by Anne Summers
Sydney Morning Herald, 25 June 2010
Julia Gillard may have played down the significance of her sex when she became Australia’s first female prime minister yesterday, saying she “did not set out to crash my head against any glass ceilings” and pointing out that she was also the first redhead to lead the country. But there is no denying this moment of history.
Nor that it has taken Australia an inordinately long time to achieve it. Alone of the democracies in our region, our political leadership remained conspicuously male-dominated. India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea and, of course, New Zealand have all had at least one woman head of government.
Anne
Reading this article and your article in the Age, 26 June, ‘It is Gillard’s ability to connect with and surprise and delight a wide range of people that is her ace card’, I feel pressed to comment that while it is indeed an important moment to see a woman as Prime Minister of this country, I don’t think Thursday meant that girls “could finally be told truthfully that no aspiration was now beyond their reach”. Having returned to work this week leaving a 5 month old baby and two year old twins at home, I don’t feel particularly optimistic at all for the status of women, and this week’s events in Canberra certainly don’t change that. I don’t feel optimistic because, as a woman and mother who must work I am expressing breast milk at work, dealing with that look of annoyance when people realise I have returned part time and can’t attend meetings when they want to schedule them, feeling the need to justify my choices when men ask why I have returned so early, and what am I doing about breastfeeding (!), then sprinting down Flinders Street to make the train home in time for the evening breast feed with my cooler bag of breast milk knocking against my side. So as women, let’s not overstate this. At best, Julia’s ascendency is proof that women can make it to the top if they have made the “life choices” that give them the same freedom as men who are not primary caregivers of children. This means the freedom to choose to work long hours, to choose to network beyond the day’s close of business, the freedom from dealing with all those chores and details that are needed to keep a household running, and most importantly the freedom from the physiological guilt and pain of leaving your small children in the care of others. Children and careers are very hard to combine for the majority of women and there are still so many prejudices and barriers in the work place and at home that reinforce this. In fact my present predicament makes me wonder in my darker, more exhausted hours (although of course I don’t believe it) that maybe women have done themselves a disservice building careers and seeking stimulation and financial stability beyond the home and their partners. Maybe it was easier for us, when we had no choice and were expected to stay at home.