Is a woman leader possible?

'This country is no matriarchy, nor are we in any danger of being governed by women,' wrote Eleanor Roosevelt in a 1940 article published in the US magazine Good Housekeeping. 'Can a woman be President of the United States?' she asked, reiterating what she had 'so often said':

'At present the answer is emphatically "No". It will be a long time before a woman will have any chance of nomination or election.'

She concluded that even if 'an emotional wave swept a woman into [the presidency], her election would be valueless, as she could never hold her following long enough to put over her program':

'It is hard enough for a man to do that, with all the traditional schooling men have had; for a woman, it would be impossible because of the age-old prejudice. In government, in business, and in the professions there may be a day when women will be looked upon as persons. We are, however, far from that day as yet.'

In 1940s Australia, the possibility of a woman as a political leader – whether Premier or Prime Minister – was equally remote. Not until 1943 was any woman elected to federal Parliament. Dorothy Tangney sat in the Senate, Enid Lyon in the House of Representatives, each the first woman ever to do so. Electors had put Edith Cowan into the WA Parliament some twenty years before and, following that lead, elections in other states saw occasional elevation of a woman as MP. Yet it took one of the territories – the ACT – to elect the first woman leader of any Australian government: on 11 May 1989 Rosemary Follett became Chief Minister. Carmen Lawrence (February 1990) and Joan Kirner (August 1990) followed as WA and Victorian Premier respectively; neither won an election as leader. Then the territories again showed the strength of voter sentiment by electing Kate Carnell minority government leader following the ALP's 1995 election loss, whilst the NT elected Clare Martin in 2001 and again in 2005. In 2007 Anna Bligh became Queensland's first woman Premier upon Peter Beattie's retirement, then in 2009 was the first woman to win the Premiership of any state, serving until the 2012 Liberal National Party election win.

As for Prime Minister, names were bandied about over more than a decade before in June 2010 Julia Gillard took the post first by ALP parliamentary caucus vote, then through negotiations with independent members after the August 2010 election. This meant the ALP retained government, and she retained the top post.

Julia Gillard thus broke through the barrier recognised by Eleanor Roosevelt. Yet Roosevelt saw more than simply gaining office as the goal. For her, it was necessary to make something of it, through implementing a policy programme of the leader's own making. This, for Roosevelt, was a major barrier. 'Age-old prejudice' was the key.

How, then, does Australia's first woman Prime Minister measure-up? Policy gains of the Australian government since 2010 election contradict Roosevelt's contention that a woman leader 'could never hold her following long enough to put over her program'. Since coming to power the Gillard government has:

• Passed the climate change policy on carbon pricing and emissions, incorporating supports for householders and ways business can implement it whilst retaining productivity, and awarding $1.9 mill. toward geothermal exploration advancing renewable energy potential;

• Launched the National Broadband Network (NBN) aiming to ensure rural and remote access to contemporary communications along with urban dwellers and business;

• Negotiated a Mental Health National Partnership Agreement (NP), providing states and territories mental health project funding, commencing with $57.6 mill. over 5 years to NSW for services for those often 'presenting at hospital emergency departments' or at risk of 'recycling' 'in and out of institutional settings';

• Supported the Australian Service Worker (ASU)'s equal pay claim, endorsed by Fair Work Australia on 1 February 2012;

• Introduced the R&D Tax Credit policy aimed at generating high-wage, high-skill jobs through a 45% refundable Tax Credit for firms under a $20mill turnover, and a 40%r refundable Tax Credit for all others, retrospective to 1 July 2011;

• Passed 'plain packaging' laws effective December 2012, to 'reduce the number of deaths from smoking-related diseases', 'giving [Australia] the best chance of having the lowest smoking rates';

• Announced a new cash-payment plan replacing the Education Tax Refund, so 'a typical family will get more than $720 extra each year' from 1 January 2013, ensuring payment is automatic, 'upfront' and prior to the end of the tax year;

• Implemented and expanded a National Bowel Cancer Screening Program to reduce bowel cancer, and announced a 'blitz' on dental treatment waiting lists to cover 400,000 patients, 'benefiting low income Australians';

• Introduced the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), from July 2013 operating from 'up to four locations across the country' ensuring 'about 10,000 people … will receive support … rising to 20,000' by July 2014 and meaning, in the government's words: 'For the first time in Australia's history people with significant and permanent disability will receive lifetime care and support, regardless of how they acquired their disability'.

Far from exhaustive, the list omits policies coming under significant humanitarian fire: the NT intervention or 'second invasion' and asylum seekers and refugees policy – although recently modified. However, here the Gillard government has pursued policies supported by the Prime Minister.

For Australia, then, Eleanor Roosevelt's assertion that a woman will fail as political head through 'not lasting' sufficiently long to carry through a platform falls.

Yet despite substantial policy achievements, many of which have major community support, and despite their being gained whilst leading a minority government, a Sydney Morning Herald poll: 'How do you rate Julia Gillard as prime minister?' shows confounding results. Of 16,832 votes, 15% rate performance as 'excellent', 17% 'good', 7% 'average', with the remainder devoted to 'poor' - at 10%, and 51% 'woeful'.

Limited to Fairfax readership, such polls can include multiple voting. Yet the figures prompt the question why, defying substantial policy outcomes and an undeniable capacity on the Prime Minister's part to effect this, a not insubstantial number fail to acknowledge it?

Owen Jones, UK Independent commentator, pinpoints sexism as the key to 'rampant' abuse leveled at women who speak up, speak out, and will not be put down whatever the invective. A predictable response dominates against articulate, determined, achievement-orientated women unafraid of power. Jones cites Louise Mensch, MP, viewed in some circles as an abrasive Conservative Party member, most recently featuring on the parliamentary committee reporting on Murdoch, the media and 'hacking'.

Observing she is 'a craven apologist for Rupert Murdoch, and deserves to be exposed as such', Jones notes that this 'does not distinguish [Mensch] from the Tory leadership, except that she is more honest about it [with] less power to act on her sycophancy'. She at least 'had the courage' to 'ride to the much-maligned mogul's defence' on television's Newsnight, only to receive a backlash constituted by 'a torrent of violently sexist tweets':

'She was a "whore", a "cold faced cold hearted bitch", and far worse. "Louise Mensch … You would wouldn't you?" tweeted Northern Irish "comedian" Martin Mor. "Given half a chance you'd strangle her!" Vice magazine proceeded to ask Occupy protesters if they'd have sex with her: just for the "lulz", as the kids say.'

And, as Jones concludes: 'No male cheerleader for the Murdochs – there are many – is subject to these chilling attacks.' The same goes for journalism, he says, for although Jones is 'no stranger to Twitter abuse', his critics most often are 'wound up' by 'what they regard as [his] excessively youthful appearance' characterised by 'Does your mum know you're up this late?' and 'Shouldn't you be doing your paper-round?'. Jones notes: 'It is nothing compared with the poisonous misogynist vitriol that women in politics and journalism – such as colleague Laurie Penny – receive.'

Like commentators on online journals, Twitter 'is an interesting insight into attitudes rampant in society, because it allows people to easily project venom most would never dream of screeching at a passerby in the street'. Twitter '… provides alarming evidence that sexism – of varying intensities – remains widespread among men':

'Whether purporting to be on the left or the right, there are all too many men who simply cannot bear to be lectured by a woman they passionately disagree with. "Who does this bitch think she is?" sums up their attitude; and if Twitter is anything to go by, what they say can be a lot more explicit than that.'

And although men may predominate in this form of discourse, women may also be implicated.

Returning, then, to Eleanor Roosevelt's nomination of 'age-old prejudice'. It is this – a phenomenon now termed 'sexism' – that dogged Hilary Clinton's 2008 White House bid. Misogynist invective came from the right, the left, and even her pre-selection opponent's camp. Samantha Power, an Obama campaign worker, took the hit for the sexist comment emanating from the candidate's office – but ended up on his Presidential staff in any event.

This phenomenon dogs the steps of Australia's Prime Minister.

Childless – unwomanly or unnatural. Childfree – unwomanly and selfish. 'Hard', 'uncaring', 'unfeeling' – yet men alone (Bob Hawke, Malcolm Fraser) are allowed to cry or show emotion (Hawke, Kevin Rudd) and get away with it, even be praised for it. If a woman leader cries, she 'can't mix it'. If she resists tears, she's 'unwomanly' or worse – even worse than Lady Macbeth, and who but a woman could be worse than this?

If she is assertive or simply able to stand up with conviction to deliver a message to the masses, she's 'tough as nails'. If she falters not a step, but an inch, a millimeter – she's hopeless or 'woeful'. And these are only a few – a mild few at that – of the misogynistic comments Australia's Prime Minister has weathered.

Former Senator Bob Brown said it: 'Quite a bit of the criticism [of the Prime Minister] is sexist and unfair and unrelenting …' And when questioned by one commentator, the Prime Minister contrasted expectations of her predecessors:

'… looking across Australia's political history when Bob Hawke was there or Paul Keating … or John Howard ..., I don't recall there being constant demands for them to show more personality. I don't remember people looking at John Howard and saying gee, I wish he'd be warmer and cuddlier and more humorous and more engaging in his press conferences. They looked at him and said, well he's the bloke running the country, and I think the same standard should apply to me. I'm a woman running the country, I don't ask people to come to the view that they want to have me round for dinner on Saturday night, that's not what I'm here to do.'

Nonetheless, reason lies for hope that the prejudice is shifting. Not only did the Parliamentary Labor Party support the elevation of the first woman to the Prime Ministership. It shouldn't go unnoticed that in the lead-up to the 2012 challenge, members of the caucus came out strongly in the Prime Minister's support – Simon Crean, former leader and longtime parliamentarian, one of them. The ALP has long been seen as male-dominated, yet it has produced and supported the women coming forward as leaders, apart from the Liberal Party's Kate Carnell, and Kerry Chikarovski as NSW Liberal Opposition leader (1998-2002) before her ousting.

As Owen Jones concludes, responsibility lies upon men to end 'the continuing scourge of sexism', speaking out against it, not perpetuating it. This is not an invitation for men to 'muscle in on' the Women's Movement. Rather, it is to recognise that 'sexist abuse is a symptom, or a warning sign, of a society in which women overall are still not equal'. This inequality is colluded in and supported by those who attack the Prime Minister with invective rather than addressing policy issues as policy issues.

All who engage in the abuse or support it by failing to acknowledge it for what it is, standing up to speak out against it so as, ultimately, to end it, remain wedged in the territory of the 'age-old prejudice' Eleanor Roosevelt identified. This age-old prejudice not only militates against the rights of women holding posts of 'high importance' and power. It erodes the dignity and human rights of every woman. It demotes all women to the category of 'non-persons', denied the respect and rights to which every human being is entitled.