Australia

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.

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.

Loud, crude, risky, seductive, personal and at times violent, Australia's "gender war" will go down as the legacy of the 2013 national elections, no matter the political outcome.

The denigration of the first female Australian prime minister on the basis of her gender echoes that endured by the first female prime minister of Great Britain.

A political lobby group is pushing for a female candidate to replace long-term Labor MP Martin Ferguson when he steps down from politics in September.

When she announced her new ministry last Monday, Julia Gillard made history. For the first time, women make up one-third of the Australian government.

That much-publicised milestone of political gender equality in the US? 20 per cent. Yes. Being outnumbered four to one is a milestone for women in the US Senate.