Over the weekend Sweden’s deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lovin shared a photo to mark the signing of a Climate law which binds all future governments to net zero emissions by 2045, ‘for a …
How I met the PM and became part of the ‘strategy’
Last Wednesday I received an invitation from the Prime Minister’s chief spinner John McTernan to attend Christmas drinks at Kirribilli House. The invitation was a little vague, not requesting my…
Labor party and its gender equality legacy
I was recently phoned by a journalist and asked to reflect on what the Labor government had done for gender equality. I started to jot down a number of reforms on the back of an envelope and surprised…
Eva Cox: The feminist scorecard and how Gillard and Abbott rate
Recently, debates about policies have disappeared under an avalanche of sexist, misogynist nonsense and the commentary on it. Please note, I continue to oppose the abhorrent gender-based attacks on th…
Stuck in the ‘success trap’? A lesson from Nicola Roxon
Nicola Roxon’s valedictorian speech to parliament on Tuesday got me thinking about success and how our definition of success can and should shift according to our changing circumstances. I…
Bernard Keane: Media, misogyny and the Gillard years
The press gallery will be happy: there’s been a leadership spill, a prime minister dumped, mass cabinet resignations, plenty of action. It would have been better if it had been today, allowing m…
Expectations of the ‘sisterhood’ in politics miss the more problematic ‘boys club’
When we discuss gender in politics we focus a lot on women. But given women account for just under a quarter of all federal politicians, we’re better off discussing the men – and the continued r…
Paid parental leave debate puts women against women
During a recent interview with Ann Sherry, who is arguably the architect of paid maternity leave in corporate Australia, she expressed her disappointment that the government paid parental leave debate…
3 ways Liberal women can improve their leadership chances in the future
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. Julie Bishop, as Foreign Ministe…
Lack of diversity isn’t bad luck. It’s bad management
Our new PM has described as ‘unfortunate’ the fact that there is only one woman in the Coalition Cabinet and six in the 42-strong Ministry (14.3%). I disagree. It is not simply unfortunate…
