Career Interrupted

How 14 Successful Women Navigate Career Breaks

Norah Breekveldt

• Publisher: Melbourne Books
• Print ISBN: 9781922129796
• eBook ISBN: 9781922129871
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

How do women defy the odds and get their careers back on track after a break? How do women manage the mummy mafia at the school gate? Is there a motherhood penalty? Can women really have it all - a successful career and a rewarding family life? Does overseas experience really accelerate your career in Australia? How do you recreate your career after a setback? In Career Interrupted fourteen high-achieving women talk openly about their challenges in carving out a successful career after a break. These women come from all walks of life - from battlers to privileged backgrounds, from small business to big corporations, from large corporates to small business, from professional services to the community sector. Several women had children and talk candidly about what it's like to be in the throes of mother guilt and come out the other side; some are expatriates who returned to Australia to rebuild their career, yet others had to re-establish their career after a misstep. These stories are interwoven with the latest research from thought leaders around the obstacles and pitfalls in leaving the workforce for a time, and include practical and proven strategies to overcome these hurdles. Career Interrupted contributes to the discussion and debate in business and the broader community about how to develop workplaces where the contribution of everyone, including women, is recognised, nurtured and optimised. It explores the shared experiences of women who have had to navigate a break in their career and provides a beacon for other women about to embark on a similar journey. Her Excellency Frances Adamson, Australian Ambassador to the People's Republic of China;
Anna Burke, Federal member for Chisolm;
Lisa Croxford, Capability Development Manager, Herbert Smith Freehills;
Lucinda Dunn OAM, Artistic Director, Tanya Pearson Classical Coaching Academy;
Dr Marguerite Evans-Galea, Scientist, Bruce Lefroy Centre, Murdoch Children's Research Institute;
Jennifer Keyte, Seven News Melbourne Weekend News Presenter;
Dr Sharon Lierse, Lecturer, Charles Darwin University;
Samone McCurdy, PhD candidate and Program Consultant, Monash University;
Lucinda Nolan, Deputy Police Commissioner, Victoria Police;
Kelly O'Dwyer, Federal Member of Parliament for Higgins and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer;
Dr Hannah Piterman, Consultant, advisor and author, co-founder of Gender Worx;
Moira Rayner, Lawyer and former WA Anti-corruption Commissioner;
Lucy Roland, Marketing specialist and Communications Coach;
Jodie Sizer, Principal, PwC Indigenous Consulting;
Tracey Spicer, Journalist and newsreader;
Dr Helen Szoke, Chief Executive, Oxfam Australia;
Dr Jennifer Whelan, Director, Psynapse Psychometrics and Research Fellow, Melbourne Business School. 'These stories offer inspiration and give insight into how success was achieved by many women despite the ongoing barriers to equality. They provide plenty of ideas for anyone wishing to have a career break, for any reason.' - Kate Jenkins, Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner

Dr Marguerite Evans-Galea

The Game of Snakes and Ladders

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Dr Marguerite Evans-Galea leads international collaborations that aim to understand disease mechanism and develop novel therapies and biomarkers for repeat-associated neurodegenerative diseases. In an NHMRC-funded project, she is developing cell and gene therapies for Friedreich ataxia.

Dr Evans-Galea has received Young Investigator Awards from the Australasian Gene and Cell Therapy Society and the Friedreich Ataxia Research Alliance, US. She has also received travel awards to present her research internationally.

Committed to empowering early career researchers, Dr Evans-Galea has enjoyed supervising students and fellows in Australia and the US. She was founding Chair of the Early-Mid Career Researcher Forum with the Australian Academy of Science. She serves on the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy Immune Responses Committee, the Australasian Gene and Cell Therapy Society Executive Committee and the Australian Science and Innovation Forum, which has partnered with the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. She is also a member of the Science in Australia Gender Equity Forum and co-founder of Women in Science AUSTRALIA. A strong advocate for science, Dr Evans-Galea communicates regularly via social and mainstream media. She was awarded the Australian Leadership Award in 2013.

Marguerite Evans-Galea, known to most as Maggie, is a rare breed of woman. With an insatiable curiosity, she was bitten by the mathematics and science bug from an early age, one of a small number of women electing science as a profession. Her career story runs a bit like a game of Snakes and Ladders — at some points she experienced good fortune, having been in the right place at the right time; at other times she’s battled against the odds. She became pregnant, and when she excitedly told her employer, in the same conversation she was asked to ‘finish up’. Eventually she found two employers who recognised her capabilities and encouraged her to realise her potential.

Becoming the mother of a beautiful baby girl was totally unexpected and changed Maggie’s life forever.

Barriers to success — perpetuating myths and stereotypes

Of all the barriers that hold women back, embedded institutional mindsets and biases are probably the most insidious. One US research study on women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)1 identified a set of commonly held biases, assumptions and beliefs that perpetuate the dominance of men and male-centric environments in science and exclude women. In Australia, journalist and public speaker Catherine Fox2 reflects on seven myths that dominate the Australian workplace. Both of these lists inspired me to start exploring the specific hurdles women in science must jump over.

Here is my truncated list of myths, prepared with gratitude to these two excellent publications.

Myth 1: Women can’t do maths

The evidence suggests the contrary. Women have the capacity to study mathematics and science at school, and in fact Australian girls score higher in mathematics than the average for both genders compared to other OECD countries3 (although slightly lower than Australian boys).4 However, this potential is being squandered as few girls choose Year 12 mathematics and science subjects. In 2004 the ratio of boys to girls studying intermediate mathematics was one girl for every 19 boys.5 In 2004 to 2006, the percentage of girls studying combined physics and chemistry averaged 8.6 percent.6

This trend continues into higher education, where we are losing women at every transition point. With each step up the academic ladder, women begin to opt out. While the pipeline starts well, with almost 60 percent of Bachelor of Science graduates being women, this number drops dramatically to around 28 percent for Senior Lecturer and around ten percent for positions above that of Senior Lecturer.7

Maggie’s story — smitten by science

Maggie speaks with passion about the love for learning she developed at an early age. She first visited a university at the age of 12. Coming in from regional northern Queensland to the big city, walking awestruck through the historic university was an experience that has stayed with her forever. She felt that university was where she belonged, and from then on knew she would pursue a degree. A close family friend was also very influential in this decision. He always encouraged her to work hard, study hard and get good grades.

At school Maggie was a naturally gifted musician, while she found science a challenge. She talks of the satisfaction of meeting that challenge, and this has stayed with her. So she elected to complete a rather unusual double degree — in music and science — as a path to becoming a music therapist. Having a family member with autism influenced this decision. By her third year of study, however, she realised she needed to make a career choice — music or science. By then the science bug had bitten her.

Myth 2: Women will get to the top in time, when more women become qualified

If only this myth were true. Unfortunately, women’s representation at each step of the career ladder markedly declines. The statistics around women opting out of science, discussed in the preceding section, clearly shows that women are not filling the pipeline to senior roles. Time alone will not fix this conundrum, and specific interventions are required if society is to redress this imbalance.

Maggie’s reflections — women missing out in the crucial mid-career point

In biomedical research, Maggie’s area of expertise, she notes that women are well represented at graduate, PhD and post-doctoral fellowship levels, occupying 50 to 60 percent of positions. The next transition step to team leader or group leader is very important in a scientist’s career, but often coincides with the time when many women start families, and many women leave research at this stage. In Maggie’s estimate, only around 25 percent of these roles are filled by women. The pipeline becomes a mere trickle at the upper echelons of leadership, where women hold 15 percent of leadership roles.

It can be a real struggle for a woman to keep her career on track while juggling such things as having children or undertaking other carer roles. When a scientist is not physically at her desk, in the laboratory or on her computer undertaking research or producing publications, she falls behind her peers, who continue to publish, complete research and receive grants. As a scientist, publications and research grants are everything. At senior levels, women may have a team of researchers who can continue their research with limited supervision, or they are occasionally granted research funds to continue their work once they return to work or have their role replaced for a time. However, at the critical middle level this support is less likely to be available.

Myth 3: Women are not as competitive as men and don’t want the top jobs

There is little evidence to support the assertion that women lack a competitive drive. Research by Bain & Company and Chief Executive Women (CEW) has consistently found that women aspire to positions of seniority at almost the same rate as men.8

In the science domain, similar numbers of men and women science doctorates plan to enter post-doctorate study or academic employment.9 However, Maggie reflects that mothers face greater challenges than male scientists and women without children:

‘Struggling to keep your track record competitive while juggling children and primary care roles, that’s a real challenge. It’s like elite athletes in the Olympics who have to be at the top of their game; in science you’re an elite scientist for your entire career. You have to always be at the top of your game to get the funding, to get the collaborations, the international reputation.’

Maggie’s story — career interruption or career suicide?

Developing an international profile is critical for scientists, so Maggie decided to pursue her post-doctoral fellowship overseas. After talking it through with her husband Charles, also a scientist, she accepted a post-doctoral fellowship in Utah, in the mid-west of the United States. Charles became the ‘trailing spouse’, following Maggie’s move, also entering a post-doctoral fellowship once arriving in Utah. The original plan was to be away for two years, which extended to ten.

Maggie reflects that the highest risk time to st...

Table of contents

• Preface
• Introduction
• Moira Rayner
• Her Excellency Frances Adamson
• Dr Helen Szoke
• Dr Marguerite Evans-Galea
• Anna Burke and Kelly O’Dwyer
• Lucinda Nolan
• Lisa Croxford
• Jodie Sizer
• Tracey Spicer
• Jennifer Keyte
• Lucinda Dunn, OAM
• Dr Sharon Lierse
• Lucy Roland
• Dr Hannah Piterman
• Dr Jennifer Whelan
• Samone McCurdy
• Conclusions
• Comebacks
• Additional Reading
• Acknowledgements