Women in positions of power

Posted by Jenni C on 23 September 2008 | 3 Comments

Tags: women, politics

Today I start my new blog – thanks to Webmaster Bruce – ready to share my views on two recent events that illustrate the good and the bad for Australian women. The first event was the appointment of women to the Foreign Affairs and the Treasury portfolios – a first for Australia. This is really good! The second event was the prurient interest expressed in the newspapers recently regarding Quentin Bryce’s children. Not good. First the good– women are hitting their stride in politics, and isn’t it great! In Australia, there have been quite a few ‘firsts’ since the last election, starting with the appointment of Julia Gillard to the Deputy Prime Minister’s role. Labor appointed more women ministers than ever before and now the Liberal party is stepping up to the mark with the appointment of Julie Bishop to the Treasury portfolio and Helen Coonan to Foreign Affairs. These are two powerful portfolios, and congratulations to Malcolm Turnbull for recognising that these women have the skills and ability to meet the challenge. It has taken a long time for Australian political parties to get to this point. While we were one of the first countries to give women the right to stand for parliament and to vote (in 1902), it took us a long time to elect women to Parliament. The first Australian woman in parliament was Edith Cowan, who won a seat in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly in 1921. In 1943 Enid Lyons and Dorothy Tangney were appointed to the Federal Parliament – Tangney to the Senate, and Lyons to the House of Representatives. Women now hold 40 of the 150 positions in the House of Representatives, and 27 of the 76 positions in the Senate. Good luck to the new Shadow Ministers, we look forward to seeing the power of women’s presence in these roles. However I regret to report that there is still a long way for Australian women in positions of power to travel before we can confidently state that they receive equal treatment with men. In particular, over many years (yep, I’m pretty old!) I have observed a huge difference in the issues that reporters and public commentators focus on in relation to women and men in positions of power. For example, how many of us know how the children of the previous Governor-Generals behaved? How many reports were there about Major General Jeffery’s, William Deane or Bill Hayden’s grandchildren? If you Google Australia Governor General children grandchildren how many news reports come up about our first female GG’s kids? Give us a break. More to the point – give Quentin Bryce a break. I am referring, of course, to the headline news (front page for the Canberra Times) about Quentin Bryce’s daughter’s relationship with Bill Shorten, and then other news about her son. Get over it. Bryce is an intelligent woman who has been appointed to the GG job, and she has children. So did every bloke who was appointed to the job. But it didn’t make headline news when their children had a life. Or slipped up. The only reason that Quentin Bryce’s kids hit the news is because she is a WOMAN Governor-General. As a result, reporters are more interested in the personal life. Call it the Women’s Weekly Effect – women in public and/or powerful positions attract this just by being a woman. Am I the only person who thinks that this is just the tip of a sexist iceberg?