We’ve just entered our fourth year on Women’s Agenda.
In digital media that’s a very long time, and we’re proud to say that we plan on doing this work for a long time to come.
Our mandate is and has always been to publish news and advice for smart, career-minded women. We do this every day, and we provide it for free. As our founder and former CEO Marina Go wrote back on our first day in 2012, the media pickings were, at the time, slim for time-poor, career-focused women.
We stepped in to fill the gap. And with thousands of you reading us every day, we’re confident we hit the mark by covering the business and political stories that matter to you, as well as providing great career strategies, inspiring role models and information on personal finance and wellbeing.
We’re here for the ambitious, the jugglers, and those still figuring things out. We’re here for women who’re just like you, and I hope you know by now that you’re definitely not alone.
Our goal is to also celebrate the achievements of women and to create opportunities to bring more of us together in person. We do this through the NAB Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards, and our regular networking events.
The last three years have been a roller-coaster. Three prime ministers, thousands of stories, plenty of inspiring female leaders to cover and 13 major events, including three awards programs.
And it never stops. We’ve got another huge year planned on Women’s Agenda.
But first, I’m sad to announce that after editing the site for almost two years, Georgie Dent is leaving in a couple of weeks to pursue a new career opportunity.
Georgie is going to be missed. She’s been an excellent editor and a talented journalist: passionate, driven, and always able to see stories from a unique perspective.
Georgie’s also advocated strongly on the issues that matter to this community, both on this site and in the general media. She’s written and spoken out about everything from domestic violence to childcare, parental leave, women in leadership, and the need for our ‘Minister for Women’ Tony Abbott to resign.
She’s also been a lot of fun. It’s been an absolute privilege sharing this work with her over this period. Georgie originally took over the role from me when I went on maternity leave. I couldn’t have asked for a greater friend and colleague to have in the office when I made the difficult transition back to work.
Women’s Agenda is incredible, exhilarating and fast-paced work, but every day is a challenge and a deadline. You want exceptional people like Georgie Dent on your team
Finding a replacement was always going be tough. But after searching through some of the country’s most talented editors and journalists, I’m very happy to announce Jane Gilmore as our new editor, commencing August 31.
For the last six weeks, Georgie has been working closely with Jane as a contributing editor. They’ve been sharing strategies and ideas for taking Women’s Agenda to the next level.
Jane’s a highly experienced editor and businesswoman, having founded and edited her own publication, the King’s Tribune for six years. Since then, she’s been regularly contributing to The Hoopla, Daily Life, Junkee, The Drum and Spook.
Already Jane (a self-confessed data nerd) has covered some major stories on Women’s Agenda including a comprehensive series on the gender pay gap, and a recent interview with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.
Jane will be bringing you an excellent mix of content every day that both agitates and inspires. Smart, fresh and informative stories that aim to transform the game for men and women at work. She loves independent media (just like us!) and believes these are the places where great, powerful communities are established.
Based in Melbourne, Jane’s appointment also extends our physical reach into Victoria. Of course we’re digital and can happily work from anywhere, but we saw this as an opportunity to connect with more of you across more cities. A future step will be to hire staff across our other states and territories.
Jane will be leading an urgent redesign of the site, ensuring Women’s Agenda is easy to read and share on all devices. We know simply accessing Women’s Agenda on mobile has been a major pain-point for many of you and we’re getting it fixed.
She also plans on working with a broader network of experienced freelance journalists, and is looking to uncover talented, emerging writers with a unique voice.
The goal is not merely to attract more eyeballs to this site, but to further build and engage this important and powerful community through informative, inspiring and challenging content that matters.
So what else is happening on Women’s Agenda?
We’ll be further expanding and developing our new members platform to offer even more great benefits and discounts on our events and the events of our partners. If you love attending events and meeting like-minded women, this is the platform to join. It’s also the first place we go when we have ticket giveaways and freebies on offer.
In the coming months we’ll also be opening nominations for the Fourth NAB Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards, recognising emerging leaders and the leaders who help women achieve. Make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter for updates.
Finally, we’ll soon be announcing our biggest and most daring event ever, something Australia has never seen and one that will really transform the game for women at work. This one’s top secret — for just a few more weeks. Again, our newsletter will keep you in the loop.
And so we enter a new year with more stories to write, new faces to profile and celebrate, another Federal election to cover, and yes some of the same agendas to push (hey, trying to change decades of the status quo when it comes to work is slow).
Plus, our next year will bring many more options to take this conversation offline and bring us together.
This community’s only going to get bigger.
We will miss you Georgie. Congratulations Jane.
Thank you for your continued support. Feedback and ideas always welcome here.