Julie Bishop

Australia lost one of its most high profile female leaders, with ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie sacked from the role yesterday.

The frontrunner for Liberal preselection in Malcolm Turnbull’s former seat of Wentworth had declared the party should preselect a woman instead of him.

Liberal deputy leader Josh Frydenberg seems adamant that his party will hit its 50% female representation target by 2025. We’re just not sure how.

The Liberal Party room is dominated by male MPs who anoint leaders in their own image. It’s not a woman problem that’s the issue.

Julie Bishop confirmed Sunday that she was resigning as Foreign Affairs Minister and would not serve in Scott Morrison’s Cabinet.

Within moments of Labor backbencher Steve Gibbons calling Julie Bishop a “bimbo” on Twitter yesterday morning, he was called to account.

Julie Bishop is Australia’s 38th Foreign Minister of Australia and the first female to be appointed to the position.

Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott has been slammed by outraged women and men from all sides of the political landscape for the lack of gender diversity in his ministry.

The presence of only one woman, albeit a high profile one, in Tony Abbott’s cabinet has prompted renewed calls for the introduction of quotas to ensure greater numbers of senior women in government.

The representation of women in Women’s Agenda sister publication Crikey’s annual Power 50 Index, out this week, leaves cabinet’s woeful composition for dead — but it’s still disproportionately low.