Ms Fifikins

It is 36 hours since the Australian Labor Party elected a woman to be its parliamentary leader and therefore prime minister of this country.

I am thrilled beyond belief because I have heard Julia speak and read her policies and she makes sense. Well on most things. I have been voting for over half my life now and it has only been recently I have realised that I am never going to find a politician or party whose ideals and policies I agree with 100%. I have to decide which are the things I can live with or live without. And then the things I can’t live with, what are the options. I am not at all keen on the Internet Filter or on the ALP stance on Asylum Seekers, however if it means this and I need to lobby my local ALP members then this is preferable than a return to the WorkChoices regime we had under the Liberal Party.

But I am not here to talk politics. I want to talk about gender. Yes, as a woman I was proud that at long last Australia has its first female Prime Minister. I loved that she was sworn in by our first female Governor General, representing our female monarch. But there is so much more than gender that I was proud about. I was of a generation where it was common for us galz to stand up at school and declare we were going to be Australia’s first female PM. It was like we were recognising that this was the last bastion of male domination over us. Yes, we had a female monarch, but perhaps we realised that we needed more.

Yesterday was a rite of passage for our country. Something that was bound to happen and once it has is celebrated and then just is. A turning point, yes, but more something we needed to get to before we could move on. Perhaps a bit like hitting puberty- your first menstruation or wet dream. You remember it, but they still keep happening and become normative. Yesterday was a great day for teh wimminz. I have no doubt Julia will be a great leader. Not because she is a woman, but because she is passionate about this country. Because she has vision and is a team player.

My jubilation at having a female PM is more than an ‘at last.’ I am proud my daughter was in Canberra and at Parliament House yesterday. She no longer has the pressure to strive to be our first female PM. She can do whatever she wants. Except perhaps be a Catholic Priest. But that’s another story. This chapter in Australia’s history goes to show our kids that they can do anything. Hard work and dedication is rewarded.

Again to the women of generations past, thank-you for fighting. For showing us what was needed. There may still be glass ceilings and we need to never lose sight of this, but we live in a time now where we are less discriminated against because of gender. So we acknowledge the past and celebrate the future. Because the future looks good.