Right: Sir Robert Menzies, former Prime Minister and founder of the Liberal Party was encouraging women to enter politics even before the end of World War Two.
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Background information
Women's under-representation in parliaments worldwide
Women in government are under-represented in most countries worldwide. This historical tendency still persists, although women are increasingly being politically elected to be heads of state and government. As of January 2017, the global participation rate of women in national-level parliaments is 23 per cent. In 2013, women accounted for 8 per cent of all national leaders and 2 per cent of all presidential posts. A number of countries are exploring measures that may increase women's participation in government at all levels, from the local to the national.
The under-representation of women in the Australian parliament
Australia's representation of women in parliament is low by international standards. Only 31 per cent of Australian Federal parliamentarians are female and the Inter-Parliamentary Union ranks Australia at 50th in the world for female representation as at September 1, 2018; behind many Scandinavian, African and Latin American countries that boast over 40 per cent representation in their lower houses. New Zealand, France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom all have higher levels of female representation.
Party-based differences in women's representation in the Australian federal parliament
There are significant party-based differences in the percentage of women representatives in the federal parliament. Within the current (45th) parliament, the Greens have the highest percentage of female representation at 50 per cent.
The Labor Party (with the recent inclusion of two additional female representatives in Kristina Keneally and Ged Kearney) now has 48 per cent female representation. Both the Liberals and the Nationals have much lower levels of female representation at 21 per cent and 14 per cent respectively. Since the late 1990s and early 2000s, the percentage of Liberal women elected in the House and Senate has remained stagnant. Comparatively, Australia's low ranking for female representation is, arguably, attributable to the Liberals failing to nominate and elect women. Among established democracies with the highest levels of female representation, Iceland, Sweden, and Finland have over 40 per cent of women elected in their national legislature; a percentage similar to the Australian Labor Party.
The large disparity between the two major political parties when it comes to the election of women has provoked debate about the role of gender quotas in politics.
Gender quotas in the Labor Party
The Labor Party brought in gender quotas in 1994: 35 per cent of winnable seats were to be contested by women by 2002. Between 1994 and 2010 the pre-selection of women candidates increased from 14.5 per cent to 35.6 per cent.
The party adopted a 40:40:20 quota system in January 2012. This means that 40 per cent of seats held by Labor were to be filled by women, and not less than 40 per cent by men. The remaining 20 per cent could be filled by candidates of either gender.
At its 2015 national conference, the Labor Party increased this quota to 45 per cent by 2022 and 50 per cent by 2025, and expanded those quotas to apply to party positions and delegations to conferences, including union delegations.
State branches use different strategies to ensure the quota is met. New South Wales Labor adds a 'loading', whereby a female candidate gets an additional 20 per cent added to her vote. Other states, like Western Australia, use central selection committees.
Liberal and National Party strategies to increase women's participation in parliament
The Liberals and the Nationals do not formally support gender quotas on the basis that they contradict the principle of merit for political candidates. Instead, the parties have adopted strategies to develop women's networks within the party and provide support for women to stand for pre-selection.
In 1945, the party established a Federal Women's Committee which was incorporated in the party's Constitution in 1946. The Committee has had representation on the Federal Executive since then, and the party's federal Constitution requires the vice-president of the party to be a woman.
In the lead-up to the 1996 election, the Liberals set up support structures for women in the party and argued for more women candidates.
In 2010, Liberal Senator Judith Troeth circulated a policy paper proposing that the quota for women in the organisational wing of the party (introduced in 1944) should be applied to the parliamentary party. She stated that women are not 'progressing through party pre-selection to parliament and beyond', and called for women candidates to be endorsed in a minimum of 40 per cent of its seats for the 2010 federal election.
In September, 2016, Liberal Party's federal executive adopted a 10-year plan to significantly increase its female representation in Parliament. The plan sets an aspirational target of 50 per cent female representation by 2025.
In 1959 the forerunner of the National Party, the Country Party, created a Women's Federal Council (initially called the Women's Conference) within the party's Federal Council to contribute to party policy and decision-making processes. The party 'supports and encourages participation by women in all aspects of the party or standing for parliament'.
However, historically and now the representation of women within the National Party and its earlier iterations has been very low.