A young Ita and her mother and brother followed a few months later where they eventually moved to New York and her dad worked as New York correspondent for one of the first Australian media barons, one time owner of the Daily Mirror pre Rupert Murdoch, Ezra Norton. Her father, Charles, was a war correspondent in Java in New Guinea and at the end of WW2 he was seconded to work for the Australian Government in news and information in California. She’ll tell you newspapers pumped through her veins as the daughter of a newspaperman. And you’ll find it was more than simply hard work. To work out what makes this incredible woman tick, you have to go back to the beginning. If you want a high-powered career – you’ve got to work for it.” Okay I’ve paved the way, where is everybody else? I’ve paved the way! You’ve got to want it. “I was first as a director at News Ltd, I was first as a director at Consolidated Press. There are not enough women in high positions in media companies either. There are not enough women running businesses. “There are not enough women with their own shows.
Women make up 50 per cent of the population but are represented by a tenth of that in powerful positions in the workplace. Where is everybody else?” she says with a wry smile of that infamous glass ceiling which still shows appalling numbers for women at the top. If we had all followed in her high-achieving footsteps, perhaps the statistics wouldn’t be so grave. So when she laments the current status of women, you can’t help but feel a little guilty that enough troops haven’t rallied to her call to arms, which she trumpeted five decades ago.
Lets face it she’s been inspiring women for generations. This gutsy woman is the ultimate mentor’s mentor, I’m not ashamed to gush. The effect is part Hillary Clinton – part June Dally Watkins. Her regal like stance and razor sharp mind are unparalleled. She can put you in your place by simply cupping her perfectly manicured hand to her chin – centred by that perfectly painted pout in signature Revlon Blasé Apricot (which matches the varnish, of course) – and raising a perfectly arched brow, all the while fixing you with a steely blue-eyed gaze which still manages to twinkle with a hint of a smile. And, impossibly cool as the subject behind her very own rock song, Cold Chisel’s hit, Ita. Instigator of the first male nude centerfold. Inspiration behind an entire mini-series. She is, after all, our very own answer to Oprah. It’s certainly easy to be overwhelmed by the grand dame of media, Ita Buttrose. She is a mother to two children, Kate and Ben, and grandmother to five. A founding member and former president of Chief Executive Women and host of the TEN Network’s Studio Ten, Ita has written 11 successful books including her best-selling autobiography, A Passionate Life. She received an AO for her services to the community especially in the field of public health education when she spearheaded Australia’s HIV/AIDS Education Program, an OBE for her services to journalism, and a Centenary Medal for business leadership. Ita is the current National President of Alzheimer’s Australia, Patron of the Macular Disease Foundation, and Emeritus Director of Arthritis Australia. In 2011, Ita’s early career was the subject of highly acclaimed ABC miniseries Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo, in which actor Asher Keddie portrayed her. Twice-voted Australia’s most admired woman, Ita was the youngest ever and an unprecedentedly successful Editor of The Australian Women’s Weekly, the founding editor of Cleo, the first woman to ever edit a major metropolitan newspaper in Australia as Editor-in-Chief of the Sydney Daily & Sunday Telegraphs, and the first woman director of News Limited. Mentor to many, inspiration to most. Exceptional Australian, media legend, businesswoman, best selling author, community and welfare contributor you need a book, not a paragraph, to introduce Ita Buttrose, AO OBE.
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