Dr Elaine Stead said she felt “helpless” when she was being assailed by journalist Joe Aston over her performance as managing director of venture capital at Blue Sky Alternative Investments.

In two articles published in 2019, Aston – in the Rear Window column that runs on the back page of the The Australian Financial Review – said Stead was “another feminist cretin” and a “venture capital pyromaniac” who “set fire to people’s money”.