'Trailblazing women of Australian Public Broadcasting, 1945-1975 offers a compelling new perspective of Australian radio and television history. It chronicles how a group of female producers defied the odds and forged remarkable careers in the traditionally male domain of public-affairs production at the ABC in the post-war decades. Kay Kinane, Catherine King, Therese Denny and Joyce Belfrage were ambitious and resourceful producers, part of the vanguard of Australian broadcasters who used mass media as a vehicle for their social and political activism. Fiercely dedicated to their audiences, they wrote, directed and produced ground-breaking documentaries and current affairs programs that celebrated Australian life while also challenging its cultural complacency, its racism and sexism. They immersed themselves in the ABC's many networks of collaboration and initiated a range of strategies to expand their agency and authority. This book traces their careers as they crossed borders and crossed mediums, following them as they worked on location shoots and in production offices, in television studios, control rooms and radio booths. In doing so, it highlights the barriers, both official and unofficial, confronted by women working in broadcasting in the decades after World War II.' (Publication summary)
Australian Broadcasting's Female 'Pilgrims' : Women and Work in the Post-war ABC
Sydney
:
2019
19699051
2019
single work
thesis
'This thesis examines the careers of women who attained positions of authority in the privileged environment of Australian public broadcasting between the 1940s and 1970s, and reimagines the nature of women’s work at the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC). It counteracts the widespread assumption that women were largely absent in post-war broadcasting, and reveals how and why a group of women, each with their own issues and ideologies to contribute to national debates, used the ABC as a vehicle for their activism. Framed primarily through group biography, this history details how certain ABC women manifested their own agency within the limitations of the time and place, in both the messages they produced as radio and television producers, and through their positions within the gendered post-war workplace. It details the industrial strategies that female broadcasters activated in order to succeed – their transmedial methods, transformative departures, transnational exchanges and technical training – and the key industrial alliances they utilised to traverse previously inaccessible avenues of opportunity. Taking an intersectional approach, this thesis also juxtaposes the careers of elite female producers against the majority of women workers at the ABC, contextualising the barriers, both official and unofficial, that prevented most women from sharing the same authority, opportunity and privilege that their male counterparts experienced. Challenging the male-centric narratives that dominate broadcasting historiography, this thesis examines the systems of exclusion and discrimination in the ABC workplace and highlights the nature of women’s work in public broadcasting; it enriches the historical landscape of women’s experiences and contributions within Australian broadcasting.'
Source: Abstract.
'If the extraordinary women media professionals whose life stories are told in these two books were with us today, they would, no doubt, be greatly encouraged, and probably a little surprised, by the advancements made in diversity, inclusion and gender in the modern workplace. They might be equally disappointed that this welcome progress had taken such an age and that the road ahead is still a long one. The announcement on International Women’s Day 2023 that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) had achieved gender parity in its workforce (including its executive cohort) would have been welcomed by the Trailblazing Women in Kylie Andrews’ book who faced gendered workplace discrimination at the ABC. While the latest ABC news is encouraging, a recent ‘Women in Media’ study (reported by The Guardian, 23 February 2023) indicates that Australian women are still ‘vastly underrepresented’ in the media sector and that, at the current rate of development, media gender parity would not be achieved for at least a decade.' (Introduction)
'The candid photograph on the cover of this new history of women in Australian broadcasting sums it up eloquently. A woman and a man are shown behind the camera during an ABC film shoot. The woman stands with her arms folded, gazing intently ahead; beside her, the man squints at the same scene through the lens of a camera. The woman sees the bigger picture while he sees only a portion. So it was that many later accounts of the start of broadcast media perpetuated a restricted view that omitted women’s achievements from history.' (Introduction)
'The candid photograph on the cover of this new history of women in Australian broadcasting sums it up eloquently. A woman and a man are shown behind the camera during an ABC film shoot. The woman stands with her arms folded, gazing intently ahead; beside her, the man squints at the same scene through the lens of a camera. The woman sees the bigger picture while he sees only a portion. So it was that many later accounts of the start of broadcast media perpetuated a restricted view that omitted women’s achievements from history.' (Introduction)
'If the extraordinary women media professionals whose life stories are told in these two books were with us today, they would, no doubt, be greatly encouraged, and probably a little surprised, by the advancements made in diversity, inclusion and gender in the modern workplace. They might be equally disappointed that this welcome progress had taken such an age and that the road ahead is still a long one. The announcement on International Women’s Day 2023 that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) had achieved gender parity in its workforce (including its executive cohort) would have been welcomed by the Trailblazing Women in Kylie Andrews’ book who faced gendered workplace discrimination at the ABC. While the latest ABC news is encouraging, a recent ‘Women in Media’ study (reported by The Guardian, 23 February 2023) indicates that Australian women are still ‘vastly underrepresented’ in the media sector and that, at the current rate of development, media gender parity would not be achieved for at least a decade.' (Introduction)
