WHERE ARE THE WOMEN?

Politics is one of the most influential areas in our society and it aims to provide equality and peace. However, how can be possibly have gender equality when only 21 out of 196 world leaders are female? This leads to the questions ‘where are the women?’ and why are they so unequally represented. According to the Bureau of Statistics, in the House of Representatives in Australia, 25% of the members were female in 2012 (ABS Gender Indicators, Australia, Jul 2012 (cat. no. 4125.0)). This percentage is lower than that in 2002. While the percentage did vary of the 10 years, this highlights that we may be regressing when it comes to the representation of women in politics.

While women’s role in politics is limited, women are also often unfairly treated and represented in politics. An example of this was during Julia Gillard’s Prime Minister-ship. Julia Gillard, Australia’s first female Prime Minister, was often asked sexist questions by the media and there was a focus on her choice to not have children and how this made her a “bad woman.” Further, she was asked if her partner was gay because he was a hairdresser. These types of personal, and often sexist questions, were frequent during her time as PM. Discourse like this had never been seen before when the Prime Minister was male.

In the workplace, there is often an equal balance of the genders. However, again when you consider those in power positions, there is unequal representation of men. After surveying 10 girls who work in retail, I discovered that the majority of workers are female. However, 9 out of the 10 girls said that nearly all of their managers were male. This highlights how the opportunities for men and women are unequal when it comes to power positions and men are generally advantaged.

This inequality is not only evident in lower levels of workplaces but also those in CEO positions and the like.

This graph shows the percentage of female CEOs and Board Directors in companies listed in the Australian stock exchange. According to this graph in 2012, between 3-4% of CEOs were women. Therefore, there is a clear and sizable lack of female CEOs in Australia.

Clearly there is a tremendous inequality in the representation of women in power positions. Then when they are in power, they are treated unfairly and in ways that men wouldn't be. We need to start asking ‘where are the women?’ and how can we make their representation fairer.