By KATY GALLAGHER
The rough and tumble of public life is something that all public figures, including myself, need to deal with on a daily basis, but the criticism and general disrespect that displayed towards the Prime Minister of our nation over past weeks can only be described as a new low in public discourse.
One of the greatest features of our society is the fact that young women can aspire to high public office and make their mark on the world in the same fashion as men. I constantly meet young women who tell me of their hopes and dreams and this sometimes even includes political aspirations.
Meeting aspiring female Prime Ministers or Chief Ministers is always encouraging, but it is worrying that debates like the ones we have witnessed in recent weeks and months, about the gender divide, could dampen the aspirations of young women.
It would be entirely reasonable for women to think twice about getting involved in politics particularly when your gender, your sexuality, your marital status or even your reproductive status is considered fair game and could be routinely served back to you or, as has been in the Prime Minister’s case, served up to the entire Australian community on a platter to feed over and dissect.
I’ve had my fair share of both overt and subliminal sexism in my working life, most women have. But I have never had to endure the nastiness, the sexism, or the deep intrusion into the most personal aspects of my life that the Prime Minister has had to endure.
These attacks haven’t come out of the blue. Over the past three years the simmering undercurrent of sexism has gradually seeped into public life and into accepted national dialogue. Last week it peaked and spilled over in an out of control, ugly and pathetic way that shocked the majority of Australians.
It’s because of where we find ourselves today that the call for the next generation of women politicians has become even more urgent. Instead of putting young women off, the current political climate should fuel the desire for female engagement and improve our understanding of why it’s important to have women not only involved in political life but as leaders of it.
A male only Australian Labor Party (ALP) caucus is what initially motivated me to put my hand up as an ALP candidate back in 2000.
In one election, and with a strong female campaign resulting in a strong female vote, the ACT Legislative Assembly went from 11.7% female representation to 41%.
To be successful parliaments must be representative of the communities they are elected to serve.
Women constitute approximately 50% of the Australian population yet only constitute 24.7% of current House of Representative seats.
The reality is we need more women politicians not less. We need to make sure that female Prime Minister’s are not novel, that gender balance within cabinet is normal, that female leaders of political parties happen as often as men and that female representation within our political organisations at a minimum equals that of the men.
Future female leaders will not have to endure what Prime Minister Gillard has because she has taken on the full force of the attacks to the point that most reasonable people believe that the attacks on her and the office she holds have gone way too far.
There’s is only one way up from here.
Would you ever get involved in politics? Would you support your daughter if she wanted to get involved?
Top Comments
We have waaaay to many politicians as it is.
Our political system is ineffective, suffocatingly expensive, and deathly in terms of having people develop a true sense of independence and community spirit.
If our small business did not hand over quite so much tax every quarter (more than $110,000 every quarter! As much in a quarter as our own annual income for the stress and pressure of running the business!!) we would be able to: train and develop more young people; offer much better services at far lower prices; dramatically improve our workspace for the good of our clients and our employees alike.
We would also: provide even more support to local sporting clubs and charities; invest further in our local community; look further afield in terms of increasing our regular donations to overseas areas of strife.
Of course we would also: have a better quality of life ourselves. We may look at investing and growing in business, once our business debts were finally paid off.
Alas, we must support our politicians and their ill-thought-out brain re-election schemes (pork barrelling). Let's cut the size of our public service down by one third. It'd be inspiring to see what we could do as a country!
I think the 'big' issue is that Jules is a LEFT-WING female pollie.
The Lefties didn't spare Margaret Thatcher. And they're not polite, or even decent, to Gina Rinehart either.
As usual, the Left claims a very dubious 'moral high ground'.
ps Margaret did it better.