Today on the podcast I’m talking with Gugulethu Mhlungu. As a writer, broadcaster and editor, Gugu is a respected voice in South Africa’s media space. In her role as contributing editor for Global Citizen she’s helping to advance the organisation’s vision of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and as editor-in-chief of Careers magazine she’s driving the narrative around young people’s welfare.

Gugu is a media maverick, working in print, radio and on television. In April 2015 she was identified by Marie Claire as one of the women to watch – in recognition of her use of various media platforms to nudge south African discourse towards substantive and thorough journalism – something that in this world of fake news we really need. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies and Anthropology from Rhodes University and a post-graduate diploma in media management.

Gugu is also a writer. Her personal accolades include a National Arts Festival / Business Art SA silver award for feature writing and a Media24 Legends columnist of the year. She was a contributor to Ferial Haffajee’s collection What if there were no whites in South Africa and I was very excited and lucky to publish her essay, Feminism Changed My Life in the Feminism Is collection. In that essay she says:

I love the idea of the shattering of the glass ceiling being the sum of all the women who have tried, and not just the women who finally break through it. It’s a beautiful image of what it takes for things to change, and makes us think of other women’s access as an inheritance that’s passed down from one group to another. It’s the perfect image for my own life.

Luckily Gugu’s interest in ceiling shatterers now benefits us all with the publication of her book You Have Struck A Rock: Women Fighting for their Power in South Africa, which came out this year from Kwela. The book chronicles the very many areas of progress that women in South Africa have led and helped to achieved, and also reminds us of the many more steps we need to reach full equality.

So today I talk to Gugu about women’s power, the importance of acknowledging those on whose shoulders we stand, and what she sees as important ceilings that still need to be shattered.