One hundered and twenty-two years after women in Australia won the right to vote and stand for parliament, it’s fair to say we’ve come a long way on women’s representation in politics.
In 2024, women make up 38 per cent of the House of Representatives, while 57 per cent of Senators are women.
But if we look a bit closer, there are plenty of issues preventing Australia from reaching total gender parity in federal parliament, and we remain a long way off changing attitudes so that the women who do end up sitting in a parliamentary chamber are treated equally to men.
Alarmingly, new research has confirmed there are still some pretty big barriers that are thwarting the political ambitions of young women. In a series of interviews with young people, it was clear that young women feel reluctant to become a member of federal parliament.
The study, led by Head of Politics and International Relations at Monash University, Dr Zareh Ghazarian, observed that gender stereotypes, women’s perceptions of their own knowledge and confidence, and the “toxic”, masculine culture of parliament were all preventing women from wanting to put their hands up for a career as an MP.
Speaking to Women’s Agenda, Dr Ghazarian said that the young women and men who were interviewed for the study were generally “pretty disgusted” with what goes on in federal parliament.
“When we look at what young women are telling us, as part of this research…they were disgusted with what was going on. They were very upset and ultimately, they saw parliament as being a toxic place,” he explained.
“It really weighed heavily on their minds in terms of considering whether they would even stand for parliament.”
Another major concern raised in the study is that young women had stronger beliefs than young men that they didn’t have the right skills or knowledge to make an effective contribution to parliament. These beliefs lowered women’s political ambition.
And while some men also expressed concerns about their capacity to have political career, they tended to focus more on the fact that they didn’t want to compromise their values or that it would be hard to be honest as a politician.
“[Young women] were telling us that they just do not have the confidence in their own capacity to stand to stand for election,” Dr Ghazarian said. “Studies around the world have reflected this, so it’s not just an Australian phenomenon. Generally, women in other countries also feel that they have less skills than they would require to be a politician.”
“Whereas with men, what we found is that men also were thinking about their preparedness to run for public office, but the emphasis was very different. It was about their integrity and their willingness to sort of toe the party line.”
All of this is leading to a culture where young women are “self-excluding” from having any political ambition, according to the research.
“We’re seeing that even before people face the challenges of running for parliament, young women are telling us what they’ve seen of the broader political culture, is that they don’t want to be even considering running for parliament,” Dr Ghazarian.
Gender stereotypes are also playing a key role in young women’s lack of political ambition.
Young women were more likely to see the demanding lifestyle of a parliamentarian and the travel and time commitment needed to be successful, as significant obstacles.
One participant, Linda, who said she wasn’t interested in becoming a politician, said: “… it was probably more the lifestyle … that turned me off, because I was one that wanted to get married, have a family, stay at home”.
Linda also noted how frequently gender roles are brought up in public debates and that women politicians are often subjected to questions like “where’s your family? Where are your children?”
Participants also noted the public perception that “women do admin roles” and “men do leadership roles”.
So what does it mean for democracy?
If the gender representation gap in Australian politics continues in its current form, Dr Ghazarian says it suggests that our democracy is not working effectively.
“The political system is misfiring,” he said.
“Inequality of gender representation is undermining democratic notions of government. It’s undermining the notion that democratic government is for the people, by the people, if we have that disparity between representation between men and women. This issue goes to the very heart of not only our democratic practice, but also the sorts of policies and political choices made by our governments.”
If we look to the major parties, Dr Ghazarian notes Labor’s quota system has been an effective mechanism for boositing women’s representation, and also says that there is a silver lining in the federal Senate, where there is a higher proportion of women than men overall.
“But when it comes to the lower house, because that’s where governments are formed in our system, we still have just 38 per cent of seats being held by women,” he said. “So while these silver linings and potential postive elements are coming up, there is still much more work to be done.”
So what can be done?
Getting women interested in politics starts early, Dr Ghazarian says. It starts with civics education, but there is also a need for targeted programs for girls in schools.
“We know that schools across the country should be offering civcs education. Between Year 3 and Year 10, students learn about democracy, government and the broad political system in Australia, but I think there’s a real need for targeted programs within that to really foster the ambition and confidence of young women to be political leaders,” Dr Ghazarian said.
“It’s something that would really potentially impact attitudes but also practice. Women have reported that they are feeling unprepared, lacking confidence or feel as though they don’t have the requisite knowledge to be an effective candidate.
“So there is an opportunity. It’s a very modest intervention, but I think it would be a very important intervention.”