Julia Baird (journalist)


Julia Woodlands Baird is an Australian political journalist, television commentator and writer from Sydney.

Early life and education

Baird was born in Sydney, the middle child of politician Bruce Baird and his wife Judith. Her older brother, Mike, later became the Premier of New South Wales. The family lived in Rye, New York, in the 1970s while her father was Australian Trade Commissioner. After they returned to Australia in 1980, Baird attended Ravenswood School for Girls.
Baird was awarded a PhD in history from the University of Sydney in 2001. Her thesis was on women in politics. In 2005, she was a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University researching the globalisation of American opinion in the lead up to the Iraq War. Baird was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree on 16 March 2018 by the University of Divinity.

Career

Baird began her career in journalism with The Sydney Morning Herald in 1998. By 2000, she was editor of the opinion pages. She was a campaigner for women in the Sydney diocese of the Anglican church. She also worked as a religious commentator for Triple J and as a freelancer for ABC Radio. Her first book, Media Tarts: How the Australian Press Frames Female Politicians was published in 2004.
In 2006, Baird became deputy editor at Newsweek in New York City, working there until it ceased print publication in 2012. She also wrote for The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times. She has written about gender and politics covering, for example, misogyny in Australian politics and transgender soldiers in the American military. More recently she has written about Donald Trump's political strategy. Baird has also written about religious topics.
In 2016, Baird published with Random House a biography of Queen Victoria. She returned to Australia and hosts The Drum, a current affairs television show.

Personal life

Baird has two children. In 2015, she revealed in a New York Times column that she was recovering from surgery for cancer. In a press conference on 19 January 2017, her brother revealed that Baird's cancer had recurred.