Feminism may have helped the rise of Australia’s first female Prime Minister but sexism is still a major issue in the Australian Parliament, says City of Sydney Councillor, Meredith Burgmann.
During the past week, Julia Gillard has striven to defend her leadership but since occupying her position as prime minister, Ms Gillard has been criticised on political and personal levels.
“I am sure that [Julia Gillard] has experienced sexism from the opposition, from her colleagues and from the media,” Cr Burgmann said.
“Like the emphasis on her hair, whether she has emotions, whether she has children; the sort of things that really wouldn’t be an issue for a bloke.”
Cr Burgmann identifies herself as a feminist and says sexism is entrenched in male-dominated institutions such as universities and parliament.
“It’s often very hard to say ‘that was a sexist thing done to me’, but you always knew it would have been different if you were a man in a suit.”
Cr Burgmann joined the Australian Labour Party in 1971 as a 24-year-old university graduate but her first brush with politics was at 17 as an activist.
“I was radicalised by Vietnam like a whole generation of students.”
She said the transparency of the Vietnam War, the first televised war, made her realise that the government was lying to its people.
“What the Liberals said about Vietnam was just untrue. The so-called Gulf of Tonkin incident was all just lies,” she said.
“Once you realised your government was lying to you about one thing you start thinking of others.”
This is when she began looking into Aboriginal rights, the women’s movement and the anti-apartheid movement which lead to her two-month prison sentence for running onto the Sydney Cricket Ground during the 1971 Springbok Rugby Union tour of Australia.
Beyond the life of an activist, Cr Burgmann was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council in 1991 and in 1998 the then premier Bob Carr appointed her as the President of the Council, a role she held until 2007.
However, it was Cr Burgmann’s involvement in the Industrial Relations Committee between 1990 and 1995 where she met Ernie Ecob and launched the now celebrated ‘Ernie Awards’.
Ernie, who was the Secretary of the Australian Worker’s Union at the time, famously said: “Women aren’t welcome in the shearing sheds. They’re only after the sex.”
“He was president of Labor Council and when he announced his retirement we all celebrated and bought this trophy with a big gold sheep on it and we handed it over for the best ill remark of the year.”
Past recipients include Shane Warne, Tom Cruise and repeat offenders – or ‘Clintons’ – such as Tony Abbott. Cr Burgmann uses the humour of Ernie Awards to communicate a stern message: Sexism can never be tolerated, especially not in the public sphere.
She said while the average person might be guilty of spewing more sexist remarks, those spoken by public figures are generally considered much worse.
“We do expect better from our politicians and clergy.”
Last year’s winner was the shamed News Limited journalist, Andrew Bolt, for a newspaper opinion piece he wrote in April suggesting male soldiers would be turned from warriors into escorts if women were allowed to serve on the frontline.
Cr Burgmann said although it is only February, there are already many stand out contenders for the 2012 Ernies, including 2DAY FM shockjock, Kyle Sandilands.
“There’s some very good ones this year. Kyle Sandilands referring to the journalist as ‘that fat slag’ – it’s got to be up there.”
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