Precarious positions are being given to women in a ‘poisoned chalice’ that threatens the fight for gender equality in parliament
Female candidates are being overlooked to run in safe seats by both major parties, with new analysis showing just two in 10 female candidates have been put forward for winnable seats at this year’s election, while safe seats are “saved for the boys”.
The analysis has focused only on seats where the key contest is between the major parties, examining candidates in 137 of the 151 seats in the House of Representatives, but also including incumbent MPs. “The idea underlying all of these is that women get put forward for leadership positions that are risky and precarious,” she told Guardian Australia.
She said that while it was difficult to judge each party’s internal preselection processes, safe seats appeared to be overwhelmingly reserved for men by both major parties. “And if you want to be really uncharitable you say ‘oh look, they’re making us put some women in and we’ll look bad if we don’t have enough women in there, so let’s put her in that, as a bit of a sacrificial lamb’.”Labor has preselected a total of 62 female candidates, compared with the 41 preselected by the Liberal and National parties.
Ryan said that the research also highlighted the challenge facing women of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, who were even less likely to be preselected for safe seats.
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