The Looking Glass » women in politics

The paradox of our Prime Minister

Anne Summers — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:28:53 +0000

My latest article in the Sydney Morning Herald looks at how Julia Gillard’s assets are not being conveyed to the voting public. Read the article

Obama pressed to step aside for Hillary Clinton

Anne Summers — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 02:15:44 +0000

An extraordinary appeal from Democratic Party pollster Patrick Caddell that in order to government effectively President Obama needs to announce he will not run in 2012 so that Hillary Clinton can unite the country as no one else seems able to do to. Read the article

Australian Women on the Verge

Anne Summers — Sun, 15 May 2011 03:38:13 +0000

My Keynote Address to the National Labor Women’s Conference in Brisbane on May 14 in which I celebrate Labor’s success in women’s political leadership but call on the government to take urgent action to improve women’s workforce participation by addressing equality in employment via the EOWA legislation, and to radically reform childcare. Nat Labor Women’s Conference 2011 rev

Julia the fixer eases into the top job

Anne Summers — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 23:47:41 +0000

On his elegant memoir the former British prime minister Tony Blair describes his reaction when he walked into 10 Downing Street for the first time: “My predominant reaction was fear…”

If Blair felt this way, after a landslide victory,imagine what must have been going through Julia Gillard’s mind the night she failed to secure an outright election victory and in the tortuous weeks that followed while the results were finalised and the Independents took their time to announce how they would play their political hands.

Read my article in today’s Sydney Morning Herald

Finally…

Anne Summers — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 01:45:01 +0000

COAG meeting, Canberra 13 February 2011. L to R: Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, New South Wales Premier Kristina Keneally, Prime Minister Julia Gillard

These are NOT the women we want – and fortunately US voters agreed

Anne Summers — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 21:54:24 +0000

These three ego-tripping former businesswomen spent millions of their own money on their unsuccessful quests for public office in the recent US elections. Instead, argued Gail Sheehy, they could have pledged that money to education or other forms of giving to make America a better place for the millions living in poverty and without hope. Even worse, all were running as Republicans, committed tor educing government spending and further impoverishing their fellow Americans. This is a bitter read, indeed. Read the article

Women’s Leadership Institute Australia

Anne Summers — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 02:27:26 +0000

Congratulations to Carol Schwartz for this important initiative. Check out the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia

Pitfalls of previous women political leaders

Anne Summers — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 00:42:08 +0000

As Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard battles to stitch together a coalition so she can form a government, following the tied results of the federal election on August 21, I looked at how two previous women leaders fared: Canada’s Kim Campbell and Israel Tzipi Livni. Read my article

The Ability to Connect

Anne Summers — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:20:17 +0000

The Age
June 26, 2010

It is Gillard’s ability to connect with, surprise and delight a wide range of people that is her ace card, writes Anne Summers.

THERE’S a story in Sydney, perhaps apocryphal but certainly instructive, of how some time last year the hard men of the NSW Labor Party (the “Sussex Street assassins” as Tony Abbott would have it) reacted nervously to the news that Julia Gillard was planning to attend a big function in the western suburbs.

How would the traditional women of the west react to the deputy prime minister, the backroom boys fretted? After all, she is single, has no kids and lives with a hairdresser. They made some inquiries. The feedback shocked them. These supposedly traditional women had no problem with Julia’s marital status, envied her freedom from the responsibility of children and, most of all, were in awe of her for choosing a hairdresser for a partner!

Read the full article: The ability to connect

Historic moment, but barriers remain for half the population

Anne Summers — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:12:46 +0000

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.

Read the rest of my article.