ANU/CANBERRA TIMES VIRTUAL MEET THE AUTHOR
In this virtual Meet the Author live event, Julia Gillard and Quentin Bryce discuss Julia’s new book, co-authored with Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Women and Leadership. An inspirational and practical book written by two high-achieving women, sharing the experience and advice of some of our most extraordinary women leaders, in their own words.
As a result of their broad experience on the world stage in politics, economics and global not-for-profits, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Julia Gillard have some strong ideas about the impact of gender on the treatment of leaders. Women and Leadership takes a consistent and comprehensive approach to teasing out what is different for women who lead.
Almost every year new findings are published about the way people see women leaders compared with their male counterparts. The authors have taken that academic work and tested it in the real world. The same set of interview questions were put to each leader in frank face-to-face interviews. Their responses were then used to examine each woman’s journey in leadership and whether their lived experiences were in line with or different from what the research would predict.
Women and Leadership presents a lively and readable analysis of the influence of gender on women’s access to positions of leadership, the perceptions of them as leaders, the trajectory of their leadership and the circumstances in which it comes to an end. By presenting the lessons that can be learned from women leaders, such as Jacinda Ardern, Hillary Clinton, Joyce Banda and Christine Lagarde, Julia and Ngozi provide a road map of essential knowledge to inspire us all, and an action agenda for change that allows women to take control and combat gender bias.
The Honourable Julia Gillard ACwas sworn in as the 27th Prime Minister of Australia on 24 June 2010 and served in that office until June 2013. Ms Gillard is the first woman to ever serve as Australia’s Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister. As Prime Minister and in her previous role as Deputy Prime Minister, Ms Gillard delivered nation-changing policies including reforming Australian education at every level from early childhood to university education, creating an emissions trading scheme to combat climate change, improving health care, commencing the nation’s first ever national scheme to care for people with disabilities, addressing the gender pay gap for social and community sector workers and delivering an apology to all those who had suffered through the practice of forced adoptions.
In October 2012, Ms Gillard received worldwide attention for her speech in Parliament on the treatment of women in professional and public life. She currently serves as the inaugural Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at Kings College in London and The Australian National University in Canberra, which through research, practice and advocacy, is addressing women’s under-representation in leadership.
Ms Gillard is the Chair of Beyond Blue, one of Australia’s leading mental health awareness bodies; is Chair of global funding body for education in developing countries, the Global Partnership for Education; and is Patron of the Campaign for Female Education.
The Honourable Dame Quentin Bryce AD CVO has enjoyed a rich and distinguished career as an academic, lawyer, community and human rights advocate, senior public officer, university college principal, and vice-regal representative in Queensland and Australia.
Her contribution to advancing human rights and equality, the rights of women and children, and the welfare of the family was recognised in her appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988 and a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2003. Also in 2003, she was invested as a Dame of Grace of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem.
On 5 September 2008 Quentin Bryce was sworn in as Australia’s twenty-fifth Governor-General, the first woman to take up the office. When her term concluded in March 2014, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced her appointment as a Dame in the Order of Australia. Fifteen universities have recognised her work by the conferral of Honorary Doctorates.
Across her career she has worked with women, families and young people while extending her influence across broad and diverse spectrums, including rural, regional, aged, indigenous, migrant, and disability sectors. Ms Bryce remains a pioneer in contemporary Australian society, with fifty years of experience in reform, community building and leadership.
The meet the author event will be introduced and chaired by Professor Brian Schmidt AC FAA FRS, Vice-Chancellor and President of The Australian National University.
Signed copies by Julia Gillard of Women and Leadership will be available for sale at Harry Hartog bookshop, ANU.