The National Press Club in Canberra hosted the Canberra Writers Festival, Women in the Media event on Friday.
Making up the panel were Kathy Lette, Katharine Murphy, Virginia Haussegger & Sarah Ferguson.
Kathy Lette made her way into the world of writing as a teenager with the novel Puberty Blues which was then made into a major film and later a TV mini-series. Kathy was no flash in the pan and has written 11 international bestsellers, including Mad Cows and The Boy Who Fell to Earth.
Katharine Murphy was the moderator for this event, a tough gig at times with Kathy on the panel, more due to the time of day and the fact school children were in the audience. Katharine is Guardian Australia’s political editor.
Virginia Haussegger AM is the youngest woman to host the ABC’s flagship current affairs program the 7.30 Report; she has reported on several of Australia’s leading news programs. She has written for The Canberra Times, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Virginia is a well-known women’s rights and gender equity advocate. From 2001 to 2016 she presented the flagship nightly 7pm ABC TV News in Canberra, a job that Virginia said during the event was not something she would recommend. She is now the Director of the 50/50 by 2030 Foundation at the University of Canberra.
Sarah Ferguson is an ABC journalist. In the same year that she worked on The Killing Season, she also wrote and presented Hitting Home, the landmark series on domestic violence. She has presented the ABC’s 7.30 and worked as a journalist on Four Corners.
Kathy Lette got many laughs throughout this event, sometimes you had to do a double take and say, did she really say that? and yes she did.
Below are photos from the event.
Sarah Ferguson and Kathy Lette before the event at the National Press Club of Australia.
Virginia Haussegger shakes hands with Kathy Lette while looking at Sarah Feguson before their panel discussion as part of the Women in Media event in the Canberra Writers Festival.
Virginia Haussegger
The panel for the Women in the Media event at the National Press Club of Australia. For left, Katharine Murphy, Sarah Ferguson, Kathy Lette and looking away from the camera is Virginia Haussegger.
Katharine Murphy (at left) welcomes the audience to the National Press Club for the Women in the Media event as part of the Canberra Writers Festival.
Katharine Murphy introduces the speakers on the panel
Sarah Ferguson looks towards Katharine Murphy as she is introduced to the audience. Sarah Ferguson is an ABC journalist.
Kathy Lette looks towards Katharine Murphy as she is introduced by Katharine. Kathy first came to fame as the author of Puberty Blues. Katharine pointed out that in 2004 that she was the London Savoy Hotel writer in residence and she had a cocktail named after her.
Kathy Lette reacts as she is introduced to the NPC audience.
Virgina Haussegger reacts as she is introduced to the National Press Club audience for the Canberra Writers Festival event
Virgina Haussegger laughs as she is intoduced
Kathy Lette comments about having “shaved my legs especially” only to be sitting behind large desks as part of the panel.
Sarah Ferguson listens to Katharine Murphy.
Kathy Lette listening to other panel members speaking
Kathy Lette talking about how female authors do not actually define their gender on their byline due to bias. “I am just going to get, I am going to call my cat pulitzer, just so I can get one”.
The audience looks on at the panel as they were discussing bias towards male authors for awards and reviews. Also they commented that males mostly purchase books written by males.
From left: Katharine Murphy, Sarah Ferguson, Kathy Lette and Virginia Haussegger
Sarah Ferguson was outlining how she thinks there are many women in powerful positions in television, but Kathy Lette asked, “Are you getting equal pay, are you getting equal pay to the men?”
The audience looks on
Virginia Haussegger talks about her concern of how women are being represented on television, particularly through news media.
Kathy Lette, “Just getting back to print media, I can talk a bit about the statistics in Britain, you were saying women have got more power. Women in Journalism every year they analyse newspaper coverage and we know that 79% of the bylines on the front of newpapers are male and 84% of the content is about men.”
Kathy Lette talking about the overuse of men in the British print media
Kathy Lette, “The main women pictures on the front of papers are the Queen, Kate Middleton and Camilla, all women who are silent in public life.”
Kathy Lette, “if they do show a woman in power, Angela Merkel or Julia Gillard, they usually show her falling off her show or looking gawky or whatever, and when you see it actually analysed like that you realise it is a slow drip feed this kind of sexism, but it is absolutely, its there and it hasn’t changed.”
Virginia Haussegger talking about the overuse of male talent in print media. “79% male across news media across a three week bracket, which is just extraordinary, when you think the fact that Australia for example has had more women graduating from universities than man for the last 20 plus years, we are more educated than Australian men..”
Kathy Lette talking about meeting Justin Trudeau and what he did to get more women into his cabinet.
Sarah Ferguson, “If a man said that on the panel there would have been howls of outrage.” in response to Kathy Lette’s story about Justin Trudeau
Kathy Lette talking about Justin Trudeau, “He said we asked him how it was that he got 50% of his cabinet female he said you know a few years before he won office he went out into the business community and he approached everyone in business he thought had potential and brilliance and was interesting and asked him if they would think about taking up a political office and coming to political life. He said every single man he approached said yeah I would be brilliant at that of course yes. He said every single woman he approached said I’m not good enough and that’s what we do”
The view from the back of the room
Kathy Lette looks towards Virginia Haussegger as Virginia is talking about the age of female presenters on television. “The age is a problem”
Katharine Murphy looks towards Virginia Haussegger during the panel discussion at the National Press Club.
Sarah Ferguson, “That’s why I say we’re what we have to be the solution. I’m not waiting around for men to work out how it is that women do better in my part of television my part of journalism my part of broadcast it’s up to me to fight that battle every day and in every way and in every, every moment of my career every section of it and I worked in commercial television as well, so I’ve worked in public broadcasting and commercial television in different countries at different times and for me that battle is instinctive it goes on all the time and we have to own that battle and be out front”.
Kathy Lette talking about getting more recognition for older female presenters in television.
Virginia Haussegger, Shouldn’t we be talking to or questioning their choices and if their choices those say were affecting audience choices this is where we get really stuck or unstuck I should say I mean if the audience is responding to and it’s all about ratings you know in commercial television if the audience is responding to a youth culture and is turning away from old women on television?”
Sarah Ferguson, “It’s not true look at Jeremy Corbyn, look at Bernie Sanders, you know these were old, they were men as it happened but these were older men who makes a bigger range is oh no but they invigorated a youthful audience so the idea that the youth will only speak to youth is that, it’s a furphy.”
“But young people are’nt watching television anyway.” Kathy Lette, comments after Virginia Haussegger asks if young people want to watch older women on television.
Kathy Lette, “The thing is that women suffer from facial prejudice we get judged on our looks in a way that men don’t.”
Kathy Lette, “television is visual medium so whereas Paxman and Dimbleby and all those other old guys are all about 410, they’re allowed to continue …”
Kathy Lette, “but for women unless the women you were talking about in America yes there are older women but they’ve also, it’s like you know you talk like read between my lines so they’re my whole life why do I want to have a complete personality ectomy unless you want to go under have a little shopping and tucking”
Sarah Ferguson, “You love the audience…”
Canberra Writers Festival – Power, Politics, Passion banner
Sarah Ferguson, “There are battles you need to fight, and there are battles you just turn your back on… in commercial television in particular which is to turn your back on the battle and then you let your work if you can speak for itself instead of the clothes and the face. “
Sarah Ferguson and the panel at the National Press Club
A member of the audience filming the event…
A full room for the Canberra Writers Festival, Women in Media event at the National Press Club of Australia.
Sarah Ferguson covers her ears after Katharine Murphy mentions war stories…
Kathy Lette’s war story. Talking about a job interview when she was in her early 20’s. “One of them slapped $10 down on the table said I bet I could make your tits move without touching them, and I just went okay whatever, he bent
over mauled me and then said ha ha ha you won there’s the $10. So I immediately said I bet you 20 bucks I can make your balls move without touching then I kicked him between the legs…
I mean today you have a sexual harassment suit but in those days you just had to strap on a bulletproof bra and cope with these Neanderthals which we did you had to develop the black belt in tongue foo and I’d be able to kind of shoot out a bit of quip lash in a one line because women are more verbal, verbally dexterous than and we use about 350 more words in our daily vocabulary so that is something to keep in your armoury and just deal with these guys. It has got better.”
Virginia Haussegger shares a story about asking to get out on the road and cover war stories that were going to the men. After strongly making her point she was instead sent overseas to cover the super model of the world competition.
Sarah Ferguson and Kathy Lette react to Virginia Haussegger’s story about being sent to cover the super model contest instead of war stories.
Kathy Lette smiles as Sarah Ferguson shares a story where she was told at Channel 9, “you could do things, you’re not completely pug ugly”
Kathy Lette, “I am against cosmetic surgery, my mother told me to never pick my nose, especially from a catalogue, so we are not going there, stay real.”
Sarah Martin from the West Australian newspaper, asks is there a risk if we focus a lot on our gender will this be more of an issue than the quality of females work?
Maurice Reilly, CEO of the National Press Club watching the event.
Sarah Martin listens to the response to her question.
Virginia Haussegger talking about how Australia is way behind the rest of the world when it comes to gender equality.
Kathy Lette, talking about how a big fuss was made about a photo of Julia Gillard knitting. “What about Tony Abbott and
his budgie smugglers I’m sure we were
making small talk ,but anyway.”
it’s a scandal
Katharine Murphy, “I would like to just make a very quick observation as a member 20, 21 year member of the press gallery. I know where Sarah’s coming from because I’ve been Sarah, so I think before Julia Gillard was our first female Prime Minister I would have been with you I would have thought we’d made progress I would have thought things were okay but I’ve now lived through a reporting experience where I see things are not okay and there is a special is it, is it Madeleine Albright but says there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women. Well I think there’s a lot a lot that’s an abiding code that we can all live by and in terms of Virginia’s point about why did we sit in the middle of the sexism and not call it out which is something that still troubles me enormously professionally and something I’ve thought about and something I’ve written about and I think the only way I can explain it is that I couldn’t quite believe it was happening and it’s sort of like if you start to allow yourself to think we’ve gotten next to nowhere here you the the crisis of confidence for yourself is so profound that in a way you can’t allow yourself to think it so I in my own case I think that’s that’s the answer.”
Sarah Ferguson looks on as Katharine Murphy talks about the Julia Gillard gender experience.
Misha Schubert a director at the National Press Club, asking a question about what more needs to be done to promote gender equality.
The audience looks across at Misha Schubert as she asks a question at the Women in the Media event at the NPC which is part of the Canberra Writers Festival.
Virginia Haussegger groans when asked to answer a question.
Sarah Ferguson, “That for me is where one of the biggest structural gaps is we’re giving these young women in the room the message that the world is theirs, but then we don’t actually give them a structural workplace where that world is achievable, so that’s for me one of the things that I talk about want to talk about rather than being called pug ugly by the then head of channel 9.”
Kathy Lette, “That’s so true, gosh we’ve been saying the same things as feminists yeah I’ve been saying the same thing since I was a teenager so it’s not gonna change until men join us at the barricades that’s all there is to it, we need you guys to say this is just not fair we women have to have equal pay etc.”
Kathy Lette, “men make horror movies called The Blob and the thing, women would make THE HAND!!”
Kathy Lette, makes fun of “the hand” with Sarah Ferguson.
Kathy Lette, “The most successful women in British television Sandi Toksvig, Sue Perkins and Clare Balding… they’re all they’re gay and what have they got wives? you know wives, that’s what we need.”
Kathy Lette, “Wives”
Sarah Ferguson, “Australian men highly attuned to the notions and demands of feminism and that has fallen away and I think when we look at the progress slowing or in some cases going backwards that is part of the problem that that generation of men has not been replaced”
Virginia Haussegger, “That conversation isn’t being had, I think that is absolutely true.”
Sarah Ferguson, looking out into the audience as Tim Shaw from Radio 2CC asks a question.
Tim Shaw from Radio 2CC asks what the panel thinks of a bar that only allows women to approach the men, and what their favourite cocktail is.
Kathy Lette laughs about Tim Shaw asking what the panels favourite cocktail is.
Virginia Haussegger, “Women like to congregate together and to have a bar that says women have to make the first advance towards men I would imagine means that the bar is full of women having a lovely time on their own.”
Kathy Lette, “Every country I go on book tour in the world they’ll always be some journalist who says to me, some male journalist will say you write funny books women aren’t funny… I think it’s because some men are terrified what it is women are being funny about when we’re together.”
Kathy Lette, “Maybe we spend the entire time talking about the length of their members which is not true Tim because we also talk about the width which are much more important.”
Kathy Lette, “I just want to clarify.”
Sarah Ferguson, “my favourite cocktail is a vodka gimlet, made by my husband, now that’s an interesting thing to say because for years I never ever referred to my husband publicly. I wanted to, it was partly subconscious but it was about the fact that we both worked in the same profession and I never wanted anybody to think of me as being his wife so, I wanted to have my career so we never almost never photographed together I never ever referred to him but now I’m over 50 and I have a career I’m very happy to say that my husband makes the best vodka gimlet in the world.”
Kathy Lette, “You know Julian Barners, he’s lovely but he’s got pinstriped underpants he’s very uptight and we were having Kathy cassis’ one night there in the bar and I said I’m really glad I’ve got a cocktail named after me but I’m slightly worried about all the men who can go around town saying that they’ve had me. He said don’t worry Kathy as long as they say you went down rather well.”
Kathy Lette, “Is this live?”
Rosie Lewis from the Australian. “Do you think it is a matter of time until we have equal pay?”
Sarah Ferguson, “I have a rule which I want all young women to adopt which is never say sorry, not never, if you do something wrong, say it quickly and move on but so many women begin their conversations with sorry, they begin emails with sorry I just, sorry I just what? stop saying sorry that’s my thing. “
Catharine Fox, author of Stop Fixing Women waves after being acknowledged.
Kathy Lette, “that’s the best thing about the menopause is that your oestrogen goes down and your testosterone comes up a little bit bolshy a little bit more selfish, a little bit like a bloke actually so there’s something to look forward to, not good having your own weather you do actually get chin hairs when you have a macrame hanging basket.”
Ineka Voigt a year 12 media student from Hawker College takes over the show.
Ineka Voigt a year 12 media student from Hawker College asks for advice about how to get into the industry.
Ineka Voigt listens to an answer from the panel.
Sarah Ferguson, “Go for your life in everything that you do, but get educated…” Kathy Lette looks on.
Kathy Lette
Media teachers from Hawker College.
Ineka Voigt is applauded by Virginia Haussegger
Virginia Haussegger, “Give her a job”
Virginia Haussegger, “So the importance of being resilient and learning to be to be tough and be thoughtful about your you plan is terribly important too as well as of course you know education and read, read, read read but be mindful to that you will hit roadblocks many many times it’s how you get up that matters.”
Ineka Voigt listens to Virginia Haussegger.
Katharine Murphy, “Before we finish up can I say as a Canberra local I’ve seen a lot of Hawker colleges media stuff in local competitions it’s really high quality, can I say as a mum of a Canberra girl who’s the first year AFTRS student you go for it.” http://www.aftrs.edu.au/
Hawker College media teachers.
The audience applauds at the end of the event
Kathy and Viginia show off their bottles as a reference to an earlier story by Virginia Haussegger where at one point in her career she was given a big black penis when campaigning for overseas assignments.
Kathy is excited by her present
Kathy Lette listening to Katharine Murphy at the end of the event
Sarah Ferguson listens to Katharine Murphy
Katharine Murphy, Sarah Ferguson, Kathy Lette and Virginia Haussegger at the end of the Women in the Media event which is part of the Canberra Writers Festival.
Katharine Murphy, Sarah Ferguson, Kathy Lette and Virginia Haussegger at the end of the Women in the Media event chat with Lyn Mills the National Press Club photographer.
Tim Shaw from Radio 2CC chats with Hawker College student Ineka Voigt.
