Investigating the ambitions of young women to run for national parliament: the case of Australia

ABSTRACT

Like many liberal democracies, there is a gender gap in the Australian Parliament. While there has been growing momentum to increase the number of female parliamentarians in the national legislature, the Parliament of Australia continues to be a male dominated domain. This paper investigates the factors that contribute to maintaining the gender gap by focusing on the ambitions of young women to become a member of the national parliament. We find that the appeal of becoming a parliamentarian for young women is significantly curtailed by beliefs that the institution maintains stereotypical gender norms as well as a masculine, and misogynistic, culture. Furthermore, we find that young women believe they lack the skills and confidence required to occupy public office which further diminishes their political ambition.

跟其他很多自由民主国家一样，澳大利亚议会中也有一道性别的鸿沟。尽管在国家立法机构的女性议员有增加的趋势，但澳大利亚议会仍是一个男性主导的地方。本文聚焦青年女性入选国家议会的志愿，考察了维持性别鸿沟的各种因素。入选议会对年轻女性的吸引力，会被该机构有性别偏见、有重男轻女文化的感觉所阻碍。再者，我们发现，青年女性会认为她们缺少拥有公职的技能和信心，这就愈加削弱了她们的从政抱负。

KEYWORDS:

• Australian politics
• gender and politics
• political ambition
• young people
• Parliament of Australia
• women and political leadership

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zareh Ghazarian

Dr Zareh Ghazarian, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, School of Social Sciences, Monash University.

Laura Woodbridge

Laura Woodbridge, School of Social Sciences, Monash University.

Jacqueline Laughland-Booy

Dr Jaqueline Laughland-Booÿ, Senior Advisor (Research and Communication), Office of the Vice-Chancellor and President, Australian Catholic University.

Zlatko Skrbis

Professor Zlatko Skrbis, Vice-Chancellor and President, Australian Catholic University.