International Women's Day: Robin Bailey Reflects On Her Career As A Women In Radio

KIIS 97.3 breakfast show host Robin Bailey reflects on her career as a women in radio and how far the industry has come since she started.

What does IWD mean to you?

That’s the question I posed to my three young adult sons: Fin (24), Lewin (22), and Piper (20).

It was an important question for me to ask because I didn’t know the answer, and as a strong feminist single mum who had been their solo parent for 10 years, I hoped my boys’ answers would reflect the journey I had been on and give me hope for this next generation.

This is what they said:
Fin:

“IWD is a day to celebrate all of the amazing women in your life who ensure you and everyone in your world continue on a straight path. It’s a day to acknowledge and appreciate everything the significant women in your life do to help you.”
Lewin:

“It’s a good day, and I celebrate it as I grew up with a single mum for most of my teenage years and some would argue the most important years for developing a boy into a man. I have the utmost respect for women, the world wouldn’t turn without them”
Piper:

“That I love the women in my life.”

I’m secretly chuffed with these answers. As a parent, you never know if the things that are important to you will be passed on and instilled in your kids. Clearly, respect for women is paramount to my boys, and I couldn’t be prouder.

But what about their girlfriends? Is their journey easier than mine?

Well, Fin’s girlfriend, Ella (23), is a landscape designer for Brookes Blooms, a highly successful female-owned company in the very male-dominated industry of horticulture. She said this:
“To me, this day celebrates the strength and resilience of women.

As a landscape designer in a male-dominated industry, it’s an opportunity to reflect on our contributions. We are actually doing an all-female project: designed by me, project-managed by a woman, and with all female staff working on the job. I’m pretty pumped to be part of it.”

Lewin’s girlfriend, Jade (22), works for her mum’s construction company, Lindores Mobile Cranes, where she is the office manager, coordinating the all male team of crane operators. She said this:

“It means a day I spend time with the women I love and appreciate, like my mum, my sister, my nanna, my grandma, Ella, Isabella, and you.”

Then there’s my youngest son’s girlfriend, Isabella, a 20-year-old from New Jersey who met Piper overseas.

They have spent the last 14 months crisscrossing the world, and she is now doing her public health university course here by correspondence while trying to get a part-time job in the health sector. She said this: “It’s appreciating the sisterhood I feel with women around the world, especially since I’ve been here in Australia. Women are women no matter where you are, and that’s a bond in itself.”

These women are so much more confident than I was. Ella, Jade, and Isabella are chasing their dreams and are not afraid to see themselves as equals in male-dominated industries and having a voice… that was not me.

I remember being the only woman in a room of 15 men in a commercial radio boardroom discussing the needs of 25–39-year-old women.

When I gave my opinion, I was told, “What would you know?” even though I was a 26-year-old women and all the men in the room were over 39. I didn’t stand up for myself; in fact, I think I went to the toilet and cried because I wasn’t brave enough to have a voice. Why? Because for the first 20 years of my career, there were no female bosses. No one to watch and aspire to.

In fact, there were so few women on the commercial airwaves that when I fell pregnant with Lewin, I was told if I took too much time off, I’d lose my job. I stayed working until I went into labor on air (and stayed to finish my shift before going to the hospital and giving birth 4 hours later).

I then returned 6 weeks later, something I regret to this day. My employer didn’t pay maternity leave, and I was forced to choose, and because I was the sole breadwinner, I made the wrong choice. When I returned, I expressed breast milk between songs so that my boys at least had some of me while I was away.

And what’s worse, I genuinely thought if I stood up for myself, I’d lose my job. Because that’s the thing — in the ’90s and 2000s, the glass ceiling was cracking but still in tact.
I hate it now when men I know flippantly say,

“Why do women get a day? Where’s the International Men’s Day?”

Because it shows that these men have no idea how hard it was to be sitting at that table with them: put-downs, being ignored, the privilege of some men who have not even noticed the gender divide in their industries or lives. But that’s the great thing about generational growth… we grow and change.

Let me be clear: we are not there yet. Queensland’s DV statistics are some of the worst in the country and the Western world. We have not fixed the gender pay gap, and there is still not 50% female representation in private sector boardrooms or in our own parliament.

BUT…

It’s clear from talking to my boys partners that the future is brighter. These amazing young women, speak clearly and strongly, and hopefully, will never have to run to the toilet to cry because they can’t find the words.

Instead, they are chasing the jobs they want, regardless of who traditionally might have stood in their way.

And as for my boys and all the men of this next generation… over to you.

Happy International Women’s Day.