Two of the government’s most powerful female cabinet ministers, Michaelia Cash and Julie Bishop, have both rejected the feminist label in recent times.
Cash declared in 2014 while serving under the Abbott government, that she was not one to “really associate with that movement.” And that it was based on “a set of ideologies from many, many decades ago.” While Bishop surmised that she didn’t need to “self-describe in that way” and the term was simply not part of her “lexicon”.
This week however, their leader Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull used his appearance at an event supporting women in science to drop the F bomb. “I would describe myself as a feminist” he said. “I often say, women hold up half the sky.” Turnbull’s unhesitant remarks were heartening and convincing, but they also left me wondering:
If you’re the leader of a country, does your pledge to feminism require more than just words?
It might sound cynical, but both major parties have outlined their policies at the next election, and women are hardly at the forefront. Yes, the coalition has proposed some small favourable amendments to the superannuation framework and Labor has promised a more immediate increase in childcare rebates, but these measures seem insufficient at best. They’re hardly indicative of a brewing revolution in favour of gender parity.
Women in Australia still face huge obstacles and contrary to Turnbull’s enthusiastic declaration that “girls can do anything”, the heartbreaking fact is that we actually can’t right now. In terms of pay, there is an 18% gap between the weekly earnings of a fulltime male employee and a fulltime female. Why? Well, in fact there is no hard reason. That’s just the way it is.
When Malcolm Turnbull announced that there were “so many impressive, talented women engineers,” at the event last week, he clearly hadn’t seen the statistics. Women represent a meagre 16% of workers in STEM jobs and just 7% of engineers
On top of this, one in four women will experience sexual harassment at work over the course of her career, a huge percentage of mothers will experience discrimination returning to work after maternity leave and whilst women comprise more than half the population, we represent only 17% of CEOs.
Forgive me if it’s a little hard to swallow the Prime Minister’s cheerful rhetoric that “women hold up half the sky.” We may be holding up half the sky, but we’re buckling under the pressure.
The truth is, I want Turnbull to be a feminist as much as the next feminist does. I think it’s important that all politicians, all Australians, identify as such. But identifying as a feminist requires action, particularly if you’re in a position of power. It should not become an excuse for sitting on your hands and maintaining the status quo. Let’s hope this doesn’t become Turnbull’s big ticket play for women at July’s election, because frankly we need more than that.