Women in leadership at MCM

Sally and the ECIS team provide specialist services and support to young children and families to aid in development, learning and wellbeing. The team is made up of 14 staff: Speech Therapists, Occupational Therapists and Education Therapists. They have been using telehealth appointments during the pandemic and have found it a great way to connect and engage with their young clients and their families.

Before this interview, Sally sat down with a group of friends, to get the conversation going about International Women's Day.

What does International Women's Day mean to you?

International Women's Day is an opportunity for us to shine a spotlight on the successes of women in our communities. It’s a good time to get together and talk about the issues faced by women.

But actually, thinking about it more broadly, it’s not just a day. It’s a topic that we should be aware and conscious of every single day of the year, really. I think it is good to keep the conversation going, it’s a good jump start.

Over the weekend I canvassed some of my women friends and asked them these interview questions, which is a good way of keeping it on the radar and making sure that the conversation doesn’t fizzle way.

Which women are you inspired by and why?

While I acknowledge that the contributions of notable women are really good, I’m probably more inspired by the women who are closest to me, and the ones that I spend more time with. Really… the people around me: my girlfriends, that I spend time with regularly. They are constantly a source of inspiration in terms of how they manage families, daily life, working responsibilities and work/life balance.

If I had to name some big names, I watched a documentary on Turia Pitt the other day, she’s pretty inspiring and pretty driven. I also like people like Penny Wong, Hannah Gadsby, Pink and Michelle Obama.

What taboos related to the theme of women do you wish were broken?

This was a good one. This one brought up lots of conversations, largely centred around issues with female bodies. So menstruation, reproduction, menopause… We talked a lot about family violence as well. We did talk quite a lot about older women are living below the poverty line through having been divorced or separated from partners, and of course they may not have been in the workforce so they have no superannuation, so they are struggling financially. We would have liked to see more done in those sectors.

And then particularly around funding for research around women’s health issues. There is very little funding that’s actually channeled into understanding menopause comprehensively. There is nowhere near enough funding and nowhere near enough research, time and dollars being spent on those kinds of issues, which effect more than 50 per cent of the population.

We also talked about the Victorian Government’s initiative to make pads and tampons available in all schools last year. They were the ones that really stuck out for me.

Is Australia doing enough to create equal opportunities for women?

What do you think I’m going to say? (laughs)

No, definitely not. You can find statistics around females versus males in leadership roles, and the statistics would support that, definitely.

I guess MCM is perhaps a little different, in that we do have lots of women in leadership roles, but then it’s primarily a caring focused organisation, that has a very specific demographic.

But more broadly speaking, definitely not. There is a lot more that could be done. Which I guess circles back to the first question around keeping it on the radar, keeping the conversation going, that sort of thing, for sure.

Read our first IWD2021 interview with Principal The Hester Hornbrook Academy, Sally Lasslett