A 'Single White Female'...

[i-need-a-martini]

Other than it being a great movie, it now applies to the description of womens representation in the Australian government.

There are 6 (I think?) Liberal women in Cabinet, yet only one is appointed a Minister. Of the 6, quite a few would have been Ministry material - Sussan Ley and Fiona Nash spring to mind as two quite sensible politicians. Plus there are the 'rising stars' that the Liberal Party trotted out on a regular basis during the campaign - Scott and O'Dwyer. 

I'll steer clear of the sexism jibes aimed at Abbott as I think this is another issue. Nor will I buy into the argument that ministers are selected on merit and not gender because we know that sexism is alive and well throughout any high level organisation be it private corporation or government management. So the latter is simply an excuse.

But what I am most interested in is what it says about Liberal candidateship - why is it so male dominated and why are the few women candidates pushed forward so 'flimsy' (for want of a betterword) that Abbott decides that they aren't fit for a ministry position?

Does being a Liberal mean that you are most likely to be male and most likely to vote for a male?

It's quite interesting isn't it?

[cherry*135]

Julia Gillard made it to become the first female Prime Minister of Australia (granted she didn't last the term out), but she had the opportunity to get to the top.

[master*and*commander]

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@am*3 wrote:

Julia Gillard made it to become the first female Prime Minister of Australia (granted she didn't last the term out), but she had the opportunity to get to the top.

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yes she did, but wouldn't her rather short stay indicate a lack of perception or standards by those who promoted her through the system? Wouldn't that they overestimated her ability to do the job? Or were they just promoting her through for other reasons, say to appear politically correct and fill the job with any woman and she was the best they had?

I don't believe that Gillard was promoted for any other reason than they believed her to be the best person for the job, so on merit, but it doesn't really attest to their accuracy when making judgement calls, does it?

At least when the Americans promoted a minority group member through the system, he was able to demonstrate longevity and proficiency.

[i-need-a-martini]

Are you serious?

Leaving aside the current crop of outstanding women in political positions in quite a few different parties, in my recent memory I can recall 4 women who had top portfolios and did incredibly with their positions - Carmen Lawrence, Susan Ryan, Ros Kelly, Helen Coonan. And that was just in Labor. Howards ministry had a top assemby of women too.

If we relatively compared the quality of the very few women in parliament over the years with the quality of the large number of men in parliament over the same period, the women leave the men for dead in terms of demonstraive performance.

[master*and*commander]

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@i-need-a-martini wrote:

Are you serious?

Leaving aside the current crop of outstanding women in political positions in quite a few different parties, in my recent memory I can recall 4 women who had top portfolios and did incredibly with their positions - Carmen Lawrence, Susan Ryan, Ros Kelly, Helen Coonan. And that was just in Labor. Howards ministry had a top assemby of women too.

If we relatively compared the quality of the very few women in parliament over the years with the quality of the large number of men in parliament over the same period, the women leave the men for dead in terms of demonstraive performance.

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No, I'm just winding you up.

It's good to see someone so passionate and knowledgeable about our country.

[polksaladallie]

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@i-need-a-martini wrote:

Are you serious?

Leaving aside the current crop of outstanding women in political positions in quite a few different parties, in my recent memory I can recall 4 women who had top portfolios and did incredibly with their positions - Carmen Lawrence, Susan Ryan, Ros Kelly, Helen Coonan. And that was just in Labor. Howards ministry had a top assemby of women too.

If we relatively compared the quality of the very few women in parliament over the years with the quality of the large number of men in parliament over the same period, the women leave the men for dead in terms of demonstraive performance.

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Coonan was a Liberal senator.  But there was Cheryl Kernot who held a shadow ministry, and Margaret Reynolds, who held two ministries in her time in the senate.

[cherry*135]

Cheryl Kernot isn't a very good example

Laurie Oakes criticised Kernot for failing to mention her extramarital affair while leader of the Democrats with Gareth Evans, who was a Labor frontbencher and key advocate of her move to Labor. Oakes claimed the relationship began several years before Kernot joined Labor, and ended in October 1999. He made the claim based on leaked emails in his possession that proved Kernot had had a five-year relationship with Evans. Initially, Kernot and Evans made themselves unavailable for comment; however, Evans subsequently confirmed the nature of their relationship.

[polksaladallie]

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@am*3 wrote:

Cheryl Kernot isn't a very good example

Laurie Oakes criticised Kernot for failing to mention her extramarital affair while leader of the Democrats with Gareth Evans, who was a Labor frontbencher and key advocate of her move to Labor. Oakes claimed the relationship began several years before Kernot joined Labor, and ended in October 1999. He made the claim based on leaked emails in his possession that proved Kernot had had a five-year relationship with Evans. Initially, Kernot and Evans made themselves unavailable for comment; however, Evans subsequently confirmed the nature of their relationship.

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Maybe not, but if we were to eliminate all those with stuff going on behind the door or in the closet, the chamber would be nearly empty.

[cherry*135]

[i-need-a-martini]

You are right. She was Liberal. But as I said, there was a good bunch of Liberal women in the Howard government after the Hawke govt.

Where are all the women now??

[polksaladallie]

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@i-need-a-martini wrote:

You are right. She was Liberal. But as I said, there was a good bunch of Liberal women in the Howard government after the Hawke govt.

Where are all the women now??

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"Knocking on the door" as abbott says. But to quote someone on radio this morning, "Why was the door closed?"