Throughout this week, The Central App is celebrating International Women’s Day by featuring one amazing woman from our community each day, highlighting their unique journeys and contributions.

Navigating the "organic" evolution of an editorial career while balancing motherhood was not always a simple path for Paula Wagemaker.

From publishing houses to freelance life, Paula focused on building a career that blended technical skill with deep mentorship. When childcare became a priority in the late 1980s, she shifted to freelancing as "the only way I could see myself... being able to raise [my daughter] and continue my career."

Instead of shrinking from professional challenges, Paula broke new ground by developing New Zealand’s first nationally accredited publishing course.

She reflects on her "determination to take on new ventures within my career, even when feeling very unsure of whether I could pull them off," such as public speaking and running workshops for academic staff.

"In short, I guess I’ve embraced the opportunities that came my way, but I’ve also been fortunate in finding a profession that has suited me so well," she notes.

Paula is candid about the internal hurdles many women face regarding self-worth and finance. She observes that "like many female- and arts-dominated professions, editing, writing and publishing are generally not well paid." This is often compounded by a generational struggle with "self-advocating for a reasonable level of payment," a trait she warns "can hold women back in terms of their own financial wellbeing."

Despite facing personal challenges like divorce and a lifelong orthopaedic disability, she has "essentially kept on keeping on," identifying resilience as the true marker of her life. She views her work as a "giving profession," defined by the "collaborative-conversation" aspect of working with writers. Her advice to others is to value the mentoring component of their work.

 "There is something very satisfying about imparting your own skills and knowledge to others."

In donating her time, Paula says that completing a four-year voluntary history of Gilchrist’s General Store "brought together all the skills I have learned in my career."

The future of Paula’s advocacy centres on social equity and the urgent need for empathy. She remains deeply concerned by the current political climate,

"I feel empathy—the ability to put oneself in other’s shoes—is in the shortest supply it's been in years, and it doubly distresses me that some of the people currently in government exhibiting lack of empathy are women. Which leads me on to equal pay, and our current government’s cancellation of 33 equal-pay claims from female-dominated workforces, which presents as a strong example of what women continue to struggle against."

"I hold with the adage that the measure of a fair society is how well it treats the most vulnerable in it," Paula says.

She believes that as we navigate an uncertain world, the attributes traditionally associated with women should not be sidelined but should instead "form the cornerstones of our societies and governments."