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 l...
Jan 25, 2023•34 min•Ep. 201
Shame, guilt, trauma…these are just some of the words that came up in my conversations for this show on women’s relationship with money. Why IS that relationship so complicated? Two women with different money backgrounds, knowledge, and expectations, help me delve into that question. My first guest, Sarah Wolfe, grew up with little knowledge of how to handle money and a mother who told her she didn’t really have to worry about it anyway. She just needed to find a guy who would. But that advice d...
Dec 20, 2022•31 min
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 c...
Nov 30, 2022•29 min
Ellen Snee decided to become a nun in the early ‘70s, which seemed an inopportune time. Society was changing rapidly, there were riots on her college campus, and as a friend told her, nuns and priests were abandoning convents and the priesthood, not joining. But Ellen felt a sense of mission and purpose that didn’t go away. She spent 18 mostly happy years with an international order of nuns, the Religious of the Sacred Heart . In a stereotype-busting conversation, Ellen describes how life in a c...
Nov 14, 2022•25 min
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 h...
Oct 25, 2022•30 min
When longtime Canadian journalist Anna Maria Tremonti was 23, she married a charming guy she met through work. He turned out to be violent, a secret Anna Maria kept from everyone, including her colleagues. This was quite a feat given his attacks would sometimes leave her with visible bruises she’d have to cover up before heading into work. In this episode she and I talk about her long-ago marriage and the scars it left behind. We discuss the positive role work played in her life, even as she str...
Sep 28, 2022•35 min
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...
Sep 07, 2022•22 min
In this episode my guests Raina Brands and Aneeta Rattan share ideas about how to call out bias so it can’t sit there in the background, subtly undermining our progress. Confronting bias can seem intimidating to many women. It means awkwardness, and making people (including us) feel uncomfortable. But as you heard if you listened to the last show with Raina, causing discomfort is no reason not to call out unfairness when we see it. Aneeta describes how she treads the fine line of her own discomf...
Jun 13, 2022•23 min
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 ta...
May 26, 2022•19 min
This time we're revisiting an episode about working women in the Nordic countries. Scandinavia has a reputation for equality and excellent work/life balance. American women look enviously at these nations as they scrape together a short maternity leave or finish another 10-hour day. But here's the paradox: there are just as few women in powerful roles in Scandinavia as there are in the US. Three women in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark take us behind the scenes to find out why. Hosted on Acast. See ...
May 12, 2022•29 min
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 ...
Apr 20, 2022•33 min•Ep. 191
Business and economics reporter Stacey Vanek Smith has not only reported on the gender pay gap and other workplace discrimination, she’s experienced it firsthand. But it hasn’t put her off the workplace. Far from it. In her book, Machiavelli for Women , she explores how women can thrive in a setting that was not designed for them. In this show - the tenth anniversary episode of The Broad Experience - we focus on a few areas that are rarely discussed, in particular the relationships women have wi...
Mar 31, 2022•28 min
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 ...
Mar 07, 2022•20 min•Ep. 189
Two years into a pandemic many of us are overwhelmed at work, feeling we have little control, and dealing with a lack of support from our organizations. Burnout rates are up all over the world. But they were bad even before Covid-19 came along. So what can we do about it? In this episode we meet three women who know burnout first-hand. Danielle Fried works for a small business that exploded during Covid. It took a health crisis for her to realize she was a frazzle of her former self. Jennifer Mo...
Feb 07, 2022•24 min
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....
Feb 07, 2022•14 min
It's the start of a new year - a time when a lot of us think about changing our lives. In this show we re-visit a conversation with two traditionally successful women who left their old work lives for the unknown. But jumping meant leaving their identities behind as well as their paychecks. Radio journalist Tess Vigeland left her job at the top of her game, and initially wondered if she was nuts to have done so. Whitney Johnson was itching to move away from her comfortable existence at Merrill L...
Jan 04, 2022•28 min
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...
Dec 17, 2021•24 min
In this show we're talking about women getting paid. Two business owners weigh in on how to charge for your services and how to respond to people who ask if they can 'pick your brain.' We tackle a question from a woman who knows she's paid less than the last man who did her job, but asks if she's happy, how much should she care? And we hear from a negotiation expert on how to use the negative voice in your head - the one that says 'you can't ask for that much!' - to help you get what you want. T...
Dec 01, 2021•19 min
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 idea...
Nov 17, 2021•30 min•Ep. 184
Rejection plays a part in everyone's work experience. But women are socialized to seek approval, and as my first guest says, 'rejection is the opposite of that.' In this show I speak to Jessica Bacal, author of The Rejection that Changed My Life, about the sting of rejection and what we can learn from it. We also meet nonprofit leader Amy Campbell Bogie. She talks about two searing rejections she went through, and how to emerge gracefully from what can feel like a slap in the face. Hosted on Aca...
Oct 28, 2021•24 min
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 controll...
Oct 07, 2021•19 min
Nearly all our workplace communication is digital. Gone are the days when faxing seemed like efficient new technology (believe me, it did at one point). Emails, team communication programs like Slack, texting, instant messaging - they’re all convenient and speedy. They can also cause a lot of angst. In this show I sit down with Erica Dhawan , author of the book Digital Body Language, to talk about why digital communication can be so fraught with frustration and anxiety. Is that terse email simpl...
Sep 16, 2021•24 min
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, o...
Aug 31, 2021•23 min
In the last couple of episodes we talked about the transitions working couples go through. In this show we re-meet a former guest, one half of one such couple. Heather McGregor embraced a big career change at 55, going from entrepreneur to academic dean, continuing a period in her life where she's switched from supportive partner to family breadwinner. Heather has always had an eye on the future, planning for what might come next. She believes it's never too late for a career change - if you pre...
Aug 11, 2021•20 min•Ep. 179
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....
Jul 15, 2021•11 min
Books and articles offer career advice or relationship advice. They rarely consider the link between the two. Yet dual-career couples are everywhere, and anyone who's part of one knows your careers can only run in parallel for so long At some point, life is going to get complicated - and not only if you have kids. So how do you make it work? INSEAD professor Jennifer Petriglieri , author of Couples That Work, has spent years researching working couples and learning from their experiences. In thi...
Jul 06, 2021•27 min
This show is all about working with neurodiversity - having a condition such as ADHD, or Asperger’s or anything else that means your brain functions a bit differently from a lot of your colleagues'. Emma Case had always wanted to work in fashion, and she loved it - but at the same time she had trouble with things that seemed totally straightforward to others. It took years to work out why. Emma now runs Women Beyond the Box , a platform that celebrates the successes of neurodiverse women. Michel...
Jun 01, 2021•31 min
In this show we consider the idea that resilience is overrated. When Omolara Thomas Uwemedimo attended medical school she learned to be stoic and to power through. But during her career as a pediatrician and professor, she powered through so much that her body turned on her. She says too many Black women are supporting their workplaces - and everyone else - to the detriment of their health. She wants to change that. Therapist Camesha Jones was a student when she experienced a mental health crisi...
May 07, 2021•24 min•Ep. 175
A lot of workplaces use alcohol as social glue. When Lisa Smith started out as a lawyer in the '90s she spent multiple late nights out drinking with colleagues. But the pressures of work had her drinking at home too, and by the time she was in her thirties she was an alcoholic. In this show we look at women's relationship with alcohol as it intersects with the workplace. By being at the bar Lisa got career opportunities she wouldn't have if she'd stayed at her desk. Today she works with law firm...
Apr 20, 2021•26 min•Ep. 174
The income gap between women is widening fast as well paid, educated women outsource traditionally female tasks to women who earn far less, with little job security. In this episode we meet Alison Wolf, a professor and labor market expert and author of The XX Factor. Then we hear from Jennifer Bernard, a Trinidad-born, New York-based nanny. She describes the unequal work environment that is the home, how she began to gain confidence on the job, and what makes her feel successful. Since this epis...
Apr 05, 2021•23 min•Ep. 173
