Yesteryear: is this viral novel’s time travelling tradwife really ‘perfect at being alive’?
Cottonbro/Pexels Rachel Williamson Lecturer in English, University of Canterbury The film rights for Caro Claire Burke’s buzzy debut novel were sold to Amazon MGM Studios before publication. Adaptation plans are well underway, with Anne Hathaway, cited in the acknowledgements as “instrumental in bringing Natalie to life”, set to star and produce. […]
Profile: Kamales Lardi, Lardi & Partner Consulting
Kamales Lardi, CEO of Lardi & Partner Consulting, is ranked #11 in the Thinkers360 Top 150 Women B2B Thought Leaders 2026. With 26 years in tech advisory and 14 years leading a global AI transformation consultancy, Lardi helps Fortune 500 companies in financial services, manufacturing, and retail build the leadership […]
International Women’s Day 2026: Give to Gain
On International Women’s Day 2026, the message is clear. By giving time, experience, and encouragement to others, leaders not only help individuals grow, but they also gain new insights, stronger collaboration, and a more resilient industry. Each year on March 8, the global community recognises International Women’s Day as a […]
Staying plugged into the pulse of real life
Anna Wintour Anna’s early career at New York Magazine cemented her belief that great editors must stay immersed in real life. “Working at New York Magazine was thrilling,” she says. “I was surrounded by people who had absolutely no interest in fashion—and that was wonderful. They made me think about art, film, […]
Having It All: What Data Tells Us About Women’s Lives and Getting the Most Out of Yours
by Corinne Low PhD You’re not imagining it: Women aren’t getting a good deal at home or at work. There is evidence to prove it. This book gives you the power to change it. For women, the promise of “having it all” is an ever-elusive carrot. Faced with unsustainable demands […]
Bag Man: The Story Behind the Improbable Rise of Coach
by Lew Frankfort The longtime CEO of Coach shares stories and strategies behind the company’s stunning growth from a $6 million business to a $5 billion global brand. Lew Frankfort knew nothing about fashion when he became assistant to the founder of Coach. By the time he left, Frankfort had […]
China is empowering women and advancing ‘her power’
Thirty years ago, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, set the world on a new course, establishing strategic objectives and actions to advance women and achieve gender equality. On October 13 and 14 in Beijing, the Global Leaders’ Meeting […]
Funding HQ launches FundED: A game-changer for school fundraising in Aotearoa
Funding HQ, one of Aotearoa’s fastest-growing e-learning fundraising platforms, is proud to announce the launch of FundED—a new subscription-based programme designed specifically for the education sector. Created in direct response to growing demand, FundED equips schools with the tools, training, and expert support they need to build long-term, sustainable fundraising […]
Flexible work isn’t the fix: Women in tech still facing caregiving penalties
Women in Digital’s Annual Report reveals many women are being slowed down mid-career – often when they start families – despite more flexibility There is a growing disconnect between workplace flexibility and career progression for women working in the tech sector, Women in Digital’s (WiD) 2025 Report: Driving Change in Tech report […]
Leading from the inside out: Why clarity, impact and focus matter more than ever
-Deb Bailey, Coach, Facilitator, Speaker, Author When I stepped away from my global executive role at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do next, only that I didn’t want more of the same. I created space by completing an MBA, and by the […]
Operationalising AI for manufacturing in ASEAN
Karen Kim, CEO Human Managed While the hype around Gen-AI will shift to the buzz around agentic-AI in 2025, traditional sectors such as manufacturing will still be coming to terms on deploying AI strategies to become participants of Industry 4.0 or the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This is the next […]
How women can steer toward growing industries and companies
To build up their experience capital, women can pick the occupations, industries, and geographies that present the best opportunities to enhance their careers. Workplaces are full of talented, educated, and hardworking women. Many are caught off guard when, several years into their careers, they see that they are falling behind their […]
Yesteryear: is this viral novel’s time travelling tradwife really ‘perfect at being alive’?
Cottonbro/Pexels Rachel Williamson Lecturer in English, University of Canterbury The film rights for Caro Claire Burke’s buzzy debut novel were sold to Amazon MGM Studios before publication. Adaptation plans are well underway, with Anne Hathaway, cited in the acknowledgements as “instrumental in bringing Natalie to life”, set to star and produce. Yesteryear follows self-professed “flawless Christian woman” and tradwife influencer Natalie Heller Mills, who wakes up one morning to find herself mysteriously transported back in time to 1855 pioneer America. The house and children look similar to her own, but something is off. Her top-of-the-line kitchen appliances have vanished, her husband Caleb treats her with barely contained simmering violence, and the food tastes awful. Part satire, part dystopian horror, Yesteryear shifts between this uncanny version of the past and the present-day. Is this time travel, Natalie wonders. A reality TV show? Or maybe even a test of faith set by God Almighty himself? Unsurprisingly, the book’s sensational premise combined with its zeitgeisty topic, has generated hype and anticipation, including praise from both BookTokkers and critics. Hathaway has lent her star power to the book’s marketing campaign, posting glossy videos of herself unwrapping and reading from it. This leveraging of social media celebrity seems particularly apt, given Burke’s interest in womanhood, performance and fame within the queasy and hypocritical world of Instagram tradwives. Yesteryear is her thought experiment into what happens when we push the tradwife phenomenon to its seemingly inevitable, deeply unsettling conclusion. Caro Claire Burke. Aistė Saulytė/Penguin Random House ‘America hates women’ The word “tradwife” first appears in the opening pages, when Natalie’s teenage daughter asks what it means. A combination of “traditional” and “wife”, the tradwife is a hyperfeminised retrograde social figure, embracing a 1950s aesthetic and return to traditional gender roles. She is a loving wife and doting stay-at-home mum. She bakes her own bread, preserves […]