Australia

At 38, Julie Bishop had achieved what many young lawyers aspire to do. Having worked as a barrister and a commercial litigation solicitor, she was managing partner of a national law firm’s Perth office.

She was at the peak of her career, or so she thought, until a business trip to Burma led to an hour-long meeting with Burma’s then opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest.

In the fourth of our series on Women in Politics, we speak to Leader of the Greens, Senator Christine Milne.

Can you name the politician with the most influence over the lives of women and their families in the past five years? Few would probably come up with Jenny Macklin, the low profile but highly prolific Minister for Families in the Federal Labor government since 2007.

Macklin’s portfolio is huge: in addition to Families, she is also the Minister for Community Services, Indigenous Affairs and Disability Reform, in one way or another touching the lives of just about every Australian.

Continuing our series on women in federal politics, we meet the Hon Kate Ellis MP (ALP), Federal Member for Adelaide, Minister for Early Childhood, Childcare and Youth, Minister for Employment Participation and Minister for the Status of Women.

The 43rd Australian Parliament was extraordinary for several reasons but perhaps most notably for how Labor women confronted sexism and misogyny.

In the lead up to the Federal Election on 7 September 2013, Australian Women Online will be profiling women from the major political parties in both houses of Federal Parliament.

As prime minister, Julia Gillard remained instinctively private, consistently contained and, for a figure so much in the public eye, oddly enigmatic.

Women in the Labor caucus have come under fire from the ‘sisterhood’ for siding with the men who brought down Julia Gillard. By comparison, the men who actually orchestrated the rise and fall of our first female Prime Minister, got off relatively easy.

Senator Penny Wong got the worst of it, with Coalition Senator Michaelia Cash, launching a scathing attack on the Finance Minister in the Senate this afternoon. Senator Cash captured the attention of the media when she accused Penny Wong of stabbing Julia Gillard in the back and betraying the sisterhood.

Julia Gillard speaks after Kevin Rudd won the Labor leadership ballot. Gillard, in a calm speech, thanks her supporters and constituents and announces, as promised, she will be leaving politics due to the defeat. She thanks colleagues for the opportunity 'not only to serve the nation but to serve as the first female prime minister of this country'.