How Donna Hay battles gender inequality in publishing

"I was just the nerdy little girl that just loved cooking," says Donna Hay.

She's turned that love of cooking into a multimillion-dollar empire employing around 20 staff and producing a magazine, television show and 25 cook books which have sold 6 million copies worldwide.

But looking back on her career as Australia's culinary queen Hay told a Business Chicks lunch in Melbourne on Friday there are some things she would have done differently.

"I just yelled a lot"

"I should have trusted my own instincts a lot more," she says. "I think that comes with age and confidence. I should have been less worried about the gender inequality in my industry and just have done my own thing which is what I do now."

Hay says that gender inequality has been most evident in her relationship with her publishing partner News Corp.

"I'm going to get myself in a bit of trouble now," she says. "You have to jostle for your budgets and you have to justify where you are spending your money and how many staff you need and all that sort of thing. I'm attached to News Corp and it's notoriously lots of men. I've been publishing a magazine for 17 years and it's a lot of push and shove." Read more