Leadership in Context: An Analysis of Gender and Political Discourse

This report analyzes a speech delivered in the Australian House of Representatives in 2012, focusing on the context of gender representation and leadership. The assignment examines the heated debate surrounding the role of women in politics, specifically referencing the actions and com...Read More

Running Head: LEADERSHIP IN CONTEXT
LEADERSHIP IN CONTEXT
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1LEADERSHIP IN CONTEXT
The video was recorded in the House of Representative in the Australian Parliament in
the year 2012. The chamber proceedings started with its clear agenda over the government
efficacy on health and cognate topics (Parlview.aph.gov.au 2012). However, situation became
infuriated on the line of women representation in power and its relevance. Therefore, it is
essential to shed some light on the relevance and importance of women representation and its
scenario in the context of Australia.
Gender equality and women representation in power in Australia is always under heavy
scrutiny from the scholarly world due to the derogatory and defaming remarks made by the male
political leaders in Australia. As per the research of Mao (2019) the problem bestows within the
understanding of the importance of women representation in power. There are still a great
number of people in Australian politics who are not considered women leaders as equal to men.
According to Erzeel and Celis (2016), these aspects relate to the ‘conflict perspective’ of
theoretical perspective of Gender Equality. It was clearly reflected in the parliamentary footage
where the then opposition leader Tony Abbott was continuously held in motion against the Prime
Minister Julia Gillard (Norman 2019). As a matter of fact, the situation went beyond control as
the Liberal Party continuously questioned the efficacy of Julia Gillard as the effective people’s
representative and set in motion with a no confidence vote. It seemed to be a very natural and
basic parliamentary proceeding where the House of Opposition left no choice to attack the
government. However, that apparently normal chamber proceeding raised question regarding the
consideration of women as the Head of the State.
Julia Gillard was the first and till date the only female Prime Minister of Australia. She
got a considerable support from the Labour Party and the people during the 2010 Leadership
Vote that culminated a huge favour for Gillard as the 27th Australian Prime Minister and the

2LEADERSHIP IN CONTEXT
female Prime Minister ever till date. On the other hand, there is always an allegation against the
Liberal party regarding its female representation and the then Opposition leader Tony Abbott
was always at the front page due to his misogynistic comments. As per the arguments of Grace
and Sawer (2016), these comments can be correlated to the gender oppression theory of
feminism. In fact, he was also criticised for participating in the controversial protest against
Gillard ‘Ditch the Witch’ in 2011 (Tharoor 2014). Inequality in representation is still existed in
Australia where the Liberal Party holds only 23% female representation on the contrast of
Labour Party’s 47% women representation (Norman 2019).
Therefore, it can be concluded that gender inequality and misogyny poison the political
environment in Australia where the leader who are representing the people, influence the mass
with their shallow and shameful treatment towards female political leaders.

3LEADERSHIP IN CONTEXT
Reference
Erzeel, S. and Celis, K., 2016. Political parties, ideology and the substantive representation of
women. Party Politics, 22(5), pp.576-586.
Grace, J. and Sawer, M., 2016. Representing Gender Equality: Specialised Parliamentary Bodies.
Parliamentary Affairs, 69(4), pp.745-747.
Mao, F. 2019. Why politics is toxic for Australia’s women. [online] BBC News. Available at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-48197145 [Accessed 2 Jan. 2020].
Norman, J. 2019. More women are on their way to Parliament, but no party has equal
representation. [online] ABC News. Available at:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-27/women-still-underrepresented-in-parliament/11148020
[Accessed 2 Jan. 2020].
Parlview.aph.gov.au 2012. House of Representatives [Part 1]. [online] Parlview.aph.gov.au.
Available at: http://parlview.aph.gov.au/mediaPlayer.php?
videoID=31734&action=backFromDownload&operation_mode=parlview&position=13620
[Accessed 2 Jan. 2020].
Tharoor, I. 2014. Australia’s prime minister gets accused of sexism, again. [online]
WashingtonPost. Available at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/12/22/australias-prime-minister-
gets-accused-of-sexism-again/ [Accessed 2 Jan. 2020].