Sexism: a little context for the mainstream media **WARNING OFFENSIVE IMAGE**

Thousands of words have been generated since 9 October 2012 concerning the Australian Prime Minister's speech to the Leader of the Opposition's motion in the House of Representatives.

A surprising number of these involved the notion that the immediately positive reaction to this speech was because people had either seen it on the news or Youtube stripped of its context.

Some journalists have also openly sought to define this support as not representing the majority view of the general public or of women. Others have sought to denigrate social media platforms carrying expressions of support, on the grounds that women use them.

Leaving aside the fact that many people knew the immediate political context because they regularly tune into parliamentary television and radio broadcasts/podcasts, this assumption that the only legitimate context was the Opposition's move to dismiss The Speaker is a rather odd one.

Women in Australia have been living the present and historical context, that the publicly expressed attitudes and behaviour of the Leader of the Opposition and certain other parliamentarians represent, all their lives.

So for the benefit of the Canberra Press Gallery and assorted others........

Australian Bureau of Statistics:

Letters of Note blog:

Transcript (1963)

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
MINUTE PAPER

THE DIRECTOR:

WOMEN TRADE COMMISSIONERS?

Even after some deliberation, it is difficult to find reasons to support the appointment of women Trade Commissioners.

In countries where publicity media is well developed, such as North America and England and where there are no other major drawbacks, such as the Islamic attitude towards women, a relatively young attractive woman could operate with some effectiveness, in a subordinate capacity. As she would probably be the only woman Assistant Trade Commissioner in the whole area, as other countries employ women in this capacity hardly at all, she could attract a measure of interest and publicity.

If we had an important trade in women’s clothing and accessories, a woman might promote this more effectively than a man.

Even conceding these points, such an appointee would not stay young and attractive for ever and later on could well become a problem.

It is much easier to find difficulties, some of which spring to mind are:-

(i) Women are not employed, except to an extremely minor degree, as career Trade Commissioners in any known service;

(ii) It is difficult to visualise them as Trade Commissioners, firstly because they could not mix nearly as freely with businessmen as men do. Most mens clubs, for instance, do not allow women members;

(iii) Relationships with businessmen would tend to be somewhat formal and guarded on both sides. This would make it more difficult for a woman to obtain information;

(iv) It is extremely doubtful if a woman could, year after year, under a variety of conditions, stand the fairly severe strains and stresses, mentally and physically, which are part of the life of a Trade Commissioner;

(v) A man normally has his household run efficiently by his wife, who also looks after much of the entertaining. A woman Trade Commissioner would have all this on top of her normal work;

(vi) If we engaged single graduates as trainees, most of them would probably marry within five years;

(vii) If we recruited from the business world, we would have a much smaller field from which to recruit, as the number of women executives in business is quite small;

(viii) A spinster lady can, and very often does, turn into something of a battleaxe with the passing years. A man usually mellows;

(ix) A woman would take the place of a man and preclude us from giving practical experience to one male officer. She could marry at any time and be lost to us. she could not be regarded as a long term investment in the same sense as we regard a man.

CONCLUSION

It would seem that the noes have it.

(Signed)

(A. R. Taysom)

13th March, 1963.

P.S. I have since ascertained the following, which, it would seem, only serves to support the foregoing views -

Mr. H. W. Woodruff, U.K. Trade Commissioner:

They have a few women Trade Commissioners but only in capital city posts, for they have found that women cannot operate where contact with businessmen is necessary.

The women are fairly senior people from the U.K. Departments and presumably handle trade policy work only.

Mr. N. Parkinson, External Affairs:

Since their recruitments of trainees are made under the Public Service Act, there is no way of precluding women from applying and in fact, many more applications are received from women than from men. Some are chosen and all appointments are made on the basis of the quality of their educational achievements. About one woman is appointed to every twelve men. This year one out of sixteen, last year one out of twelve and the previous year, none.

They have to be trained for 18 months before going to their first post. The average marries within five years.

It is a very expensive process, but External Affairs lack courage to slam the door because of parliamentary opinion, pressure groups and so on.

(Signed)

(A. R. Taysom)

Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, The Right Reverend Dr. Peter Hollingworth AC OBE (2002):

Describing the prolonged sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl by the Anglican priest in charge of her boarding hostel in the 1950s: "There is no suggestion of rape or anything like that, quite the contrary. My information is rather that it is the other way around."

ABS National Personal Safety Survey (2005):

17% (1,293,100) of women experienced sexual assault compared to 4.8% (362,400) of men

4.6% (353,700) of women experienced sexual threat compared to 0.9% (69,500) of men

Cardinal George Pell (2005):

But female priests? Out of the question. "As Christians, we follow what Christ did, and he didn't appoint any women as apostles, or what we now call priests. So that's the way it is."

Sheik Hilali (2006):

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside ... without cover, and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat's? The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab [the headdress worn by some Muslim women], no problem would have occurred."

 http://youtu.be/oHeDD9tnFw4 (2011)

News Ltd Cartoonist Larry Pickering's depiction of the Australian Prime Minister
found at Google Images (2012)

 Australian Government Equal Opportunity For Women In the Workplace Agency (2012):

The average 25 year old male will earn approximately $2.4 million over the next 40 years compared to $1.5 million for the average female. (AMP NATSEM 2009)
The gender pay gap is currently 17.5%.3 Despite small fluctuations over time, this figure remains virtually unchanged in almost 20 years; in fact, in 1994 the gap was smaller at 15.9%......
A study by NATSEM estimates ‘that 60% of the wage gap is due to either direct discrimination or other factors to do with being a woman.’ Another study that examined the gender pay gap among full-time managers in Australia found that between 70-90% of the gap could not be explained by personal and workforce factors such as employment experience, industry worked in and family situation. Rather, it suggests that as much as 70% of the gap is "simply due to … being female".

October 2012 lines from Twitter discussions on lived experience in Australia:

"You don't need an education but your brother does. All you're going to do is marry and have children."

Yeah, my uncle said this to me when I said I was going to go to uni...

& to my sister in the 80's.. A Respected Private Girls' School! She's a Judge in t UK Now

 yes this was said to lots of us girls of the sixties.

"You might notice that you'll be paid less than X for doing same job. He's a married man w children & you're single"

 I was told in the 80s by prospective employer I wouldn't want ft job as I had children.

Speaking of his son becoming a father: "I was so worried his first child would not be a boy."

And the friend who had 2 sons & said "At least I know I'm not firing blanks."

and the farms were left to the sons and never the daughters

When women on social media sent Julia Gillard's speech around the world, it was not because they didn't understand the political and societal context - it was that they understood it only too well.