By Casey Neill
Two strong, successful women spoke out about busting gender barriers at a Springvale breakfast.
Jennifer Osbourne and Yassmin Abdel-Magied were guests at the Showcasing Women in Business breakfast at Highways on Thursday 9 March which marked International Women’s Day.
“Today’s theme is women pushing the boundaries,” SEBN manager Sandra George said.
“You’re all outstanding women.
“Believe in yourselves, encourage and support other women and have the confidence to have a go and don’t ever be afraid to be smart.”
Ms Osbourne, the Organic Growers Group (OGG) manager, started out as a primary school teacher.
“I guess you’d call me a late bloomer,” she said.
She became a retail greengrocer and then a link between farmers and retailers.
“Little did I realise at the time that I was slipping into a boys club,” she said.
Ms Osbourne survived bullying at the hands of a man in her first role and moved on to OGG – owned and run by women.
“I’d finally found somewhere to put my drive and ambition,” she said.
“My job is to procure the produce and schedule it for arrival in time to sell.”
One farmer told her that the best thing about dealing with OGG was no testosterone, “just good old-fashioned common sense”.
But on the other side, she’s found that a male boss who makes a tough decision is praised as a great manager.
“In my experience, when a female makes such a call, she’s just a bitch,” she said.
She also recalled upsetting a young male trader.
“He puffed his chest, faced up to me and raised his fist,” she said.
“I had to call his bluff.”
Since then she’s laughed off criticism and spent less time and energy worrying about what others think.
“Don’t expect them to like you – you have to be tough,” she said.
“That became my biggest challenge.
“I’m a marshmallow.
“I’ve had to toughen up.”
Ms Abdel-Magied dreamed of becoming a Formula One driver after watching movie Catch That Kid at age 13.
“But I’m a Sudanese woman who likes to eat, that wasn’t going to happen,” she said.
“I could design the car.”
She was one of seven girls and 300 boys in her mechanical engineering course.
“I became one of the boys because that’s how I knew how to survive,” she said.
“I had no woman in any senior position above me that could show me a different example.”
After university, she spent a year in the UK following her Formula One dream but returned to Australia and landed a job on oil and gas rigs.
“I was the first girl they hired in my department in Australia, which was odd because it was 2012,” she said.
“I tried to be one of the boys.”
But they were quick to point out that she wasn’t one.
Ms Abdel-Magied spoke about marginalisation of women in the workplace.
She’d walk onto a rig and the boys would be told “no more swearing, there’s a woman present”.
It highlighted her difference and told others they had to adjust their behaviour when she was around.
She would be handed the pen to take minutes in meetings, and she’d be asked if she was married while a man alongside her was asked about his career experience.
“You are seen first as a woman and not an engineer,” she said.
Ms Abdel-Magied voiced ideas that were ignored, but then adopted minutes later after being raised by a man.
When she walks onto a rig, people expect that she can’t drill a hole until she proves she can.
“Men are deemed competent unless proven otherwise,” she said.
“Women are deemed incompetent unless proven otherwise.”
One of her latest projects is Mumtaza, which means ‘she’s excellent’ in Arabic and is an organisation about empowering women of colour.
Ms Abdel-Magied urged her audience to utilise sponsorship – to ask for help to open doors they can’t open themselves.
“And who can you sponsor? What privilege do you have?” she said.
“Never underestimate the impact a single individual – you – can make.
“Each and every one of you have the capacity to change the world around you.
“Embrace that, lean into it and good luck.”
The next SEBN Showcasing Women in Business event will be a lunch on Tuesday 27 June.
