While the political complexion of the next federal government remains unclear, what is certain is that the number of women in the Lower House will increase.
There were 40 women in the House of Representatives of the last parliament.
That could rise to between 42 and 48 depending on the final count of Saturday’s federal election results.
If the highest figure of 48 is reached, that would amount to women occupying 32 per cent of Lower House seats, up from about 26 per cent.
Long-time observers and advocates for equal representation in parliament have said the major parties overlooked women’s issues during the election campaign, to their detriment.
Associate Professor Tony Krone, from the University of Canberra, told PM Australia’s international gender equity ranking had improved, and was now sitting just above Algeria and on par with Switzerland.
“We are doing better on this but it’s only marginally better, but it brings us from about 56th place to 37th place, amongst a fairly tightly arranged number of countries,” Mr Krone said.
He said the incremental improvements are the result of quotas.
“The party that has led in terms of improving gender equality is the Labor Party. It’s probably gone backwards for the Liberal Party, although we don’t quite know yet with some seats in doubt, and the National Party didn’t get any female candidates up,” Dr Krone said.
“So that’s what I think is important to draw, is the importance of quotas and positive action like that.”
Mr Krone said for the women who have been elected into House of Representatives, the pressure will be on.
“The fact that we have more women in the parliament is terrific, but it’s a big ask for them to pull out all of the [women’s] issues,” he said.
“It’s got to be something that comes from both sides. It’s got to be men and women worrying about issues for either sex.”
Dr Marian Baird, professor of gender and employment relations at the University of Sydney, said the major parties failed to engage with women during the campaign.
“I think they both missed the opportunity to really reach out to women voters. There are a number of issues that women are really concerned about and they seemed to be overlooked in the campaign,” Dr Baird said.
Top Comments
Bishop and Cash both said they are not feminists ( God only knows what they think is feminsm) so why would they go on a website that is aimed at women? They were being consistent with their message: women should blend in, not have "special, separate " consideration.
But Julie Bishop has written for Mamamia before. Look it up and you'll find multiple articles.
So you think feminism is about women having "special, separate consideration"? I suspect that's why a lot of successful women don't identify with it.
There will be more women in Parliament - and the highest number will be Labor women. This is directly related to the support EMILY's List Australia gives to progressive Labor women candidates - training, mentoring, gender gap research and a supportive feminist network. It's also a result of the Labor Party's Affirmative Action policy which has a quota on the percentage of female candidates in winnable seats. Both of these are key to Labor's success in electing women.