‘Every wrinkle is celebrated’: The women using age to their career advantage

My baby was just a few hours old when I placed her in the bassinet by my bed and began furiously pitching story ideas to editors. I was exhausted, but more than that I was petrified that any time away from my desk would sound the death knell for my freelance career. I carried on until my husband first packed away my laptop, and then my phone, gently reminding me that women take career breaks all the time. He isn’t wrong; a survey from Hays found that 64 per cent of female workers across Australia and New Zealand reported having taken a break at some point.

There’s no denying there are many challenges facing women who choose to take significant time away from their careers.Credit: Irina Polonina / Stocksy United

But there’s no denying there are many challenges facing women who choose to take significant time away from their careers, explains business and career coach Holly Garber. “There’s obviously the financial impact – not just earning a day-to-day wage, but the long-term implications of not contributing to super during that time away,” she says. “Then there’s the impact around skill progression and role relevance, which can hinder potential opportunities and quash confidence when the time comes to re-enter the workforce.”

Taking time to upskill, reconnect with industry contacts and seek out others with similar trajectories can help make things a little easier, but Garber insists it’s just as important to address the reallocation of labour within the household once a parent returns to work. “Just because you were the primary caregiver for all those years doesn’t automatically mean that should continue to rest on your shoulders if there are two working parents in the household.”

Here, three women discuss how they negotiated a return to their chosen career after a lengthy absence.

“There’s a diversity that didn’t exist in my heyday”

Lisa Rutledge, 64, Model

“By the time I reached my late 20s I was considered ancient and the work started drying up.”Credit: Steven Murray

“I was not one of those girls who dreamt of seeing her name in lights; I was just a dead-end kid whose parents didn’t know what to do with their high school dropout. My dad insisted I see a casting agent just to give me something to do, and they insisted I make an appointment with a top modelling agency, Vivien’s. Much to my surprise, I was snapped up right away, moving to New York for John Casablancas at Elite Models within the year to become a top name in the modelling world. I was just 19.

New York in the ’80s was a wild time. I walked the runways of every major designer across Europe as well as during New York Fashion Week. I appeared on covers, in editorials and campaigns with iconic photographers such as Peter Lindbergh, Helmut Newton and Arthur Elgort, and had an exclusive contract with Calvin Klein. I remember working with Brooke Shields, who was 12 at the time and had all these Barbie dolls backstage with her. Of course, by the time I reached my late 20s I was considered ancient and the work started drying up.

I didn’t know what else to do at first, but eventually I started my own boutique photography business, which I continued for a further 10 years in Los Angeles, then in Sydney once I moved back in 2010. I’d noticed there was a demand to see older women on the runway and in campaigns. Many mature-age models were booked for Paris Fashion Week and that got me wondering whether I could jump on the wagon. I went to see the team at Primary Management and, just like that, over 30 years after I left the industry, I found myself with immediate bookings to walk at Australian Fashion Week.

It’s still early days in my return, but not only can I see the progress that has been made within the industry, there’s a diversity that didn’t exist in my heyday, and it almost feels like we’ve come to a point where every wrinkle and sunspot is celebrated. On a personal level, I feel like I’m having even more fun the second time around because of the gratitude I have meeting all of these amazing creative people.

“Forty years after my first TV job, I’ve come full circle”

Susan Elliott, 60, TV presenter

“Trying to balance my job and a young family was a challenge.”

“I was only two years out of uni when I landed a gig as a news reporter for the Golden West Network in Bunbury, Western Australia. I soon found out the job also included TV news reading! Not only was I terrible at it, I had the worst hair you’ve ever seen (to be fair, it was the early ’80s), but despite those limitations I had my sights set on making it big in Sydney.

Every month I’d do a show reel and send it to news directors until I got so tired of being ignored I quit my job, flew to Sydney and lobbed uninvited at Channel 7 studios in Epping. Maybe he was sick to death of me, but after 10 minutes, news director Phil Davies gave me a job. I was a news reporter for the network for many years, and at the same time began working as a presenter for the Seven’s new travel show, Sydney Weekender.

Working on Sydney Weekender was both a joy and a challenge. I never went to a single location I wasn’t absolutely thrilled to be at. When it was time to start a family, I “retired myself” for a couple of years before returning with my children in tow. They were often seconded as talent (aka “rent-a-crowd”) and together we shared the most extraordinary experiences – from whale watching to behind-the-scenes wildlife encounters at zoos, parks, staying at fabulous kid-friendly resorts and exploring unique locations.

Trying to balance my job and a young family, however, was a challenge and after seven fun years presenting I moved to the other side of the camera and worked as Mike Whitney’s producer for seven more years, which suited my family lifestyle a little better.

My move into freelance travel writing came after Sydney Weekender was axed at the start of COVID. I pitched a couple of editors and commissions began rolling in. Funnily enough, it was my work as a travel writer that has scored me my new role – back on television as a presenter on Travel Oz.

I was in Palau to write a feature story when I bumped into an old colleague from the Seven newsroom, Greg Grainger, who was filming for his show. He said he loved my positive energy and asked me to come on board. Signing my contract and filming my first segment wasn’t a bad way to spend my 60th birthday.

I’m pinching myself that 40 years after my first TV job, I’ve come full circuit. It wasn’t all that long ago that women were seen as less desirable for TV once they neared 40 – in some cases younger – but I think viewers love to see presenters who have plenty of life experience behind them and are authentic and passionate about what they know. ”

“I fretted that I was going to become unemployable”

Rebecca Sullivan, 51, Executive manager

“The juggle, and struggle, of trying to balance work with two young children hit me like a ton of bricks.”

“When I first fell pregnant with my eldest in 2002, I was terrified to apply for maternity leave. Until that point my career trajectory in the world of banking and finance had been wonderful. I’d completed both an undergraduate program and an MBA, and for years I’d thrived in project management, execution and delivery. Not only did it take me some time to make peace with taking a year off, but once Emma was born, I soon realised I couldn’t project manage a baby. I came back to work for a little over a year before I went on maternity leave again to have my younger daughter, Rach.

The juggle, and struggle, of trying to balance work with two young children hit me like a ton of bricks. Even though I worked for an organisation that embraced families, and I had the most supportive boss in the world, I felt the pressure I was placing on myself to be doing hours that didn’t marry up too well with daycare centre hours. I lost count of the number of times I had to throw a Vegemite sandwich over the back seat at the end of the day.

When my husband was offered a position in Malaysia, it felt like an opportunity to jump off the treadmill for a while, which I appreciate is a huge privilege. I didn’t know how long I’d be away from the workforce when I resigned, but we ended up living in Malaysia for three years, then India for another two and a half years.

The break was great from a family perspective, but the longer I was off, the more I fretted that I was going to become unemployable. I felt in my heart that I was losing my confidence at a greater rate than I was losing capability. Volunteering with various organisations helped, and when we came back to Australia in 2011, I kept my hand in the game with every permutation of part-time work imaginable within my industry.

The corporate world changed after COVID, and banking was no different. By 2020, I was able to go back to full-time employment with the same employer and found it to be a very different environment. We’re more flexible about remote work, and more companies are focused on inclusion and diversity and more conscious about what they say. Good leaders help good people find the right balance for everyone. I cannot stress just how important this is, and what a difference this ultimately makes.”

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