Image: Newly appointed Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard. (Image credit).
We now have Australia’s first female Prime Minister and if you think as a feminist I might gloat a little.. you’d be right. This is a big deal. Since the outcome this morning (her appointment to Prime Minister came not through a general election but via a party-room ‘discussion’) I’ve had emails, text messages and phone calls from women friends and family wanting to celebrate this achievement for women. Some of them don’t vote Labor.
Gillard is not just any woman in the seat, she’s an incredibly clever politician, one you can get behind. And while she has come to power in a time when the government is on the nose (like female state leaders in our country before her) it is not a time when that government has been around for so long as to be inevitably on its way out. She’s got a real shot here at winning the election as Prime Minister in her own right, and she is an incredibly strong contender.
Plus, she is worth celebrating as a wonderful combination of characteristics that a generation ago may have ruled her out entirely for this shot. Gillard is unmarried – she has a partner (yay for us unmarrieds!). Gillard doesn’t have children. Gillard is a migrant. Gillard is a feminist. Gillard is an atheist.
And Gillard is a tough factional-fighter – she is no collectivist (and nor would I want her to be as Prime Minister). But her ascendancy has some broader implications for masculinity, and as tragic as it is for Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, it is a lesson that I hope the Australian management sector heard. That famously masculine style of management of Rudd’s – one that is proudly micro-managing and overly controlling, one that boasts of its inflexibility and killer work hours – doesn’t work so good! Rudd lost his spot at the top because that form of managing is not popular with colleagues and subordinates and ultimately, it delivers poor outcomes, which naturally enough wasn’t so popular with the electorate either. Death to the dickhead boss!
I am also very excited, exuberant even. What an amazing day it is!
Ditto with the calls and texts from friends, both male and female.
And a large part of my excitement comes from the fact that she is such a departure from the conservative expectations we have of politicians – that they are married and religious and that these are the things that somehow denote the right level of seriousness and stability required in our leaders.
I look forward to seeing how her performance influences and changes the expectations we have of people in public life generally; makes us look at what we value in leadership and positions of influence.
And I really like the point you made about the broader implications for masculine styles of management.
I hope so much that ther leadership will have a great impact generally for both women and men in the workplace.
I wrote about this on my blog as well….but as always you put it in a much better manner! I am so excited by the appointment of Julia Gillard. I am excited to raise my daughetr in a country that is finally led by a woman. I am excited to be THIS into politics again!
I’ve been bursting and bubbly all day. I agree with Katy, it is the first time I’ve been into politics in years. I am so proud and excited, and loved your post. One thing, though…what is a response to people who say that by making such a big deal out of her being a woman, we are setting feminism back? That it shouldn’t even be an issue? I know what I want to say, but it seems everyone on this blog is far more articulate than I! Any ideas welcome…
Wow, did you feel the history in the air?
I totally agree with everything you said.
“One thing, though…what is a response to people who say that by making such a big deal out of her being a woman, we are setting feminism back? That it shouldn’t even be an issue?”
“I’ll be postfeminist in the postpatriarchy.”?
Gender inequality didn’t suddenly up and evaporate because one solitary woman in the entire history of Australia has become PM. People who think it shouldn’t be an issue better bloody well be working hard to try to make sure it is not an issue, not in any sphere of life anywhere at all, not for any people (not just white educated abled women, but all people of all genders, races, backgrounds, abilities, and so on).
But I sorta get the feeling that the people you’re talking about are more likely to be sitting back barking “You got what you wanted, lady, can’t you just SHUT UP about sexism now?”
Ditto. I hadn’t thought of it in quite that way, but it’s a very good point.
There’s a lot of competing narratives going around about how this spill went down, but unlike other spills the different narratives all seem to mesh together in this one.
Kevin was too presidential, not just in his campaigning style but in his non-consultative decision-making as well – he and his inner circle made the decisions and then told people what to do – that’s not how our government is supposed to work. He had the opportunity, when starting off with such a huge level of popular support, to last as long in office as Hawke, but one big reason Hawke managed so long is because his consensus style gave not just everybody in the Cabinet but everybody in the Caucus a feeling of owning the policies personally.
Combine that with no deeply layered factional ties, and it appears that neither parliamentarians nor public servants particularly wanted to work for him. (Yes, Minister should make us aware that if the public service wants you gone then ministers and parliamentary secretaries suddenly find out all sorts of infuriating stuff that provokes them to revolt.)
Being in the rather unique system of being able to fire their boss if enough of them agree, they ended up taking that option. If only the rest of us had that sort of veto power over our bosses.
Nice post. I couldn’t help but blog about it too. What an incredible 24 hours. I think people that say symbolism doesn’t matter don’t want to look at the symbolism. Of course it matters.
Fan-bloody-tastic. About time. First of many and thin edge of the wedge etc!
I have been so excited all day, in between working on my thesis at home I was on facebook all day alternately arguing and celebrating!!! I work in gender in government so I was kind of annoyed I wasn’t in the office… I admit it, I ended up calling them to share the joy!
Your post is so articulate and awesome, I might just direct people back to it when I next come up against an annoying person who doesn’t get the historic awesomeness of this day…
June 24th Julia Gillard Day!
Congratulations Australia! I’m just a titch worried about my own ability to properly follow the news and/or NPR’s ability to deliver it to me correctly, but how wrong does it make it that I didn’t hear about this from any major media outlets in the US, and in fact only learned about Gillard today, through this blog?
Regardless, I love this to death: “I’ll be postfeminist in the postpatriarchy.”
As a woman, and someone who wants to see some variety in marital-statuses in representation, I’m really really pleased. But I have a taste in my mouth about Gillard from her efforts as Minister of Education. She’s almost too good at her job…
A historic day indeed!!. The buzz around uni yesterday was amazing, everyone was talking about it. I was absolutely estatic at the news of Julia Gillard being our new PM, although sad for Rudd and his family. Not a pleasant way to go out.
I totally agree that Gillard’s consultative management style will be a huge improvement on Rudd’s micro-control freakery. And let’s face it, negotiation is what women, especially those in positions of power, do well. Kevin’s 24/7 work ethic was also not conducive to keeping a healthy work life family balance…
The dark spectre that has been revealed behind this event is the power of the mining industry. Rudd more than upset the greedy beast and was slayed in process. Let’s hope that Gillard is able to survive.
[...] Penguin Unearthed was worried Gillard had been handed a poisoned chalice. Blue Milk considered the implications of Gillard’s leadership for masculinity and The Ausmerican said Gillard had the chance to make up for Labor’s failures, if only she [...]
Oh my, I’ve just emerged here after a couple of weeks out of blogland and it is frightening how quickly that early excitement evaporated… replaced by shame and depression… and gee it would be just boring listening to gillard reassure us she holding onto all rudd’s regressive views, if it wasn’t actually harming people…
Yeah, I’m glad we’ve finally got a woman PM, and I will defend her against those douchebags who want to talk about her voice/hair/style, but really she is a goddam scumbag.
Just discovered your blog. Might have my first blog crush.
I started out blogging life as a weight loss blogger but not am keen to blog about more cerebral issues!
The best thing about Julia Gillard, an intelligent, quick witted, unwed, childless atheist WOMAN taking leadership of our country is that people are finally talking about politics again. For better or for worse, the Australian masses are emerging from many years of political apathy.
Looking forward to reading more of your well written words!
[...] Penguin Unearthed was worried Gillard had been handed a poisoned chalice. Blue Milk considered the implications of Gillard’s leadership for masculinity and The Ausmerican said Gillard had the chance to make up for Labor’s failures, if only she [...]