During a year in Sydney in 1976 as a contract sitcom writer with the ABC, McLeod worked on a comedy series with feminist themes, Who Do You Think You Are.

On her return to New Zealand she worked as script editor for Joe and Koro, also devising an early TVNZ sitcom called All Things Being Equal.

Her work for New Zealand publications included investigative and long-form journalism for the monthly magazine North & South, for which she was five times named Qantas Feature Writer of the Year.

She is a longstanding opinion writer for Stuff, one of New Zealand's leading news websites, with her weekly column also being published in the Dominion Post, The Press, The Waikato Times and The Timaru Herald.

[4] The publication of her second book, With Bold Needle and Thread, was marked by her collection being shown in museums and art galleries around New Zealand.