The Broad Experience

In this, the final episode of The Broad Experience, I talk to three women about what has changed for women at work during the past decade, and what remains to be done.I began this show in 2012. Back then women and the workplace was a little discussed topic, and almost no one was podcasting about it. But my own experiences at work had convinced me this subject deserved much more attention. And while one measly decade barely registers in the arc of history, it means something to those of us who live through it. There has definitely been progress during the years I’ve worked on this show. My guests are based all over the world. Branca Vianna is a longtime listener who lives in Rio de Janeiro. Today she is the founder and president of a highly successful podcast company in Brazil, Radio Novelo. Frequent guest Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is back in London after a stint at Harvard. She always has an intriguing take on where we are, and where we should go next. Heather McGregor, once known as Financial Times columnist Mrs. Moneypenny, was in one of my first podcasts, and I was delighted that she agreed to be in my last. She’s now living and working in Dubai.I can’t tell you how rewarding it’s been to make this show during the last almost 11 years. Thanks for listening and for all the emails and other messages of support. It means a lot when you work alone from your closet. Onward. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ageism and sexism are sometimes described as a double-whammy that hits women later in life. Which is a bit worrying, because I’m 52 and wrapping up this show after a decade of production. Onto new things - I hope!My first guest lives in New Zealand and recently got back into the workforce in her fifties after being out for more than a decade. It feels like that notorious double-whammy is hitting her, yet it’s impossible to truly measure. She wants people to know that many 50-plus women aren’t coasting on a sea of contentment and financial security.Avivah Wittenberg-Cox agrees that ageism is rampant, but says we need to re-frame things if we’re going to improve life for older workers. And that starts with educating employers about the advantages of maintaining and engaging 50-plus employees, a group that includes more women than ever before. It’s up to us to do our part as well, she says, including “recognizing that usually what got you here isn't going to get you through the next phase.” As usual she's sprouting with ideas that I plan to use in my own next phase. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this show we meet three musicians, all performers and teachers, and get a sense of how much the traditional world of classical music is changing. We also hear some of their playing. Lydia Brown, now a professor of collaborative piano at Juilliard, began her career mentored by several women who worked to established her profession. Yet despite this female influence, she says she’s had to fight to achieve the same success as a male pianist. Renate Rohlfing was one of Lydia’s students. Now in her late thirties, she has had a successful career, traveling far and wide to play. But it took her a long time to realize that performing does not have to mean sticking to old expectations of what a woman ‘should’ look like on stage. French horn player Christine Stinchi is working on her doctorate at Rutgers University. She performs in pants, and has had plenty of women mentors in what was for so long a male field. She sees a hopeful future for women in brass. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lots of us dream of leaving corporate life to travel the world. Meena Thiruvengadam did just that, incorporating travel into her career. But sometimes following your dream occupation means flouting expectations of what you should be doing - including expectations your traditional Indian family has for you.In this episode we discuss the exhaustion that can come from trying to make things work at work, the frustrations travelers of color often face, and the many joys of traveling alone. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I knew I wanted to talk to Professor Raina Brands when I spotted a tweet of hers last year in which she revealed that her CV contained some updated, and quite personal, information - information most of us wouldn’t reveal to an employer. In this episode Raina discusses her project to help women ‘de-bias’ their careers, something she and her colleague Aneeta Rattan write about on their site, Career Equally. She explains what that means, why it’s important, and how we can get started. She also talks about why she decided to get personal in public and what the response has been. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In her early twenties, bored by her office job, Kelly joined the British Army for a life of adventure. This was just before 9/11. She’d grown up a relatively conflict-free world. Suddenly everything changed. Kelly spent almost 19 years in the Army doing multiple jobs in different parts of the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan. She loved much of what Army life gave her. Other things were less appealing, from sexual harassment to fellow officers who couldn’t handle women in authority...to the loneliness of being a woman in command when one of your soldiers is killed. In this show Kelly - who asked me not to use her last name so she could speak freely - looks back on her career, what she learned, and what she wishes could have been different in the ultimate male environment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bobbi Thomason studies gender for a living. She was aware of the pitfalls couples can fall into, even those who assumed their relationship would be absolutely equal. Still, when her own marriage foundered over career equality (or the lack of it), she was gutted. At the same time she was reading social media comments urging women to demand a ‘50/50 partner.’ ‘I tried that,’ she thought, ‘and it didn’t work.’In this episode we hear Bobbi’s story. She says sticking to her belief that she deserved a partner as willing to sacrifice for her as she was for him, has cost her a great deal. But she’s learned through academic research and personal experience that support comes in many forms, and that all women need a ‘village’ to get ahead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Work has changed forever. Our host Melanie Green is on a journey to learn how we can thrive in work through 2021 and beyond. We'll share stories about the challenges and possibilities those changes bring. We'll hear about the tools, tech, and best practices that power flexible work. Produced by Citrix. Follow along @Citrix Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The culture of winning pervades our lives. From sport to the classroom to the workplace, we're supposed to 'kill it' or congratulated for 'crushing it.' But all that crushing can take a toll on the psyche, as Olympic athlete Cath Bishop can attest. Cath spent years training in her sport, rowing, and competed in three Olympic Games. When she left sport she thought she'd left the obsession with winning behind. Instead she found it was pretty much everywhere.In this episode we discuss what winning actually means if you want to achieve long-term success (which looks a lot different than what most people think of as 'success.') We talk about the gendered language around winning, and the young female sports stars who are rejecting the winning narrative.Cath is the author of 'The Long Win: the search for a better way to succeed.' Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A lot of people are quitting their jobs at the moment. In the US, more than 12 million people left jobs voluntarily between July and September. They are fed up, burned out after months and months of pandemic working, and some are wondering, what am I doing this for anyway? Is this what I really want to do with my life? If not, what do I want to do instead?In this show Dorie Clark helps us answer some of those questions, which all involve the need for long-term thinking. She talks about the ideas in her new book, The Long Game: how to be a long-term thinker in a short-term world. We discuss how to carve out time to think about the future, identifying what’s most meaningful to you, and casting off the expectation that you ‘find your passion' (too much pressure!)We also meet consultant Tom Waterhouse, who had a long-term plan to have a family before it was too late. But realizing his dream meant infuriating his bosses. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lauren Tucker is a longtime advertising executive and, as a Black female, she's rather unusual in that industry The last time we spoke she was finding it tough to land a job in her field in a new city. Today she runs her own successful inclusion management business, where she grapples with everything from cultural blind spots to terrible job descriptions.Still, Lauren is itching to find out what's around the corner. Looking back, she sees a career that despite her ambitions was largely controlled by others. Her job's demands influenced what she did with her life. Today, she wants her job to be in service of her life - and her perspective on life has changed quite a bit in the last few turbulent years. She still has a lot to do. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scan the business section of any bookstore and you'll see reams of books written by men, far fewer by women. In this show, which originally aired in 2018, we talk about women as writers and readers of business books. Is it imposter syndrome, fear, or lack of time that stops women from putting fingers to keyboard? Is Lean In a business book or a self-help book? And why are female authors less likely to embrace a publicity blitz when their book is published? My guest is Alison Jones, owner of Practical Inspiration Publishing, host of the Extraordinary Business Book Club podcast and author of This Book Means Business. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a quick follow-up episode to the last show with INSEAD professor Jennifer Petriglieri, author of Couples that Work. We tackle a few of your questions, covering everything from 'how do we split the invisible home and parenting tasks?' to couples with different working styles to couples living apart for work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.