If you could attend a dinner party that was all about your career, which Australian women would you have around the table?
Well, it seems former and current politicians would feature — particularly those who’ve been the ‘first’ at something. Say our first female prime minister, or first female foreign minister.
Meanwhile, business heavyweights would also need to be present. Especially those with ‘CEO’ in the title, although given the still too few number of female CEOs on the ASX 200, the pool to select from would be small.
And to keep things fun and lighthearted, but still very much intelligent, you’d have to have a few television personalities present. Then perhaps a health-guru, somebody who could bring a guilt-free dessert along to share.
We polled 138 of you about your careers in 2015, and asked who you’d like to hear from and potentially meet throughout the year. The top ten women who came up would make for a rather interesting dinner party list, although may not all agree amongst themselves on some of the issues raised (particularly regarding who does and does not identify as a feminist).
Former prime minister Julia Gillard came up as the clear favourite, with 27% of you putting her on your short-list of who you’d like to see. She was followed by our first female foreign minister Julie Bishop and Westpac CEO Gail Kelly, who each featured on 15% of your 2015 speaker wish-lists. But it’s not all politics and business, with actress Cate Blanchett and I Quit Sugar founder Sarah Wilson coming up a number of times.
So what would the Women’s Agenda career dinner party wish-list look like? According to those of our readers polled, it’d include:
- Julia Gillard
- Gail Kelly
- Julie Bishop
- Annabel Crabb
- Ita Buttrose
- Quentin Bryce
- Tanya Plibersek
- Sarah Wilson
- Cate Blanchett
- Natasha Stott Despoja
Other women regularly listed as favourites included Leigh Sales, Carrie Bickmore, Naomi Simson, Nicola Roxon, Roxy Jacenko, and Wendy Harmer.
We also asked which men you’d like to hear from, and received a much wider range of responses. This included everything from “none at all!” to “lots!”, “any man supporting feminism” and “CEOs actively supporting the rise of women in senior leadership”. Specific names mentioned included Malcolm Turnbull, Paul Keating, David Prior, Dr Charlie Teo, Charlie Pickering, Mark Bouris, Lt Gen David Morrison, Michael Kirby, and Waleed Ali.
Who would you have on your dinner party wish list, if the meal was all about your career in 2015?