Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister has spoken about how lonely it was being the only woman in cabinet.
Julie Bishop, 61, was appointed to the position in Tony Abbott’s cabinet in 2013.
‘It was pretty lonely, I would be sitting in a cabinet with 19 men and me,’ she said at the Women’s Weekly Women of the Future event in Sydney yesterday.
‘I will say something, come up with an idea, put forward a point of view and wait for a response, and nothing.’
Julie Bishop (pictured second from left) has opened up about how lonely it was being the only woman in cabinet
‘They go to the next person and the next person – halfway around the room a guy will say exactly what I said, exactly my idea, exactly my initiative and the others will say “Brilliant, what a genius idea!”
‘”Excuse me, didn’t I just say that?” And this happened time and time again,’ she explained.
Ms Bishop is Australia’s first female foreign minister, the deputy leader of the Liberal Party and the only senior politician to retain a leadership role for the entirety of this last decade.
‘It was pretty lonely, I would be sitting in a cabinet with 19 men and me,’ she said
Ms Bishop said that she knew plenty of capable women who would have been able to fill other cabinet positions, which would have made for a more diverse team.
‘I’ve not been held back and it would be very churlish of me to claim any kind of victim status,’ she said.
‘I achieved what I wanted to achieve in politics and I’ve been very fortunate but one of my responsibilities has to be to ensure that there are more women in politics.’
It was in 2013 that Tony Abbott announced his parliamentary cabinet of which Ms Bishop was the only female
Ms Bishop explained this behaviour as an ‘unconscious bias’ and a ‘deafness’ that we still see in Australian society
‘When more women came into cabinet we had this little deal, it doesn’t matter what that other woman said the rest of us would go “Oh that is brilliant, did you all hear that?”
‘And we do it now and reinforce each other’s point of view and all of a sudden the guys are saying “Why are they doing that?”.’
Ms Bishop explained this behaviour as an ‘unconscious bias’ and a ‘deafness’ that we still see in Australian society.
The technique that Ms Bishop has used is called ‘Shine Theory’ and it involves women working together to ensure that their voices are heard.
Once Tony Abbott was deposed, the then-new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull appointed several more women to the ministry.