Jamila Rizvi - Not Just Lucky

This book would have been absolute rubbish without the care, guidance and wizardry of the team at Penguin Random House in Melbourne. To Cate Blake, this wasnt your biological book baby but you were the best damn adopted parent she could have had. To Louise Ryan, your fierce belief in Not Just Lucky even before youd read a word helped bridge my own confidence gap. To Arwen Summers, you are mighty, magical, and your magnificent editing is a marvel to behold. Thank you also to Sarah Fairhall, Chloe Davies, Jackie Money, Adam Laszczuk and Amanda Martin: your talents and expertise are the reason people who are not my mum might actually buy this book.

To Erin ONeill, your tremendous support during the research phase was tremendous. Let us never again speak of the chapter that became Defining the Double Standard. To Dr Jennifer Stapledon and Dr Catherine McMahon, I so appreciated your time, care and expertise in making sure I didnt lie about science. Its super handy having such clever aunts. To my manager, Tania Petsinis, thank you for putting up with incessant emails, constant worrying and an excess of political ranting may you always vote Labor from this day forward. To Laura Bell, thank you for your painstaking work on the references. And thank you to Gaida Cirulis for generously welcoming me into your home when I had too much left to write and too few days to do it in.

While writing Not Just Lucky I took shameless advantage of the free wi-fi and excellent coffee at cafes in my neighbourhood. I owe a particularly great debt to Claire and Libby at Short Round and to Liam and the baristas/counsellors at Ampersand. To my writing buddy Sari Braithwaite, thank you for listening and laughing with me through the hard bits. Thank you to the women I have worked with who generously allowed me to share stories that were theirs as well as my own. I particularly want to thank those women whose stories appear in the Sexism and Sexual Harassment chapter. Each of you is brave and brilliant; I am so sorry for what you went through.

I have been fortunate to work closely with some tremendous operators in my career. To Kate Ellis, Mia Freedman and Ian Chubb, I will always be grateful for your guidance and mentorship; it was a privilege to learn from you. To my friends and heroes who generously provided quotes of endorsement for Not Just Lucky. It is a deeply unedifying exercise to approach the people you admire most and ask them to say nice things about you. To Julia Gillard, Lisa Wilkinson, Zo Foster Blake, Rosie Waterland and Clementine Ford, thank you for being so kind and, also, so worthy of admiration in the first place.

It takes a village to raise a child and it takes an even bigger village to raise a child while writing a book. To Monica, Mum and Dad, thank you for keeping Rafi entertained while I holed myself away in the study with a laptop. To the Thornbury Family, thank you for park trips, emergency babysitting, BBQs, early morning coffees and late(ish) afternoon beers. To The Mamas, discovering each of you has been one of the unexpected delights of parenthood. Thank you for your unflinching belief in this book. To the women who work so that other women can work, Australia owes you an enormous debt. Thank you specifically to my toddlers early childhood educators and carers: Paige Lindsay, Dimity Kirkwood and India Bailey, you saved the day and my sanity more than a couple of times over the past 12 months. To the staff at Kool Kidz in Preston, youre all glorious. Special thanks goes to Adriana Cosma, Debra Budge and Crystal Beale for cuddling Rafi when I couldnt.

A bundle of love and appreciation goes to my sister, Miriam Rizvi, and dear friend Alys Gagnon who both read hideous early drafts of Not Just Lucky. Thank you for being the very first audience and not laughing at me too much. To my girlfriends Marielle Smith, Lucy Ormonde and Anika Wells, thank you for your support, your humour and the careful consideration you gave the title of this book; its funny how we ended up right back where we started. To The Girls who were my original sisterhood, your forensic analysis of the hand model used on the cover was much appreciated. To Laura Fitzpatrick and Fran Vavallo, your names are here because youre both rad and also because Fran insisted she be included. To Clare Bowditch, I would never have been brave enough to try without your prodding and praise. Now its your turn.

And finally, thank you to my family. I may be relinquishing the right to call myself lucky at work but I most certainly won the lottery of love. To Mum, Dad, Mim, Jeremy and Rafi: you are my everything. Thank you.

In this book there will be generalisations. Im going to say a lot of women feel this and women are expected to behave like that. Generalisations are an intellectual necessity but also an imperfect tool there are always exceptions. So what I say about women will not be the experience of every woman reading. Similarly, there will be men and non-binary people that pick up this book and see themselves in the experiences I describe. After first reading the introduction, my husband commented on how much he identified with the feelings of self-doubt that I wrote about. Lack of confidence isnt the exclusive domain of women.