Gender in politics

Q. Currently there are 43 (out of 150) federal MPs who are women. To what extent to you agree or disagree with the following reasons why there are fewer women than men in parliament?

	Strongly agree + Somewhat agree	Somewhat disagree + Strongly disagree	Strongly agree	Somewhat agree	Somewhat disagree	Strongly disagree	Don’t know
Political parties do not do enough to ensure gender equality in their organisations	57%	30%	22%	35%	19%	11%	14%
The process used by political parties to select electoral candidates favours men, rather than women	54%	28%	20%	34%	17%	11%	18%
Women choose not to get involved with politics	47%	41%	12%	35%	23%	19%	12%
Voters prefer to elect men, rather than women	39%	46%	10%	29%	28%	18%	15%
Women are less likely than men to have the experience and skills to make a good politician	20%	72%	7%	14%	23%	49%	8%

Over half of all people agreed that “Political parties do not do enough to ensure gender equality in their organisations” (57%), “The process used by political parties to select electoral candidates favours men, rather than women” (54%) and disagreed that “Women are less likely than men to have the experience and skills to make a good politician” (72%).

	Total (Strongly agree + Somewhat agree)	Male	Female	18-34	35-54	55+
Political parties do not do enough to ensure gender equality in their organisation	57%	53%	61%	59%	55%	56%
The process used by political parties to select electoral candidates favours men, rather than women	54%	50%	57%	56%	48%	57%
Women choose not to get involved with politics	47%	50%	44%	43%	44%	53%
Voters prefer to elect men, rather than women	39%	38%	40%	46%	37%	35%
Women are less likely than men to have the experience and skills to make a good politician	20%	25%	15%	29%	17%	15%

By gender, males were more likely than females to agree that “Women choose not to get involved with politics” (50% vs. 48%) and “Women are less likely than men to have the experience and skills to make a good politician” (25% vs. 15%). 

	Total (Strongly agree + Somewhat agree)	Labor	Liberal + National	Greens	NET: Other
Political parties do not do enough to ensure gender equality in their organisation	57%	64%	51%	70%	51%
The process used by political parties to select electoral candidates favours men, rather than women	54%	65%	48%	64%	45%
Women choose not to get involved with politics	47%	41%	56%	38%	52%
Voters prefer to elect men, rather than women	39%	40%	42%	45%	35%
Women are less likely than men to have the experience and skills to make a good politician	20%	16%	27%	14%	19%

Over half of voters for all political parties agreed that “Political parties do not do enough to ensure gender equality in their organisation”.