This year for International Women’s Day, the extraordinary talent and smarts of the women, and some men, across the Hit Network, the Triple M Network and LiSTNR have lent their voices to a bespoke podcast, International Women’s Day 2023: #EmbraceEquity, to share their stories and experiences of what the day means to them.
The podcast features Carrie Bickmore, Jess Rowe, Fifi Box, Turia Pitt, Erin Molan, Natarsha Belling, Loren Barry, Jamila Rizvi, Steph Claire Smith & Laura Henshaw, Sarah Maree Cameron, Lama Zakharia, and Kymba Cahillalong with Tommy Little, Brendan Fevola and Nick Cody.
These voices, which are behind some of Australia’s favourite radio shows and podcasts, discuss a time that they have embraced equality; when it worked, when it didn’t, and what they learned from the experience.
Fifi Box, The Fox Melbourne, says, “There was a time, sort of in my thirties where I went, oh, I’m obviously reaching a juncture here, where if I don’t have children soon, I’m not having children.
“And that is just a reality that most women face, it’s a biological clock. And I think what I’m so grateful for that. I certainly know my grandmothers wouldn’t have been able to go down the path I’ve gone down. That women can actually take control of their fate and their destiny.”
Sarah Maree Cameron, Triple M Melbourne, says, “A guy called up to try and be part of a competition and it wasn’t the right time. So, I was like well is there anything else that I can help you with?
“And he said, yeah, you can make me a sandwich and laughed and thought that it was hilarious. And I was like, okay, I don’t know how many people you say that to, but I’m not really taking it.
“He made a comment about going back to the kitchen and then I just said to him that he can go back to 1982 and I hung up on him!”
Natarsha Belling, Triple M Sydney, says, “I grew up in a house full of incredibly tough, outspoken women, and I have a beautiful dad and I never, ever thought I couldn’t achieve anything because I’m a female.
“It’s only when I encountered certain discrimination that then I thought, my gosh, why would it make any difference if I’m a female or not?”
Erin Molan, 2DAY FM Sydney, says, “I have a four-and-a-half-year-old daughter and I hope by example, in a lot of ways, but also by talking to her, by having conversations, by looking at other incredible women that I admire, that I can raise her in a world and in a society where she never ever feels anything less because of her gender.
“Where she never feels that she can’t do something because she is a girl. That she never feels that she might be less than someone else because they’re a man.”
