“Now we want just the women. All the women,” Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said yesterday while organising photographs of the Turnbull Government’s new Cabinet.
As Judith Ireland asks today in the Sydney Morning Herald, can you imagine what that would have looked like in the Abbott Government?
A photograph of all the women in Abbott’s first ministry would have been a portrait, featuring a lone Julie Bishop. Abbott’s rejig at the end of last year doubled that number by appointing one extra woman, Sussan Ley.
One wonders what young women with political aspirations must have made of photographs featuring Bishop in a sea of dark suited men. Especially given the treatment of a former prime minister, Julia Gillard.
But the photographs featured across our major newspaper today tell a different story. A story of women being included in the highest levels of government, as well as women achieving firsts that should have been crossed off years ago – such as Senator Marise Payne sworn in as our first female Minister of Defence. These photos show women of different ages and life stages. Some without children, and some with grown up children. One with very young children.
Turnbull’s new Cabinet is not a record for women (Kevin Rudd’s second Cabinet featured six women), nor is it necessarily a ‘win’, as my colleague Jane Gilmore pointed out yesterday. It’s still less than 25% female, and the fact the elevation of three women into his Cabinet is particularly noteworthy says something about the current distribution of gender across Australian leadership positions in 2015.
The attention these appointments is getting shows just how much damage the Abbott Government’s lack of women in Cabinet actually did. The fact we had a male Minister for Women for almost two years was so ridiculous, it simply became a running a joke. The fact he doubled the percentage of women from 5% to 10%, by appointing just one extra woman, was also laughable.
These photographs help undo some of that damage, by showcasing opportunities and choice, as well as some (although definitely not enough) diversity.
Indeed, it’s difficult to miss incoming small business minister and assistant treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer’s five month old daughter Olivia featured in the above picture of women in the full Ministry, of which there are now nine.
O’Dwyer gave birth to her first child in May this year, and returned to work in August. She’s still breastfeeding. Last week Fairfax reported Chief Whip Scott Buchholz advised her to express more milk to avoid breastfeeding interfering with her parliamentary duties. Buchholz was apparently unaware of a seven-year old exception allowing breastfeeding MPs to vote in Parliament, even if they’re not physically present in the chamber.
Her new mother status makes her elevation to Cabinet even more positive for women. She’s got an impressive career covering professional services, corporates and politics, and has seen her biggest appointment come just months after becoming a new mother. Indeed, her workload is about to get a lot bigger, by taking on two major roles that were previously managed by two men.
O’Dwyer’s maiden speech in 2010 spoke to just some of the things she’d personally represent in the future. At the time, she said “families are the bedrock of our society” but that they come in all shapes and sizes, while roles within families vary. Women are having children later and are increasingly trying to balance careers and parenthood. “No one has yet worked out how to be in two places at once,” she said. “So there are no simple solutions.”
But increasing access to big leadership opportunities to all parents, male or female, will help. As will role models who can demonstrate there is no one-size-fits-all to juggling work and parenting. Even if that means missing the odd vote or meeting because a small child needs breastfeeding.
All of it will help, but only if the door’s actually open for women in the first place.