Q&A with Geraldine Doogue

Bronte Coates talks with journalist and television presenter Geraldine Doogue about her new book featuring conversations with Australian women in power.


In The Climb, you explore how women are represented at the top levels of power in Australia. What prompted you to approach this topic?

I was very angry around the time of Julia Gillard’s demise at some of the references to her – especially from people like Alan Jones. When he attributed her father’s death to shame at his daughter, I thought Jones had crossed every line that I had imagined existed in Australia about acceptable public conduct. I expected wholesale denunciations from everywhere, whether or not people identified with him or hated him. I expected a lot more public repudiation, especially from conservatives.

But this didn’t really happen. So I seethed… Then I decided to turn these feelings into something more positive and constructive. I sought out where women had achieved authority and legitimacy in Australian life and explored the good, the bad and the indifferent of their experiences.

The book features conversations you’ve had with fourteen women. How did you go about selecting your interviewees?

I wanted to select a broad range of women from across the country, not just the ‘usual suspects’ from Sydney and Melbourne’s CBDs, so that I could demonstrate how women from different experiences in Australia could identify with the women I chose, possibly to their surprise.

Reflecting on the issues that came up as part of those conversations, do you have expectations about how your book will be received by the general Australian public?

Above all I am hoping that this book feels accessible to a wide selection of Australian women – and hopefully men too because I think the book portrays different aspects of modern Australian workplaces. I want Australian women to recognise themselves in the women in my book. I hope they recognise their dilemmas, their men, their workplaces in these women, and are able to really identify with these women, whether or not they see themselves as particular ‘strivers’.

I especially hope that young women will feel inspired to ‘give things a go’, and to see how they can really like the way women turn out when they acknowledge their ambition. I still think this is often a tricky thing for Australian women.

The Climb specifically looks at Australian women. Do you think women in other Western nations experience similar issues? I’m thinking about the solidarity that existed between Hilary Clinton and Julia Gillard as one possible example.

I kept my focus fairly strongly on Australia, although I do try to summarise the prevailing literature on the subject, most of which comes from the US and to a lesser extent, the INSEAD management training institution in France. In part, I chose not to explore whether this Australian experience was echoed elsewhere because by writing my book, I’d also wanted to counter the excessive focus on American experience in most existing leadership writing.

And, because we love getting book recommendations, what’s on your current reading list?

True North by Brenda Niall (I know it was out ages ago but I am just catching up); the new Jane Gardam collection of short stories (I adore her work); the Alain de Botton book on the media (I think he really is a fresh thinker); and, Erik Jensen’s book on Adam Cullen (amazing writing).

Cover image for The Climb: Conversations with Australian Women in Power

The Climb: Conversations with Australian Women in Power

Geraldine Doogue

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