Gillard rocked by leaks
Julia Gillard is rocked by leaks revealing she opposed the rise in welfare payments under the Rudd government.
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If Julia Gillard fails the high expectations of women, her gender will not save her.
Having a wife and three daughters and some sisters does not make you an authority on women. If it did, women's lib would not have been necessary. But being a female prime minister does not mean you always act in the best interests of women, either.
If the Kevin Rudd debacle shows anything, it is that people can turn quickly against a politician who does not seem to be what she or he appears.
Illustration: Andrew Dyson
Tony Abbott's comments on virginity and his views on abortion do not make him a likely candidate for women's votes. But Julia Gillard had better be aware that if she fails the high expectations of women, her gender will not necessarily save her. Far from it. Women can be harshest on women who let them down.
While women are still hurting their heads on the glass ceiling, the Prime Minister's claim not to have set out to smash such ceilings may cause some to narrow their eyes and wonder whether she is just another successful woman who denies barriers and is no use to them in their struggles.
Of course, women have different views, backgrounds, interests and voting patterns. For most of the past century, Australian women were less likely than men to vote for the party of labour, unlike most comparable democracies.
We have yet to hear a ''women's policy'' announced by either major party and no acknowledgment of issues affecting women, such as the gender pay gap, domestic violence, or under-representation of women in powerful institutions including in business and industry executive positions.
Some commentators have referred to women's issues as being grocery shopping and bread prices. While it may be that women are responsible for the lion's share of such important everyday matters, there are defined political issues for women just as there are issues in which women tend to take a greater political interest, such as parental leave and childcare.
The Opposition Leader dared nominate paid parental leave as an issue on which he stood firm - against opposition - in the debate on Sunday night. Yet he was one of my strongest opponents when I introduced a paid parental leave scheme into Parliament in 2002.
It is this kind of late conversion that may not sit well with some female voters, although women were clearly supportive when Abbott mentioned the policy in the debate. If only he'd listened to his daughters sooner.
It's not just the Liberals that have form on this issue. I recall the male powerbrokers of the Labor Party doing a deal with former senator Brain Harradine to subject the abortion drug RU486 to ministerial control in 1996. I remember some unhappy women on both sides of the divide, despite the fact that only the Democrats protested against the move.
It took years before cross-party women's collaboration - in the dying days of the Howard government - changed the decision. Female MPs also worked together across party lines on truth in pregnancy counselling advertising and the restrictions on foreign aid funding regarding contraception and abortion.
In this election, everyone is at pains to understand the gender gap in polling and the parallel wiggling of Mr and Mrs Worm.
Women are excited at the prospect of one of our own being in a leadership position and that a different image of leadership is being presented, if not a different model of leadership.
After Sunday's debate, one male commentator wrote under the banner of "Tony looks like a PM, Julia wins on points" that Abbott "may not have outpointed Julia Gillard but he . . . looked, as never before, a viable prime minister".
Surprise, surprise! Men have always been prime ministers, so no wonder Abbott looks more like a PM than Gillard. What did she look like? A housewife? A lawyer?
As this shows, some men discriminate against women. But women also discriminate against some women on the grounds of gender. Some men cannot accept that women are their equals. Some women don't feel comfortable with other women in authority.
I suspect that being a female prime minister means nothing much except that Gillard ought to have a chance if she wants. But judging by the debate, she is as wily, evasive and smart as any male politician. I've never thought that being a female meant being morally better than a man in any position.
We can no longer afford - in this nation with so little talent showing in political spheres - to ignore any candidate on grounds as flimsy as gender. It's time to lose the gender prejudice and see Gillard and Abbott for what they are: politicians who have to be judged by what they can deliver.
On Twitter and in at least one story it said that Gillard has enormous ear lobes. That's about as relevant as her gender in this election.
Natasha Stott Despoja is a former leader of the Australian Democrats.
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