Zucca Rosa

168 Greville Street, Prahran

Seven days 12pm-10pm; 1300 982 227

Geraldine Doogue doesn't seem like someone who would harbour "seething fury" very often. That smooth and instantly familiar voice of the long-time ABC journalist and broadcaster does not sound like it would vent rage on a frequent basis.

But such was Doogue's anger at the treatment of Julia Gillard when she was Prime Minister - and particularly the now infamous comment by Alan Jones that Gillard's father "died of shame" -that she decided to do something constructive with it. She decided to write a book.

"It's not to say [Gillard] was the best PM that had ever been born, but I thought the lack of courtesy around her was quite breathtaking, particularly the Alan Jones remark," Doogue says.

"I was just gobsmacked that somebody could feel that that was vaguely right. All our conventions around death and dying, around courtesy, around people's feelings, I thought were traduced with that. But what astonished me even more was that the whole conservative establishment didn't find a way to say 'look, we might support Alan in a lot of things, but he's gone too far'."

The book then, is a kind of response to that: not one that pulls apart institutions or looks at systemic sexism, but one that finds women who are succeeding in a range of fields and examines how they did it. The Climb profiles 14 women at the top of their respective professions, including businesswoman Heather Ridout, horse trainer Gai Waterhouse and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

In establishing the framework for the book, Doogue was not particularly interested in the perennial "how do you do it all?" question, she says, in part because that's not her focus right now: at 62, she has raised two children and two stepchildren into adulthood, and is now delighting in grandchildren - a little boy, Sean, to her daughter, and a little girl called Taya to her step-daughter.

So, "I'm not obsessed with that at the moment, because I've done that," she says.

Best known now as the presenter of religion-based program Compass (which she has done since 1998) and the host of Saturday Extra on RN, Sydney-based Doogue is one of the most familiar faces, and voices, on television and radio. She is also, unsurprisingly, excellent lunch company, talking easily and warmly on a range of topics at Prahran's Zucca Rossa, which she chose on the recommendation of friends who live nearby.

She orders the fregola soup and the fish of the day, a trout, while I opt for the arancini followed by a seafood linguini, as we chat about the huge problem that is accessible and affordable childcare, and how Melbourne compares to Sydney. I reckon it's not quite as bad, perhaps, though bad enough, and Doogue agrees - it is something she has been thinking about it a lot lately as her daughter, ABC Weekend Breakfast presenter Eliza Harvey, has struggled to find childcare for her son.

Childcare is, of course, just one of the challenges facing women who are away from their work for a period of time to care for small children. When she had her children at 31 and 41, Doogue had already established herself and, in the modern parlance, built a "brand".

"I was well and truly on my way, and that's where I'm lucky," she says. Nowadays it's perhaps not so easy.

"All I know is, all the young women are all talking about the challenges."

Raised in an Australian-Irish Catholic family in south Perth, Doogue was the only child -something she reflects on with some sadness - of a mother who was a homemaker and a father who ran a successful newsagency, which he eventually expanded to three shops. She was educated by the Mercy nuns, of whom she clearly has fond memories and admires greatly. She says the fact that the nuns were so powerful - big, "gutsy" characters - filled the girls with a sense of ambition. Culturally, though, the messages on girls and their ambitions were a little more complicated.

"It was a 'go for it' mentality, but don't get above yourself," she says.

When she finished school, Doogue's own ambitions were modest, as she puts it: she went to the University of Western Australia to complete an arts degree, with a view to becoming a teacher. But then something strange happened, one of those stories that sounds like a scene from a film.

One day young Geraldine was walking past the offices of The West Australian newspaper, and for reasons even she cannot explain, decided to wander in. She must have impressed those in charge because she had her name tagged into the end of the cadetship interview list.

Looking back, she can see why journalism might have called to her: she greatly respected her uncle John, a deputy chief sub-editor for The West Australian, and was the doted-on only child in a family keenly interested in current affairs, though not particularly political.

She wrote for The West Australian from 1972-74, before travelling to England to work. Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch, published in 1970, had created quite a storm, and although Doogue was not particularly radical, she explains somewhat ruefully, she nonetheless found herself in agreement with much of it.

"The whole idea of women having public and private lives I really bought into," she says.

"We'll only know we've really advanced when average women are perceived to be as competent as average men. And that all made a lot of sense to me."

After four years in England Doogue returned to Australia and was soon approached to join the ABC. At first she was wary, a little "snooty" about broadcasting when papers seemed far more important and powerful. She also, with the help of a voice coach, cultivated that famous speaking voice - so successfully, in fact, that she is now approached for advice by young broadcasters, something she handles with caution:  "I give very careful feedback, because I have seen it go wrong."

She tells young women that there has to be something of a performance in broadcasting, which some of them resist very strongly. "I think you can be entirely authentic, and still perform."

Doogue is also still a church-goer, though not as frequent as she used to be. She sometimes attends a mass with fellow ABC presenter Caroline Jones, but if she doesn't make it, that's OK. "So something's changing, but I want to contribute, more than ever in a way."

When asked if there was anything that surprised her in researching her book, Doogue says that the 14 women weren't as reflective as she had expected. She doesn't mean that critically.

"I think that probably fits very much with leadership types. They know when they've made a mistake, they listen… but after absorbing it, they then move on. They don't wrestle with it."

We talk some more about women sometimes feeling uncomfortable with anger and conflict, and the need to get past that, as well as needing to improve, collectively, how we sell ourselves in the workplace. To talk ourselves up a little, rather than down. To become better at explaining what our "value proposition" is.

Doogue's own ambitions lie in continuing her busy schedule with Saturday Extra and Compass, and perhaps looking at a program that would bring foreign affairs more to the front and centre of Australians' minds. She is also on several boards - the Telstra Foundation, the Sydney Youth Orchestra (she loves orchestral music) and the Grattan Institute.

On a personal level, Doogue spends much time nurturing her friendships (her husband, ABC producer Ian Carroll, died of pancreatic cancer in 2011), and working on her garden, with which she is very pleased and in which she is about to install a swing set for the grandchildren.

As for what she hopes for the next generation of young women, Doogue is quick with an answer. "I'd like more respect - genuine, deep-seated respect - for the extra quality that a woman brings after she has a baby," she says emphatically.

"That amazing transformation… all that you have to manage, the amazing multi-tasking, the sheer management of self let alone this new person."

If that could be harnessed and valued in the workplace, women would benefit enormously. "I think they actually equip them for roles that they've never thought of before."