women in politics

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

When we discuss gender in politics we focus a lot on 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 has been “hijacked by politics” – a debate about privileged women versus ordinary working women.

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.

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.

By now you will have heard the news.

News that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s front bench is set to contain a record number of women is welcome news.

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.

As Labor’s recent period of extraordinary internal harmony shatters, former cabinet minister Nicola Roxon has excoriated Kevin Rudd, forensically detailing his bad behaviour and declaring he should leave parliament for Labor’s good.

Tony Abbott is no doubt enjoying former minister Nicola Roxon’s blast against her old political boss Kevin Rudd.

Our first female attorney-general Nicola Roxon delivered her valedictorian speech to Parliament on Tuesday, thanking those who’ve helped her manage her political career, particularly when she was a new mother, and cautioning against sexism and the degrading treatment of women at work.

Women’s Agenda sister publication Crikey has crunched the numbers to see what a Kevin Rudd caretaker cabinet would look like should a leadership change occur next week.