Women currently make up 7% of world leaders – a grossly unacceptable figure on a planet in dire need of more women leaders and equal representation of women at all levels of politics.
Strong Female Lead aims to keep the topic of gender equality on the national agenda in order to shift our culture towards becoming a more inclusive and productive community for all.
We want this film to reveal the shape and sound of sexism in Australian politics.
We want to do this so that Australians more widely can recognise the problem women face in rising to the top within a system which punishes their gender, both within politics and society more broadly.
Only then, can we begin to support Australian women into positions of leadership, and begin to change a style of political and societal leadership which takes us out of the past and into the future.
In Australia, politics has been a toxic place for women.
Australian women with the temerity to join a political party and get elected into the ranks of its leaders are cat called, denigrated and degraded right in the heart of parliament. Female members are treated in a way male politicians are not. Sexism is endemic within our political systems and its impacting the way this nation is governed. There is a deep, continuing resistance to women having power within Australia’s political system, which is built on traditions of larrikinism and machismo. To achieve meaningful cultural change, this tradition must change.
The news of the day in Australia comes primarily from a male perspective, using male voices. 80% of air time is given to men on any given day in Australia. This makes it easier to ridicule women when they are the focus of a political story – they are vulnerable as anomalies. It is uncomplicated to attack female politicians on the grounds of gender and very often the electorate joins the fray via vile social media posts.
It is little wonder Australia has slumped from 15th place on the world stage for gender diversity in its parliament to 50th.
We like to tell ourselves that anyone with the goods will make it to the top in this country – regardless of creed, class or gender. But the statistics and the experiences of women in positions of leadership do not reflect this idea.
Strong Female Lead tells the tale of our only female prime minister and how, over the course of her leadership, her gender was used as a demerit and a point of weakness, which impacted her ability to lead.
We use the example of Julia Gillard to tell the story of women leaders more generally in our society who have so many obstacles thrown in their path to the top that they too often stumble and fall, or give up from exhaustion in a race they should have won. In turn, we as a people, miss out on the leaders who might have made our lives and nation better.
To become a better land, we need women’s voices to be strong.
By walking with Julia Gillard through the three years of her leadership, we increase our understanding of what the obstacles looked like, which she negotiated like incendiary devices… revealing the explosives of misogyny and how it continues to shape Australian society.
This unashamedly feminist work is being created on behalf of all the young women who should be going into politics and demonstrating, like Jacinda Ardern, Finland’s quartet of young women leaders and Taiwan’s Tsai Lng-wen, that gender equity in politics creates better outcomes for everyone. We have no clearer example than now, a time when women-led governments are receiving the best possible results in dealing with a global pandemic, despite the fact women make up less than 7% of world leaders.
Impact Goals
We want this film to create conversations across all sectors, especially in schools and higher education where young women are making decisions about their own futures.
Currently, more girls between the ages of 15 and 17 aspire to be leaders than women between the ages of 22 to 25. By taking this film into the environments where these young women are having their resolve tested, we will aim to influence these statistics. By calling out the sexism faced by female politicians we aim to make it a more transparent, and safer journey for these women to pursue political dreams.
We want more scrutiny of media coverage when it comes to reporting about women and more women appearing as the subjects of discussion. The tyranny of media monopolies (and a public broadcaster whipped into submission) will be exposed – and no doubt defended – in light of this film. This too will feed into a much broader discussion about women and power in our society.