Tracy Grimshaw has opened up to Ray Hadley about the sexist advice she was given at the beginning of her broadcasting career.
Grimshaw, who has hosted A Current Affair for over fifteen years and has become one of the most famous Australian faces in broadcasting, opened up to the radio host about the advice she got when she started out.
News.com.au reported that she said: “Cameramen are quite brutal, quite blunt. They certainly don’t pull any punches.
“This guy said to me, ‘You should marry that rich boyfriend that you’ve got because you’re not going to have a long career because you certainly won’t be here when you’re 40,” she told Hadley.
However, at the time, Grimshaw figured she’d have stopped working by then anyway; she explained: “I’m 21 years old, and I am thinking, ‘Well, 40 is pretty ancient … I want to be out the door when I’m 40, I reckon.’ And then I kind of liked it.”
Perhaps what is most revealing about Grimshaw’s story is not just how men at the time didn’t think women could have a career post-40, but also how women at the time didn’t see that as an option for themselves either.
Grimshaw is currently sixty-two years old and hosts one of the most watched current affairs shows in Australia, and she is the one choosing to step away.
Her career has become proof of progression, and it is heartening to see that advice proved completely unhelpful and irrelevant.
