This morning, Prime Minister Tony Abbott signed the UN’s HeforShe pledge at an International Women’s Day breakfast in Canberra.
By taking the pledge, Abbott agreed to make a commitment to “take action against all forms of violence and discrimination faced by women and girls” and to acknowledge, “Gender equality is not only a women’s, it is a human rights issue that requires my participation”.
While the HeforShe campaign is a positive initiative that has made great strides in drawing global attention to gender equality, I am hesitant to assign much significance to the prime minister’s decision to attach himself to it.
It is great that the prime minister decided to sign the pledge, but it will only be significant if he follows through on the pledge’s demand: to take action against all forms of violence and discrimination faced by women and girls.
It is very, very simple for our prime minister to sign this pledge. All he has to do is turn up at a breakfast, sign his name and make a short speech.
It also makes for a great photo opp, and a quick win for a prime minister fighting for his political survival.
But when that same prime minister continues to perpetuate gender inequality in his policies, his attitudes and inside his own cabinet, this morning’s pledge seems vacuous and hollow.
Indeed, the pledge means very little while the prime minister has just two women in his ministry. It will continue to mean little until our prime minister — also our Minister for Women — starts to speak out when news breaks that the pay gap is approaching 45% for women in management, or that the number of women killed each week by their partner has doubled, or that the number of female CEOs in Australia can’t even comprise a statistically viable sample size.
And until the prime minister stops winding back workplace gender reporting requirements despite the widening pay gap and despite Australia’s abysmal performance on PwC’s women in work index, the pledge will continue to mean very little.
Perhaps most importantly, the pledge’s significance will remain questionable until he stops funneling federal funds away from crucial domestic violence support services.
In his speech at the breakfast this morning, Abbott said: “It’s time to turn our good intentions into real action”.
I think it’s high time the prime minister took his own advice.
And if Abbott needs some direction on how to address gender inequality in Australia, he need only look to some of the other attendees of this morning’s breakfast for guidance. Other high profile men signed the HeforShe pledge today; men who have previously displayed a tangible commitment to gender equality.
ALP MP Tim Watts is an active ambassador for the White Ribbon Foundation, and recently made a compelling speech in parliament about the realities of family violence. Australian Chief of Army David Morrison has fired 200 soldiers from the military in recent months for exhibiting misogynistic behaviour, and is working with the UN toward eliminating rape in conflict.
For these men, the HeforShe pledge is not just a promise, because they have already begun to take decisive action to promote gender equality. These are the men who embody and promote the values that the HeforShe campaign is fighting to entrench.
So for these men, the HeforShe pledge holds a lot more significance than it does for Abbott, who has dragged his heels on gender equality every step of the way.
There is a chance that this pledge signals Abbott’s renewed commitment to gender equality, and perhaps he really does plan on taking action, starting today. If this is the case, then I am relieved and grateful, if a little impatient. But his track record does not inspire much confidence in me, nor, I would venture, in most Australian men and women. You only need to look at the comments on Women’s Agenda’s earlier report about Abbott signing the pledge to see that most of us don’t buy it.
If and when Abbott displays any level of commitment to taking action against gender discrimination and violence, I will congratulate him on his pledge. Until then, forgive me for holding my applause.