International Women's Day celebrated with Women Inspiring Better Business breakfast in Geraldton

A woman helping lead a mega-science project in our own backyard, attempting to solve some of the universe’s biggest mysteries, has shared her story at a breakfast in Geraldton for International Women’s Day.

Friday’s breakfast championed the triumphs and success of women in the Mid West as part of an annual tradition for the group Women Inspiring Better Business.

Hosted at Geraldton Grammar School, the spotlight was on Angela Teale as the keynote speaker. Ms Teale is the head of engineering operations for the Square Kilometer Array project, which has the potential to solve some of the universe’s biggest mysteries, and of which a crucial part is based in WA’s Murchison outback.

Only the day before, Ms Teale was out in the Murchison to help mark an important milestone for the telescope project — the installation of the first of more than 130,000 antennae.

Coming from a small town in Iowa, US, with a population of less than 900, Ms Teale began her career in the air force and was given two options.

“You can either be a flight nurse, or you can talk to astronauts,” she said.

Now with a degree in business and aeronautics, it might be obvious which option Ms Teale chose.

“As a young girl, I didn’t think this was a possibility as a career, but I just kept taking it on and pushing for that next step,” she said.

Ms Teale describes her success as something that came gradually, but not without consistent determination.

“I was terrible in the beginning, but I worked really hard,” she said.

Ms Teale is a mother and a wife, modelling the balance of real life and the need to take a step back on occasion.

“Sometimes you’ll be strong at work, or strong at home. I have an amazing network around me. It’s important to have people who surround you and lift you up,” she said.

“We can do it all, but we do it with the support of those around us, and supporting those around us.”

Ms Teale said the best way to foster a sense of empowerment for girls in science, technology, engineering and maths was to encourage any signs of interest.

She used the anecdote of her own daughter, a Year 2 student who recently expressed a mission to build the Square Kilometre Array Observeratory telescope on a video game, so Ms Teale built the telescope on Minecraft.

On the horizon for Ms Teale is a PhD, using the technology that will be available once the SKAO project is complete.

GGS principal Neesha Flint also spoke at the event about the importance of education in a woman’s life, and the liberation experienced as a result.

Ms Flint shared her own story, of pursuing tertiary education, and how doing so went against the cultural grain, with her parents seen as outliers for having a daughter in university.

“It gives you independence, it gives you courage, and it gives you the option to leave if you ever need to make that decision,” she told the networking breakfast.