“All the men in Parliament cannot represent one woman as adequately as one woman can represent all women”
– Vida Goldstein, suffragette and one of the first female political candidates in Australia
In Australian democracy, we vote for candidates to represent us in Parliament and govern on our behalf. However, the representation of women in Australian politics does not reflect the statistics of Australia. There are more women than men in our nation (98.4 males per 100 females as of 30th June 2018 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics), but there are not more women than men in Australian parliament. In fact, there has never been more women than men in Australian Federal parliament.
Source: United Nations
If we look at how Australia compares to the rest of the world with gender equality in politics, it’s clear that female representation is minimal in politics globally. Australia ranks equal 48th with Angola and Peru for the percentage of women in parliament. We rank equal 90th with Cabo Verde, Paraguay and Samoa for percentage of women in ministerial positions.
Whilst Australia does ranks higher than many other countries globally, we fall behind countries such as Namibia, Rwanda, Nicaruaga and Senegal which are comparatively less developed nations. This is a sign that we are behind the times with gender representation in federal politics.
Delving into the statistics of gender representation in Australian Federal Parliament, it’s clear that the Senate is where women are best represented. Since 1943, there has always been at least 1 women in the Senate. Comparatively, from 1953-1965, the House of Representatives was 100% male. This is the longest stretch without females sitting in House of Representatives since 1943, however in 1970-1973 and 1976-1979 there were also no women sitting in the House of Representatives.
From 1997-1999 the Senate was nearly 50/50 men and women, with 51% men and 49% women. As of 30th July 2019, half of the Australian Senators are women – a first for Australian politics.
The House of Representatives is much further from equal representation. As of July 2019, 30% of the lower house are women. The closest the House of Representatives was to 50/50 gender representation was 66% men and 34% women in 1998.
The data suggests that the lower house will continue with the trend of 30% women sitting in Parliament, as even having a female Prime Minister from 2010-2013 did not correlate to an increase in representation of women in the lower house; the ratio of men to women has stayed in the 70:30 range since this time.
Featured Image: “Australia Parliament House Entrance at Dusk-1”by Sheba_Also 43,000 photos is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
