Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Gender and sexuality in Australian politics
Media, backlash and social change
Scholars including Linda Trimble, Carol Johnson, Julia Baird, Elizabeth van Acker
and Blair Williams have shown how media coverage of women politicians gives
platforms for gendered abuse, focuses on their appearance and trivialises their
substantive contributions. 89 Women who perform femininity to an acceptable
standard find that this is taken as delegitimising their value as professional
politicians. Politicians who are mothers face questions about how they will be
able to manage their public role while tending to their children’s needs. On the
other hand, women who do not perform conventional femininity to an acceptable
standard find that this ‘failure’ brings into question their ability to fulfil their
role – for instance, Julia Gillard’s childlessness, which conservative commentators
portrayed as making it impossible for her to relate to ‘ordinary women’. Acceptable
and unacceptable performances of femininity (and masculinity) are also assessed
through the lenses of race, sexuality, class and dis/ability.
As Australia’s first woman prime minister, Julia Gillard was subjected to
extreme levels of misogynist abuse, particularly on social media and radio, but also
in ‘real life’. In 2011, the opposition leader stood in front of banners reading ‘Juliar
…BobBrown’sBitch’and‘DitchtheWitch’whilespeakingatacarbontaxrally.
A Liberal–National Party fundraiser menu offered ‘Julia Gillard quail’ with ‘small
breasts, huge thighs and a big red box’. 90
Gillard finally (after having avoided referring to her gender throughout her
public life) spoke out against what she saw as the misogyny of then opposition
leader Tony Abbott in a speech to parliament, which was subsequently shared
and viewed on social media over three million times. The opposition and the
mainstream media suggested that she had ‘played the gender card’ as a political
tactic, while women’s news sites and social media sharing indicated a very different
andmoresupportiveresponse.TrimbleandJohnsonhavenotedthatthediscourse
of the ‘gender card’ and ‘gender war’ were used to try to silence people making an
issueofinequality. 91
On leaving politics, Julia Gillard argued that as a result of her prime
ministership it would be easier for the next woman and the next woman after that.
McLaren and Sawer note that, while this might be true, her treatment suggests
it may well be more difficult for the next feminist. 92 The backlash against Gillard
emboldened anti-feminists, and potentially increased the polarisation of views
about feminism and gender equality. It is notable that, in centre-right and far-right
parties in Europe, men are more likely than women to identify as promoting gender
equality, suggesting that it is riskier for women to do so than men. 93
89 Baird 2004; van Acker 1999; Williams 2017.
90 Jabour 2013.
91 Johnson 2015; Trimble 2016.
92 McLaren and Sawer 2015.
93 Celis and Erzeel cited in Williams and Sawer 2018, 642.
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