Trailblazers like Kelly O'Dwyer and Kate Ellis demonstrate that you can have a family and serve at the highest levels of government. But their imminent departure from politics signals that there is still a long way to go.
Her husband Jon has taken on that role since the birth of their first child Olivia, enabling her to continue her role as a minister ."I think politics doesn't work particularly well when you don't have a strong partnership, when you have kids.
"And if your partner doesn't value the work you've done up here, because it can put a lot of pressure on people in those circumstances." Federal MPs spend 20 weeks of the year flying to and from Canberra, and when they're here the pace is frenetic, the hours long and unpredictable. Some have privately described their anguish when Parliament runs late on a Thursday and they're forced to call their families and deliver the bad news that they won't be home that night.
With a husband in breakfast radio, Ms Ellis' parents moved to Canberra after the birth of her first child, Sam, to help"juggle parliament and motherhood".
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