Forging a career in a male-dominated world: Temple Grandin at MBW Sydney event

She has a dozen books and more than 60 scientific papers to her name, has been named by Time magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people and has even had a film made of her life.

Dr Grandin, who today works as a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, is also a well-known advocate for autism. She says her autism gave her a unique ability to understand how animals view the world.

Dr Grandin was a guest speaker at the 2022 Meat Business Women conference in Sydney last week.

Hosted by the Australian Meat Industry Council, the day marked the return of in-person MBW events in Australia after a three-year hiatus due to COVID and was a sell-out with more than 200 people on hand.

Dr Grandin joined via video link, telling the audience being a woman was more of a disability than autism in the early days of her career.

In the early 1970s, she said, there were no women out in the yards with cattle at processing plants or feedlots.

"Where I got into trouble was not with the people working out there with the cattle or the big bosses but from middle management," she said.

"I did get kicked out of places just because I was a woman."

How did she make ground under those sort of circumstances?

"Make yourself very good at what you do - and then write about it," Dr Grandin said.

"I learned to sell my work, to show off my drawings. Women were working as reporters then, so I wrote articles and that really helped my career."

Her other tip: Always have more than one project on the go so if you hit a dead end with one, you have something else to work on.

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This year's MBW conference was facilitated by Olympian Giaan Rooney and along with Dr Grandin, delegates heard from the president of Australian Women in Agriculture Natalie Sommerville, the 2022 SA AgriFutures Rural Women's Award Winner Robyn Verrall and the head of strategy and transformation at Coles Harriet Mellish.

MBW founder and global chair Laura Ryan also provided an update on the movement.

Meat Business Women Australia chair Stacey Mckenna said events like the conference were so important to promote and celebrate the women within the meat industry, but also to build strong networks and develop the image, culture and landscape of the meat industry to make it more attractive to female talent.

"As we know, a diverse industry is a healthy and prosperous industry," she said.

Dr Grandin really engaged with the audience on a personal level, Ms Mckenna said.

"The interview and Q&A really highlighted her expertise as an industry leader as she shared her insights and candid thoughts on being a woman in a male dominated industry," she said.

Dr Grandin said despite the length of time she had been working on humane animal handling, she still needed to reiterate the basics all the time.

"Cattle are afraid of a lot of things we wouldn't even notice - like shadows, some little light on the side of a door, a paper cup on the ground, a shaking handle," she said.

"They notice stuff we don't. If you handle them nice and calm, and bring them up slow, they'll show you what it is they're afraid of."