Diane Fingleton discusses her time working in government departments, including Attorney-General Dean Wells' office and later in the Women's Policy Unit.
Ann Scott speaks about the difficulties for women in the public service, including the glass ceiling, tokenism, sexism and work/life balance. She also speaks about changing recruitment policy, the rise of merit/qualifications based hiring, the introduction of equal opportunity measures, and the importance of women's networking.
Ann Scott recalls her appointment as Principal Policy Officer in the Women's Policy Unit in 1990, her subsequent employment in the Public Sector Management Commission and the Social Policy Unit, and the impact of Goss and Rudd's reforms to the ministerial and public service. She highlights the highly interventionist nature of the reforms and the turbulence and difficulty of the time.
Ruth Matchett describes how she returned to social work at the Children's Court, which sparked her interest in juvenile justice. Main achievements were practical changes as the government was not interested in legislative change in this era. She discusses her involvement in the Domestic Violence Taskforce and how this led to a higher public profile and involvement in the development of social policy. In 1989 she was taken 'off-line' to develop the Women's Policy Unit when Beryce Nelson (1989) was the Minister.
