Julia Gillard

Last week’s Labor leadership change has thrown light on some of the key behavioural biases at play in decision-making.

I’m the youngest of three children.

Last Wednesday I received an invitation from the Prime Minister’s chief spinner John McTernan to attend Christmas drinks at Kirribilli House.

I was recently phoned by a journalist and asked to reflect on what the Labor government had done for gender equality.

Recently, debates about policies have disappeared under an avalanche of sexist, misogynist nonsense and the commentary on it.

On June 24, 2010, Australia’s first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, was sworn into office by Australia’s first female governor-general, Quentin Bryce.

Kevin Rudd has completed one the great political comebacks in Australian history by reclaiming the prime ministership from Julia Gillard in a party room vote in Canberra tonight, 57 votes to 45.

The press gallery will be happy: there’s been a leadership spill, a prime minister dumped, mass cabinet resignations, plenty of action.

Labor may have “ditched the witch”, but does the ejection of Julia Gillard from her seat of power close the book on the debate about sexism that she championed and the role of women in leadership? Our first female prime minister is gone, but the feminist challenges she raised, and the battles she fought, are far from forgotten.

Julia Gillard is seriously tough.

Accounts in the media over the past week explain, or rather rationalise, the downfall of our first female Prime Minister.

When we discuss gender in politics we focus a lot on women.