Celebrating International Womens Day on the Radio

International Womens Day was last Thursday, March 8. I’d thought about going along to one of the many events that I’d heard about through email, but decided I was just too busy. And so the day passed me by.

But not entirely. I got a call on Thursday asking me if I’d be part of a panel of women to participate in a segment on the ABC’s morning show with Geoff Hutchinson. It was the After 11 segment which runs for an hour. I agreed, not really knowing what I’d manage to come up with that would be of any interest.

The session turned out to be a lot of fun. There were four of us - an MP, a state netball coach, an ex-governor’s wife and me. I don’t think any of us were sure how it would go, what we would say, but we ended up having a lot to say.

I’m not sure how the host, Geoff Hutchinson, felt during the session. We challenged him on a few male attitudes about women. What was particularly interesting was the way women in politics are viewed, how comments are made about how they look, sound etc, and yet this doesn’t happen for men.

Geoff gave us a quote from Jane Fonda (sorry, I’m not sure how to spell her last tname) which said something like: ‘You either shut up and say nothing, or you speak out and learn from your mistakes’. We were all asked to respond to that. And despite our age differences, with the ex-governor’s wife being in her 70s or 80s, we all said we couldn’t ’shut up’, that we always spoke out, especially when we came across injustices.

I went in worried but came out exhilarated. And I think that reflects one very important quality women have. And that is, women are good at networking, forming communities of similar interest, and communicating.

I look forward to another opportunity to be a part of a radio program. It’s fun and interesting watching how it all works. I’m glad I just have to answer questions and not keep an eye on monitors, the producer signalling through the window, press buttons and make things happen when they should.  

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