AMBITION A GOOD TRAIT

TODAY is International Women’s Day, when women everywhere should be honoured and the achievements of exceptional people are being recognised and toasted.

The Bulletin is proud to be a big part of the inaugural Harvey Norman Gold Coast Women of the Year Awards, with finalists and winners to be feted at a celebration today. We have supported this wonderful initiative since it was first proposed and look forward to publishing details later today, with a big read to follow on the personal stories of triumph in the women’s respective fields in a special magazine in tomorrow’s paper.

Today however we can tell the story of a remarkable group of women who comprise the breast cancer team at the Robina Hospital, and also profile one of the finalists – Muay Thai champion Chelsea Hackett, who is using the experience to help inspire the girls she coaches.

Our coverage today also includes a comment piece written by Southern Cross University’s Professor Robin Stonecash, whose school of business and tourism actively encourages women to put themselves up for leadership roles and to “admit to ambition” – a trait long held as a big positive for men in forging careers but, as she explains in an anecdote about former premier Anna Bligh, has been suggested in the past as “the worst thing you could say about a woman” and indeed, retains some currency with dinosaurs in some boardrooms of big business and the back rooms of some of the major political parties.

Prof Stonecash says that on this International Women’s Day, parents should urge daughters to aspire to be anything they want and to tell sons to be proud to work for a fine female leader.

We heartily endorse her view and suggest these are points that should be made often and not just on this day.

Australian society has taken big strides since the time – not really that long ago – when women in the public service and teaching, for example, or in the banks had to resign if they married.

We now see that past requirement as ludicrous and highly discriminatory.

But a gap remains as women still strive for pay equality, for example, even though they have become a major presence in what were previously traditional male areas such as the military, law, medicine and engineering.

Society has certainly made inroads, but much more still needs to be done on areas such as the gender pay gap space.