The world wants to support women – but is the Liberal Party ready?
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Weeks ago, Australia united unlike ever before for a sporting team when we rallied behind the Matildas. We’ve also seen Barbie, a movie about dismantling the patriarchy, reach record highs at the box office.
Sure, you can argue soccer is the world’s sport. You can argue that Barbie had great marketing. But this week, yet another anomaly occurred. More than 92,000 people turned up to watch a female university volleyball match in Nebraska, making it the largest crowd to ever see a women’s sporting event in history. I am hoping I don’t need to labour the point that this event is by every measure unusual. Perhaps the common denominator is not a certain sport, a certain country, or a certain publicity stunt, but in fact women.
The sisterhood has broken into capitalism. But is the Liberal Party ready?Credit: iStock
Women are earning a higher percentage of income than ever before. They’re getting married later, having babies later, and remaining in the workforce after having children. These days, women mean big money. And they’re putting their money behind other women.
The sisterhood has broken into capitalism. Before anyone quivers in their boots, don’t worry. We don’t hate men, and only plan on womansplaining for a few centuries.
Sporting bodies, film production companies and brands are no longer earnestly telling us, regretfully, that women (51 per cent of the population) are a fringe interest. No. Women, the majority, are now starting to be treated as such. Okay fine, maybe just as equals.
Agencies in all sectors are scrambling to sign up and support women to make sure they don’t miss out on their piece of the pie. And there’s no hard feelings. It’s great to have you here!
But it prompts the question – will the Liberal Party, admittedly a slow adopter of many trends, finally get on board? Or shall we continue to leave it to other parties (read: independents) to enjoy this shift? For not only are women turning up in droves to sporting events for women, buying tickets to movies by women and buying products from female brands. Statistics prove that women are voting for women.
And now it’s the Liberal Party members who have the chance to say: “Yes. We got the memo.” Nominations have just opened in a raft of federal seats for the next election, which means members will get their say in preselections. Historically, we have been quite woeful when it comes to picking women, but this time I have faith.
If you’ve read any of my work, you’ll know I have been frank in my disappointment at the lack of support for Coalition women (unsurprisingly, not to everyone’s glee), so I hope it means something when I say that things truly feel like they’re improving (seriously).
For the first time in a long time, I feel like women in the party aren’t having to convince members that the public wants our side of politics to take women seriously, and that we can help, not hinder, their attempts to win. Perhaps most exquisitely, I am hearing less and less of entitled men saying “merit” in every conversation about a female candidate.
But all of this is just a feeling. A hunch. The honest conversations and gentle steering will mean nothing if our members don’t put pen to paper and actually vote for women in our coming preselections. The party said it could fix our poor gender representation without quotas. Now it’s time for members to put their money where their mouth is.
I have seen the women in the pipeline of our party, and I can’t wait for Australia to meet them. If only our party backs us first.
Charlotte Mortlock is an advisor to Nationals MP Michael McCormack, a former Sky News anchor, and founder of Hilma’s Network, which encourages women to join the Liberal Party.
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