Tough luck for most women
On August 27, the NSW Young Labor state conference elected its first all-female leadership. The next day the Sydney Morning Herald ran a story on Liz McNamara and Joanna Woods, the new president and secretary respectively. The short article was accompanied by a large photograph of the two clean-cut young women in white shirts and blue jeans, ready to take on the men and "do it tough".
McNamara told the Herald, "Women in the Labor Party... have to be more aggressive than men to prove themselves. If you are soft and nice, you won't get anywhere in the ALP." Having made it themselves, the pair saw no problem with the "bully boy" culture within the ALP.
The leadership representation of women within NSW Young Labor (10 out of 21 executive and officer positions) was highlighted in the article as "well ahead of the party's 35 per cent quota for women", with Woods optimistically saying, "Now is the time to make gains for women, with so many seats out there to be won".
One has to ask: gains for which women? Woods and McNamara both belong to the dominant right wing of the ALP, the party which in federal and state office has cut child-care, cut women's services, cut education and welfare (which disproportionately affects women), and denied the right of women to legal abortion.
Representation of progressive women (and men, for that matter) in parliament would be a very positive thing. But having women in leadership positions who support the anti-woman austerity agenda of the major parties is not a gain for the majority of women or working people.
Sexism sets up structural barriers to women participating fully in politics and society. Some may break through, get elected, but this is usually at the expense of conforming to the status quo. Their positions become pay-offs for not challenging structures which keep many more women out.
Promising 35% of women ALP parliamentarians was a token gesture to offset the embarrassing current 8% rate of representation. McNamara acknowledges limited implementation of the policy by quoting an old ALP joke: "Change is great, men want change — just not in their electorate".
And even if the target is achieved some day, it is a completely cynical argument to say that this makes things better for women, when the same policies are pursued and implemented.
It's worth recalling how women got there in the first place. The only reason that women can vote is as a legacy of the first wave of the women's movement a century ago. The second wave of the women's movement in the 1960s further challenged restrictions on women's rights through long campaigns of mass rallies and direct action.
The gains of these struggles still flow on today. Women like Woods and McNamara are riding on these waves while turning against those who produced them. Their success is explained by the media through individual hard work and "doing it tough". However, this is really a case of gain for some, and tough luck for the rest.
Change will come through masses of women taking action together to demand their rights. It won't come through the "success" of a small section of women in parliament, often members of parties busy winding back women's rights, who we are supposed to admire and hope that they'll do the job for us.
By Marina Carman