Natasha Stott Despoja remembers being asked during a business meeting if she went into politics to find a husband.
That was back in 1995, when Stott Despoja become the youngest ever woman appointed to the Senate, at 26. It was a quick lesson in just what she’d be up against being a young woman in politics.
I was just finishing primary school at the time, and Stott Despoja’s years in parliament quickly saw her become a role model. She wasn’t just young and female, she was dynamic and different. She made politics interesting and relevant, and even made the option of entering politics seem possible.
However, she also made politics uncomfortable, for some.
Both in public and in private, Stott Despoja endured extreme sexism — so much so that she says she admits she’s actually become almost immune to verbal attacks against women.
“I learnt how uncomfortable some people were with the concept of women and power, and more so young women in power, ” Stott Despoja told the YWCA She Leads conference in Adelaide on Friday.
And twenty years later, she’s not convinced a lot has changed. That’s despite having seen a female prime minister, female governor general and a number of female premiers since 1995. For one, Stott Despoja didn’t think we’d still be talking about ‘merit’ when it comes to defining the lack of women pre-selected.
Nor did she ever think the number of women in Australian parliaments would actually decline, as it’s done in recent years. Less than one third of parliamentarians in Australian are female, and there are just two women serving in the Abbott Government’s cabinet.
Stott Despoja’s record as the youngest woman in Parliament was broken by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young in 2007. Still, it’s a record Stott Despoja believes should have been broken many, many times by now. “I’m proud to have been the youngest women ever to enter parliament. But that was a long time ago,” she said. “The greatest indicator of a willingness to support gender equality is to give up power, to share power.”
And reflecting on her twenty years since entering politics, she’s amazed that some of the bills she introduced — such as same-sex marriage legislation — are still being debated today.
She’s also learnt that women need to be ever vigilant. “If there’s one thing we’ve learnt, it’s that rights can be reversed,” she said.
Stott Despoja is now Australia’s Ambassador for Women and Girls, with a mandate to promote Australia’s position on gender equality overseas. She’s visited 26 countries in the last 18 months, including Afghanistan, Burma and Madagascar, and notes that globally — with 64 million girls around the world out of school and a girl coerced into marriage every three seconds — we’ve got some serious work to do.
A key measure for success will be seeing more women elected to Parliament and taking on leadership positions, not just in Australia but across the region — in local government, government, business and the community.