Gender and Politics: Is the future female?

Women for Election Australia and Women’s Agenda recently had an online conversation.

‘Gender and Politics’ is a hot topic right now, with the success of female lead countries concerning the current global health crisis, the recent release of Julia Gillard and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s book Women and Leadership and the recent announcement of Kamala Harris as Joe Biden’s running mate in the upcoming US presidential elections.

There are so many studies touting the benefits of gender balance in leadership; however, we seem to be unable to improve the gender balance in our government.

Licia Heath, our CEO and Angela Priestley, Editorial Director & Owner, Women’s Agenda touched on;

• the lack of diversity and lived experience at the leadership level of our major parties and how it is problematic for our community at large. If you have no experience of the public school system, the child care or aged care, if you’ve never queued up at Centrelink, if you’ve never faced discrimination or barriers to employment or been denied access to affordable housing, you’re probably not best placed to understand how those things need be improved.
• the evidence is clear that women leaders reshape the nature of politics in a whole host of positive ways; fostering more collaborative work environments, implementing broader more inclusive policies, starting fewer wars, being less corrupt and a fostering greater trust in our politicians and democratic process.
• the significant barriers remain that prevent women from entering public life in the first place. While other countries around the world are increasing the number of women in their parliaments, in a relative sense, Australia is going backwards. And the women who are making it through tend to be white and come from privileged backgrounds, which means we’re missing out on the experiences and views of women from more diverse communities.

Watch this community discussion…

If you’re already aware of the great work we do at WFEA, please share this event with friends, colleagues and family members who might be interested in attending this event.

If you want to support WFEA deliver courses and support women seeking a place in public office, please make a donation.