Women and IT

Catherine developed and delivered a national program to increase the leadership capacity of Australian women in science and IT.The program consists of a series of one-day workshops sponsored by AWISE (Australian women in science and IT entity) and partnered with IBM.

“The program demonstrates our national commitment to upgrade the leadership potential of women,” says Sonja Bernhardt, Chair of AWISE. “Women in science and IT need to develop stronger leadership skills to address the declining interest of women in these areas. We need more women leaders at executive levels. And we need to build the leadership skills of our existing women in IT. We are passionate about these goals.”

The “Passionate Leadership” workshop provides professional development for women to increase their knowledge and skills, develop their leadership capacity and provide networking opportunities. “Passionate Leadership” is aimed at business owners, managers and administrators.

Zonta - The Aging Advantage

The Zonta Club of Brisbane, part of Zonta International (an international business and professional women’s organisation) received a grant from the Australian Federal Government, Office of the Status of Women. The project “The Ageing Advantage: Creating Strategies that Sustain Business and Professional Women” consisted of surveys and interviews relating to women, energy and work.

The primary purpose of the project was to examine strategies that sustain business and professional women throughout their careers. The research began with a simple question: How does a woman’s energy influence what she does at work? This led to a more complex question about motivation in the workplace: What are the consequences of being fired up or burned out in an organisation?

Some of the topics explored in the research include: issues facing women as they age in the workforce; causes, characteristics and symptoms of burnout; positive strategies for women to cope with maintaining work life balance.

Wowen's Leadership in Kuwait

Dr Catherine loves visiting Kuwait. Over the past two years she has been working the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development to deliver training programs.