women candidates

Next up in our Women in Politics series is high profile Greens Senator for South Australia, Sarah Hanson-Young. The Liberal Party have let it be known that the 31 year old Senator is in for the fight of her political life at the next Federal Election on September 7.

The two biggest parties have chosen their candidates: Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, of the center-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), and Anne Hidalgo of the Parti Socialiste (PS).

Two other women are also widely expected to fight for the mayor seat against candidates from several smaller parties: Marielle de Sarnez of the centrist MoDem and the Green party leader Cecile Duflot.

In an extremely aggressive speech in the aftermath of primaries defeat, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez blasted the media for misinterpreting electoral results, charged against the Mayor of Tigre Sergio Massa who was the big winner on Sunday, pressed for full commitment from her allies and promised more of the same in support of the ‘socially inclusive model’.

Today we continue our series Women in Politics, with Michaelia Cash, the Senator for Western Australia (Liberal), who hit the headlines back in June when she attacked Senator Penny Wong for betraying Julia Gillard and ‘the sisterhood’.

Despite being in office for just one term, Senator Michaelia Cash, has already proven to be a dynamic force in the Australian political scene.

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.

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.

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.