What was it like for women to work in public broadcasting after the war? The anecdote above, shared anonymously by a retired ABC radio producer, gives us an insight into the dilemmas facing women working in broadcasting between the 1940s and 1970s. The traditional paradigm of the dutiful married woman pervaded post-war workplaces, and the ABC was no exception. Despite pursuing a democratic, socially conscious remit, the organization was nevertheless a product of its environment and through its staff manifested conservative social conventions that prioritized male identity and authority. The ABC adopted a paradoxical approach to women in the post-war decades. On the one hand, it allowed ‘exceptional’ female production staff to defy gender conventions and was proud of their ground-breaking programming. (Kay Kinane, Catherine King, Therése Denny and Joyce Belfrage belong to this cohort). On the other, the organization systematically entrenched the sexual division of labour and fostered screen cultures that compromised women's status in public life. In the post-war years, the ABC's female staff were often seen as temporary interlopers, simply on a detour from their predetermined, ‘natural’, domestic duties. For this reason, the bulk of women were forced into pathways that constrained female staff into superficial, supportive roles.