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Unfortunately, the woman from Wabash (whose name is now lost to
history) was one of those paying attention, and she didn't like what
she saw one bit. The leader of a tiny religious group called Women
Aglow, she strongly objected to Sassy's sex education content.
On its own, Women Aglow could not do much harm. But it soon co-opted to
its cause a much more powerful religious group called Focus on the
Family Citizen, which threatened a national boycott of Sassy's
advertisers.
"Within a week we lost our five largest advertisers," Yates remembers.
"The kids loved (Sassy) but... it was very dependent on advertising
revenue and so the loss of those advertisers was just a killer blow."
Yates hung on for another year, but eventually Matilda's bankers
decided the magazine's future depended on it having an American
publisher. Yates's contract was bought out and suddenly her New York
dream was over.
"On the day I left Matilda the woman who started the whole thing, the
woman from Wabash, rang to say that she was very sorry I was leaving,"
Yates says.
"She said she didn't mean that to happen, she just wanted me to do what she said."
Feminism to me was always about choices and I think we've got to be
respectful of all the choices women make I could have killed her."
And then she laughs, Ioudly and genuinely. Although losing Sassy,
losing New York, was a bitter blow, she has moved on and it is with
only detached regret that she notes Sassy finally closed down earlier
this year.
"It was subsequently bought by competitors and dumbed-down and turned
into a copy of everything else, which was a great pity," she says.
"But that's life and I'm not one to sit around lashing myself into a
frenzy about things like that." Predictably, when Yates and her family
arrived back in Sydney on New Year's Eve, 1990, they were greeted by "a
fair amount of sneering, the I-told-you-sos, as the tall poppy syndrome
manifested itself."
But anyone who had done battle with Women Aglow was not likely to let
that bother them and Yates soon stepped into a plum job as
second-in-command of Time Australia magazine.
Since leaving two years ago, frustrated after being passed over for the
number one spot and looking for new challenges outside publishing, she
has begun to carve a new role for herself as a professional director.
In addition to her current boards, once the federal election is over,
she plans to expand her list of non executive directorships into the
commercial sector, listing publishing, retailing, and marketing among
her areas of particular interest and expertise.
But the election is far from over and with Saatchi handling the federal Labor Party account, Yates is up to her ears in it.
"I've always had a very strong sense of social justice and ... I really
wanted that business, for personal as well as professional reasons,"
she says. "I think that if you do have a commitment to social justice
it's the only party to really throw your energies into."
She is also concerned with what she perceives as regressive attitudes towards women in the Coalition Government.
"I am apprehensive about this push to try and force women back home. It's not the answer."
"Feminism to me was always about choices and I think we've got to be respectful of all the choices women make."
Yates says that during their lives most women will at times choose to stay at home and at other times choose to go out to work.
"But they ought to be just that, a choice, not something you have to do
because you've got no option." And the "feminist Mafia" tag? "I don't
know what that means," Yates says. "It's usually blokes who say that
kind of thing, and it's not meant kindly. And it's a pity.
"I reiterate: I am a feminist, because I believe in social justice for
women. I'm sorry if that makes me some sort of Mafia It's unfortunate
that people think they can be unkind by saying stuff like that.
"In my experience most senior women in business have had pretty tough
times to get there. And they've earned the right to be treated with
some respect."
None more so than Yates herself.
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