Today we are celebrating Catherine’s book, Breaking the Boss Bias: How to get more women into leadership.

I am so glad we are together, with a room full of remarkable women and men – so many of whom appear in this book, and who are driving progress on equality in this country. 

Catherine and I have been in conversation on these issues for years, and I remain an avid admirer of her award-winning journalism, research, and writing on women’s status, particularly at work.

This book is no exception. It’s an engaging, unflinching look at the data, to see how it stacks up against the promises, slogans, and sentiments around equality.

I echo Annabel Crabb’s Instagram review: “It is, like everything Fox writes, full of data, full of insights, full of good sense, full of good stories.”

Importantly, it speaks to this moment.

A moment when – even though many of our institutions are led and staffed by women – there are fewer women in leadership roles than we might have expected by now.

When the gender pay gap persists. 

When sexual assault and violence are daily realities for too many women.

When we see worrying statistics about the attitudes of young men and women towards the movement for equality.

And when, as Catherine so astutely points out, the stats don’t seem to stack up against the vision statements.

A lot was laid bare by the pandemic, including:

- the fact that women were over-represented in the crucial caring sectors…
- the fact that women had always done the most unpaid care and were now doing even more…
- the fact that it was possible to work flexibly, and remotely…
- the fact that we had technology that made it much easier to combine work and family – and we’d had it for a long time.

But five years on, many people feel as though the revelations of that time have not translated into lasting change.

While paid parental leave has been a gamechanger, women are still overrepresented in caring roles, paid and unpaid.

Men are still not taking up flexible work at the same rates as women.

Flexibility itself has somehow become controversial.

This is something that affects men as well as women.

Recently, David Halliday wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald about working from home as ‘profoundly life-giving’ for him as a dad.

‘For generations,’ he wrote, ‘fatherhood was a side hustle crammed into weekends and hurried bedtimes. But over the past few years we’ve seen something quite radical... We’ve seen what it means when dads are around, not just for birthdays, but for the countless unspectacular moments that make up a child’s life, such as lunchbox prep, school pick-ups, negotiating snacks, or panic over Book Week costumes. (Dog Man – nailed it.)’

He goes on to say that when men pick up these things, women are no longer doing it all. Children are growing up with parents who are present, and who are modelling equality.

This kind of perspective makes me optimistic – the more men who speak up about the harm gender stereotypes do to all of us, the better.

One of the big themes of Catherine’s book is that optimism around gender equity can be misleading, or misplaced.

This stuck out to me, as someone who is naturally optimistic, and who has an explicit mandate from the Prime Minister to be a ‘modern, visible and optimistic’ Governor-General.

But I think what Catherine is getting at is false optimism, or complacency. 

A vague sense of momentum that isn’t matched by data. 

A feeling that isn’t based in fact. 

Instead, real optimism says that we can’t give up now. 

That change is possible, but won’t happen without concerted and consistent effort. 

We can see more women in leadership, but it takes work and commitment, from all of us.

That’s the kind of optimist I am, and I know Catherine is, too. 

Another theme of this book is care. 

Again, this is something that resonates deeply with me. 

When I became Governor-General, I undertook to put care, kindness and respect at the centre of my role.

Care for each other, care for those who care for others. Care for our environment, for civics and institutions. Care for the way we discuss the issues, without anger, violence or judgment.

Care is fundamental.

Yet care is consistently undervalued: unpaid, underpaid, or simply invisible.

Care is seen as a soft option, or something from which men can be excused – or excluded.

I don’t see it this way, and never have.

Care is vital and valuable. It can be rigorous and meticulous and demanding. 

It underpins everything we want to do well – from STEM to sports, space exploration to cultural cohesion, midwifery to military service.

Care simply means doing what needs to be done, with attention, integrity, and sincerity. Often, with love.

None of which belongs to any one gender. All of which is part of being human.

There is so much more in Catherine’s book that we could explore, but I will save that for our panel discussion.

In the meantime, once again, thank you all for being here.

Thank you, Catherine, for writing this book and reminding us that ‘the boss bias’ is real, persistent, and as urgent as ever.

Thank you for inspiring us to persist, and to pay attention to the data.