In a short conversation with the founding member of the Victorian Socialist Party, Liz Walsh discussed why there aren’t more women in politics and the importance of having the ‘right’ women fighting for the rights of the working class woman.
Australian Politics has been described as a ‘man’s world’ with the women who dare to join the political landscape having to face sexual harassment, sexism, misogyny, bullying, a significant pay gap and a lack of opportunity compared to their male counterparts. Dr Lucy Morieson, Political Lecturer at RMIT shares her views on the representation of women in Australian Politics.
The House of Representatives has 57 women, making up 38% of the chamber female, after the latest election, this is the highest proportion of women ever in the lower house. The Senate reached and exceeded 50% female representation in the last parliament and continues to hold this number within the new parliament.
What would it mean to have more women interested and involved in Australian politics and why is female representation important?
Why is it important for women to understand and be empowered by politics?
The latest election brought a change in government from Liberal to Labor, who have a compulsory gender and diversity quota. An opposing change to our previous governments’ stance on gender inequality in Politics. On International Women’s Day in 2019, party leader and Prime Minister, Scott Morrison said, “we don’t want to see women rise only on the basis of others doing worse.”
So are quotas a good or bad thing? It seems that Australian political parties are divided yet as of 2021, gender and diversity quotas have been adopted by 132 countries.
In the most recent Australian election, more women ran for seats as independents than in the larger parties. Use Monique Ryan for example, she ran against (at the time) treasurer Josh Frydenberg, for the Kooyong seat and won! So why is it more appealing for women to run independently rather than with the support of the major parties?
Since women first entered the Australian parliament in 1943, there have been political scandals and reports surrounding the treatment of women in parliament. Australia’s first and so far, only female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard is a great example of a woman who faced scandal, criticism and sexism consistently throughout her time in parliament. One of Gillard’s most infamous moments was her ‘misogyny’ speech, where she stood up and defended her right as a woman in parliament against the opposition leader, Tony Abbot. “If he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn’t need a motion in the House of Representatives, he needs a mirror.”
This graph from the Parliament of Australia’s website shows the percentage of women in the Australian parliament.
It is important to note that the number of women in parliament is increasing as more women become politically active. What is being done currently to make politics more accessible for women?
Although the numbers are increasing, many of the dips in the graph above can be traced back to political scandals, which discouraged women from being politically active. One of the larger political scandals of the past few years is the Brittany Higgins sexual assault case against Bruce Lehrmann which is still awaiting a trial and verdict.
The way the media portrays female politicians compared to their male counterparts is a major issue and feeds into the way women are viewed in the political landscape. Women in politics are often highly scrutinised by the press. Why do we view women and men in similar roles so differently?
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