The issue of quotas for women in parliament is once again in the news, with motions to introduce quotas to be debated at upcoming Liberal Party state conferences in New South Wales and Victoria. An Essential Report poll published on 30 March 2021 found that 48 per cent of those polled supported political parties setting gender quotas for candidate selection (with 36 per cent opposed). The international experience of quotas Since the 1990s over one hundred countries have implemented political gender quotas, and by 2013 over half the world’s countries had adopted some form of quota, including by 2018, over twenty established democracies. Many countries have found quotas to be an effectiv... Read more...
International Women’s Day will be celebrated globally on Monday 8 March. The International Women’s Day 2021 campaign theme, determined by a global group of private and government organisations committed to driving gender parity, is #ChoosetoChallenge, encouraging people to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. The UN Women global theme for International Women’s Day 2021 is ‘Women in Leadership’, recognising the contribution of women leaders as well as the ways in which women remain under‑represented in leadership roles. Women and political leadership in Australia and internationally Around the world, women continue to be significantly under-represen... Read more...
A number of Parliaments, both in Australia and overseas, have made schedule and practice changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Australian Parliament last sat on 23 March 2020 and is scheduled to return on 11 August 2020, although it has been reported that the Parliament will sit on 8 April to consider further COVID-19-related legislation. Prior to 23 March the Parliament had been scheduled to sit from 23–26 March and then 12–14 May. Read more...
With the swearing-in of Sarah Henderson on 12 September 2019 to the Senate to fill the casual vacancy created by the resignation of Mitch Fifield (Lib., Vic.), the Senate now comprises 38 women and 38 men. This is the first time in the Senate’s history that it has had equal gender representation. Read more...
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