'No glass ceiling' in Mount Magnet, with majority of leadership jobs held by women in town

Almost every leadership job in Mount Magnet is held by a woman.  (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)

Rural Australia has more men than women but in one outback town in Western Australia women are dominating leadership roles.

Mount Magnet, about 600 kilometres north of Perth in WA’s Murchison region, is a hotspot for mining and pastoral industries.

But it has also become a hub for women who work in senior job roles, such as business management.

When Tralee Cable left school she thought her life would revolve around being a stay at home mum rather than working in an office.

But when life took a different course Ms Cable found herself in jobs which gave her a taste for leadership.

Now in her second year as the Shire of Mount Magnet’s first female chief executive officer, she said there was a strong supportive network in the humble town.

According to ABS census data, the Mount Magnet population is almost a 50:50 split of men and women, but Ms Cable noticed almost every senior job in town was occupied by a woman, with even the majority of councillors being female.

“It’s not unusual because we all have something to contribute,” she said.

“What is unusual is there’s no glass ceiling out here, and that’s not what we all expect of a small country town in regional Western Australia.”

Breaking down barriers

Mount Magnet police officer in charge (OIC), Rachel Quinn, moved to the town with her wife almost a year ago when the opportunity to run a station presented itself.

Ms Quinn said she had always been career driven and never saw gender as a barrier that would impact her journey.

“Yes [the police force] is a very male dominated industry and a lot of OICs are male,” she said.

“But that’s not really something that I looked at in my own aspirations — I never paid attention to if it was male or female dominated.”

Although a lover of regional towns, Ms Quinn said she was nervous before coming to Mount Magnet.

“I’d probably be lying if I said I wasn’t initially concerned, I wasn’t sure how they’d receive us as a couple,” she said.

“But it’s been fantastic, we’ve felt accepted from the time we got here.”

Badimaya woman, Polly Dann, also said she was career oriented her whole life.

Ms Dann became the Bidi Bidi Centrecare programs coordinator after realising there hadn’t been an Aboriginal coordinator for a long time.

“The big difference is that this is my country so I’m the nanna, aunty, sister and I hold a level of respect,” she said.

When asked how she felt about the amount of women in leadership roles in town, Ms Dann said she felt proud because it wasn’t something she saw often.

“There’s so many of us and it’s pretty awesome to be in a town that’s led by women.”

Cracking into country towns

Stacy Burges recently took over the Mount Magnet post office after working in the shire office, but her roots are in Perth.

She said that at first, moving from a major city felt daunting but her experience had been the opposite of isolating.

“They’ve been really accepting, it’s a great small town to live in,” she said.

“Especially being a new owner and not having a background in business, it’s nice to know you’ve got the town behind you.”

Jennie McGowan moved to the small country town almost two months ago to work as the community paramedic with aspirations of staying in the outback.

Ms McGowan also believed women added a different dynamic to not only paramedicine but also country towns.

“I’d like to see more women come into these kinds of roles as I think they bring a really unique perspective,” she said.

“Especially in place like Magnet, where most of my volunteers are women, it’s quite a sisterhood that happens.

“Sometimes small towns can be isolating but if you put in the effort you can make a new community and become close quite quickly.”