential to have a huge impact on computing power”.

At her company, Silicon Quantum Computing, the ARC Laureate Fellow is working to engineer the world’s first error-corrected quantum computer – something which the Professor said was “unimaginable 20 years ago.” 

“We’re the only company in the world that can manufacture with atomic precision,” she said. “My belief is that precision is what you need to create this error-corrected quantum computer.”

“We’ve been able to put down individual atoms of phosphorus in silicon and encode information on both the electron and the nucleus of the phosphorus atom,” she said.

 “It’s something that was kind of unimaginable twenty years ago, that we would know how to manipulate and build devices where we’ve got atomic precision … in all three dimensions.”

UNSW Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Attila Brungs described Professor Simmons as an “internationally renowned” science leader, known “for creating the field of atomic electronics, pioneering new technologies to build computing devices in silicon at the atomic scale.”

“She is one of a handful of researchers in Australia to have twice received an Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship,” Brungs said. “She is a global superstar and I applaud her achievements in receiving the 2023 Prime Minister’s Prize for pioneering this important field.”

Since 2000, the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science have been recognising outstanding individuals across scientific research, innovation and teaching.

This year’s Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools was awarded to Judith Stutchbury, a teacher at Kalkie State School in Bundaberg, Queensland. 

A longtime teacher activist for the environment, Stutchbury’s efforts have won her multiple state awards, including the 2018 Australia Day Green Spirit Award, and the Education Queensland North Coast Region Teacher of the Year Award. 

Teaching students about the importance of marine turtle conservation in the Great Barrier Reef, Stutchbury said that she was inspired to write her educational book, Hatch Saves the Reef, which was published earlier this year and includes several on-line interactive games. 

“I’m extremely honoured to win Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools,” Stutchbury said in a promotional video. “It recognises teachers trying to make a difference for our next generation.” 

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The Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools was awarded to Donna Buckley, the Assistant Director of Maths and cybersecurity teacher at John Curtin College of the Arts in Fremantle, WA. 

“My role is to engage students for a love of programming and engaging girls through that,” she said. 

“I’ve made connections for my students to the real world to their passions to the arts so I can relate maths to them.”

Buckley went back to university as a mature aged student in order to teach her students a course in cybersecurity.

“It’s so important from a young age for cyber safety messages. We also need to show students there are possibilities for careers in this industry and from a diverse range of backgrounds and it’s that diversity that will help us overcome the challenges that are ahead.” 

Finally, the Prize for New Innovators was awarded to Associate Profesor Lara Herrero from Griffith University. 

The virologist is leading an interdisciplinary team in the Institute for Glycomics at the university to study the way viral infections are diagnosed, treated and managed. 

Specifically, her research focuses on mosquito-transmitted viruses associated with arthritis, such as Ross River virus (RRV) — the most common mosquito-transmitted disease in the country, with more than 5000 infections reported each year. 

Professor Herrero contracted RRV herself a number of years ago — an experience that left her with excruciating pain to her muscles and joints. 

Dissatisfied with the traditional drug discovery which can take up to two decades ‘from bench to bedside’, Associate Professor Herrero is trying to repurpose known drugs that can minimise the harrowing pain of viral arthritis. 

“We found one that was called Pentosan polysulfate that was traditionally used for bladder inflammation,” she explained. 

“That shared a lot of the mechanisms to RRV-induced arthritis.”

Professor Herrero decided to return to university to study medicine, “in order to understand how to get a drug all the way to a patient.” 

She secured a patent on her invention before partnering with Australian ASX-listed biotechnology company, Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals, to get the drug through clinical trials and into patients. 

“It’s a great achievement,” Professor Herrero said of her innovation. “There are no real big discoveries that are on the shoulders of only one individual, it’s a big team effort.” 

“[Receiving the PM’s prize] gives me a new sense of hope for the work that we’re doing and the work that we’ll do in the future.” 

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But with projections for another 100,000 engineers needed by 2030, it’s clear much more needs to be done to address this massive gender imbalance.

Dr Morley Muse is one such engineer, and much more. And she is currently addressing the lack of diversity in STEM head-on, through a wide range of initiatives, including tech, advocacy, and even careers fairs.

In 2022, Dr Muse was named the Emerging Leader of the year in STEM, at the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards in recognition of her efforts to transform an industry.

In the year since, she highlights some of the further, incredible work she has done — including launching a new platform for eliminating bias in recruitment and hosting a careers fair promoting opportunities for women in STEM.

We asked Dr Muse to share more on the year since she won the award, including some of her best advice to those aspiring to break through and her chief concerns around representation in STEM and entrepreneurship in Australia.

What’s been happening since you won the Emerging Leader in STEM award in September last year? 

I am absolutely thrilled to share some exciting updates on my journey since receiving the award. 

We’ve launched the DEIR platform, a game-changer in eliminating recruitment bias using specific elements like anonymous recruitment, job benchmarking, and ethical job and interview guidelines. 

It’s incredible to see companies like Arup, Westpac, Telstra, and Worley already embracing this platform to recruit diverse talents. Best part? It’s currently free for both women and employers, using our trial packages. 

Another proud accomplishment was the 2023 Women in STEM Careers Fair hosted by iSTEM Co. It’s now in its second year. 

Last year, we created 20 new employment opportunities for women in STEM, and this year, with over 250 attendees, we’ve already sparked 50 new opportunities. It’s not just about mentorship alone; it’s about real opportunities for women to thrive and be retained in STEM.

I’m also excited to share my involvement in groundbreaking initiatives like the RISE Expert Panel with Diversity Council Australia, the Executive Committee of Science Technology Australia, and the Energy Reference Group with Jemena Energy. 

These roles allow me to contribute my leadership expertise across STEM, Energy, and Women Leadership, breaking down systematic barriers and providing pathways to leadership positions.

The RISE project aims to break down systematic barriers and provide pathways to leadership positions for CARM women. 

Joining the RISE Expert Panel is highly prolific for me as it enables me to contribute more broadly to empowering CARM women into senior leadership, which in effect will promote retention within their organisations and reduce attrition.

I have also been appointed to the Executive Committee of Science Technology Australia and the Energy Reference Group with Jemena Energy. 

I am also glad to be a mentor for STA’s superstars of STEM program, an opportunity to elevate the work of senior and executive women in STEM. 

On accepting the award, you noted that you entered into workplace environments and you don’t see women who look like you, other female engineers. Has this still been the case over the past 12 months? 

Well, obviously that is changing with the initiatives we have launched at iSTEM Co., as well as other initiatives like STEM sisters, DCA CARM program, etc and the awareness we are generating in the STEM community, but we still have a long way to go. 

The current statistics for women engineers in Australia have grown from 11.2 per cent in 2022 to 16 per cent in 2022 according to Engineers Australia. So, there is some progress but the key issues are employment and retention, which we should focus more on. 

To solve the under-representation of women in STEM, we need to tackle 4 fundamental areas: Education, Employment, Retention/Leadership and Entrepreneurship. Most of the initiatives have since focused on education, which is great. 

However, if we encourage young girls to study STEM and yet they can’t see their role models with STEM qualifications working in STEM, then there is a big problem. 

Currently, only 15 per cent of women with STEM skills are in STEM-qualified jobs. The others have either left STEM post-qualification or working elsewhere. This shows that we have a big retention issue which must be tackled with a sense of urgency.

What are you most concerned about now in 2023, regarding challenges facing women (or others) in your industry? 

In 2023, my main concerns revolve around the lack of retention of women with STEM skills in the industry and insufficient funding for startups. 

Only 3 per cent of women startups received funding from the $10 billion VC funds in Australia in 2021, despite having a startup ecosystem where 22 per cent of founders across all firms identify as women according to LaunchVic. 

We can do better. We’re open to collaborative opportunities for our upcoming program to help women in STEM turn their ideas into startups.

Best piece of advice you’ve learned when it comes to leadership?

When it comes to leadership, the best advice I’ve embraced is to be visible and use your privilege to advocate for positive change. Remember, there are no real failures—only opportunities to learn, grow and improve.

Any quick tips for those who might be hesitating about putting their hand up for an opportunity – whether it’s for a promotion or something else?

And for those hesitating to seize opportunities, my quick tip is simple: Don’t be afraid of what might go wrong. Embrace the possibilities of Yes, No, or Maybe. If it’s a Yes, fantastic! 

If it’s a No, move forward without hesitation. If it’s a Maybe, invest more effort; it could very well turn into a Yes. The journey is all about learning, growing, and making a positive impact.

So, here’s to breaking barriers, creating opportunities, and building a future where everyone, regardless of gender or background, can thrive in STEM!

Dr Muse’s iSTEM Co. is currently set to engage in a STEM commercialisation program to enable women to commercialise their research into startups and is taking expressions of interest. She encourages interested individuals to reach out to her directly for further information on how they can get involved. 

The winners of the 2023 Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards will be announced on Friday the 12th October.

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They’ve commenced the litigation against Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek for failing to accept the climate harm of new coal and gas to the environment, pursuing it as the latest step in legal intervention compelling the minister to reconsider the climate risks from nearly all coal and gas proposals currently awaiting her approval.

They’re representing a small volunteer environment group in the process, the Environment Council of Central Queensland, and together argue that the science is clear: with new coal mine expansions posing serious and irreversible threats to the climate and thousands of threatened animals, plants and places.

They pursue this action as part of a broader fight for climate justice, which Kerwin says sees them mostly working at the intersection of climate harm and social justice.

Kerwin’s team at EJA is part of a rising global trend in global climate change litigation that is pushing governments and corporate actors to pursue more ambitious climate change mitigation and adaption targets, with the women-led EJA pursuing multiple cases in Australia.

If successful in the above litigation against the Minister, the effects will be game-changing, likely transforming how the current environment minister and future such ministers will assess climate risks.

Kerwin is Principal Lawyer with EJA, working alongside Co-CEOs Nicola Rivers and Elizabeth McKinnon, as well as Chief Operating Officer Thea Lange, and a diverse board.

“It is an absolute highlight to see the bravery of our client and the skills of the climate team at work,” Kerwin said.

“Backed by thousands and thousands of community voices and organisations — they raise crucial legal questions in Court about whether our Federal Minister for Environment is required to recognise the asserted climate impacts of new gas and coal on thousands of protected places and species in Australia.”

We checked in with Kerwin, one year after she was named the Emerging Leader on Climate Action winner at last year’s Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards.

On accepting the award you noted that “…we all benefit from women and non binary folk in our lives who hold us up and make us stronger and encourage us on to new things”. 

Has anything changed or strengthened your feminism in the last 12 months? 

I guess there are two strands to this. In my personal life, we are in the process of building a new kitchen. 

My partner, our kids, my Mum and a team of mostly women and non-binary tradies are working together to turn a corner of our little flat into a place to make food for many years to come! It is an inspiring thing to watch – creative, collaborative, problem solving with mutual respect. A model for all our different ways of living full lives!

The other pressing thought for me is about the ongoing need to reject increasing harmful transphobia. A combination of witnessing this bigotry, and its effects, has made me think hard about how I show up in my workplace, at home and as a citizen. 

For me, too, mostly working at the intersection of climate harm and social justice, Judith Butler’s analysis that the renewed rising moral panic about gender and identity reflects (among other things) a misplaced anxiety about different, truly destructive, forces that do exist and need our attention, including climate change, resonates strongly.    

What are you most concerned about now in 2023, regarding challenges facing women in law? 

Increasing meaningful representation of affected communities in climate advocacy and policy roles, including First Nations people and people of colour.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve learned when it comes to leadership?

I think this might change week by week! But, over the last week I’ve had three conversations with people about our different experiences of imposter syndrome. 

Something I’ve been thinking about, which is a piece of advice from earlier this year, is to be very conscious of where our inputs come from at work about our different strengths, especially when I’m finding leading challenging.

Any advice for those who might be hesitating about putting their hand up for an opportunity – whether it’s for an award, a promotion or something else?

Do it! Also, don’t feel like you have to do it! Opportunities will come around again and you might very sensibly choose to wait this one out including so you can have richness in another part of your life.

Photo credit: Emma Byrnes

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In 2022, Murthy Mittinty was named the Emerging Leader in Health at the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards. Since then, she has been further advocating for addressing the stigma associated with chronic pain, and has also shared her insights with Sandra Sully and Ali Aitken on the Channel Ten podcast Short Black, speaking about ways of staying true to one’s values.

As the Senior Lecturer at College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University, she has also recently completed an advanced translational global research fellowship program with Harvard Medical School – a 12-month program designed to enhance the expertise of researchers across multiple disciplines.

We check in with the scientist and asked her a few questions about her latest thoughts around leadership, pain science and putting yourself forward. 

On accepting the award you noted that mental health and chronic pain were two factors you urged people to talk about more, and to read up on — have any of your ideas around this issue changed in the past 12 months?

In the last year, I have been invited to present at various forums, meetings and seminars. This has led to deeper conversations around the need to focus on pain and mental health together for enhanced wellbeing of the individual living with pain.

Working alongside industry partners such as Wellbeing SA, ReturntoWorkSA and ANMFSA (Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation) and family forums through Arthritis NSW has further validated the need to intervene early to support individuals engage meaningful in work, social and family life to manage pain.   

This important work requires organisational-level support and can be achieved with meaningful integration with organisations with employer wellbeing at its core agenda. I am available and looking for synergistic collaborators to drive this work further.

What are you most concerned about now in 2023, regarding challenges facing women in science and academia? 

Due to the immense amount of work put in by organisations such as Women’s Agenda championing women’s leadership, there is certainly more invitation to be seated at leadership tables that previously women, especially women of colour, did not have access to. 

However, what I see and what concerns me a great deal is that there are still discrepancies in the opportunities these appointments lead to. Women often feel confined due to lack of support for scholarship in these roles. A lot of talent and drive is unutilised when it does not get supportive environment.  

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve learned when it comes to leadership?

The best piece of advice I believe that has resonated with me for years is to stay true to your core values. Life and work can sometimes present you with unfathomable challenges, but if you manage to stay true to your core values, you will find your way.

Also, surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you.

Do you have any advice for those who might be hesitating about putting their hand up for an opportunity – whether it’s for an award, a promotion or something else?

I would truly encourage you to apply for any opportunity. I don’t deny that it can lead to heartache and disappointment, but courage is like a muscle that needs exercising to fully flex. 

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