Politics, women, women in politics
Q. Currently there are 45 (out of 151) 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.
| TOTAL: Agree | Mar’21 | Feb’19 |
| Political parties do not do enough to ensure gender equality in their organisations | 63% | 57% |
| The process used by political parties to select electoral candidates favours men, not women | 56% | 54% |
| Women choose not to get involved with politics | 43% | 47% |
| Voters prefer to elect men, rather than women | 40% | 39% |
| Women are less likely than men to have the experience and skills to make a good politician | 20% | 20% |
| TOTAL: Agree | Total | Gender | Age Group | Federal Voting Intention | ||||||||
| Male | Female | 18-34 | 35-54 | 55+ | Labor | TOTAL: Coalition | Greens | TOTAL: Other | ||||
| Political parties do not do enough to ensure gender equality in their organisations | 63% | 58% | 68% | 66% | 61% | 62% | 71% | 59% | 75% | 56% | ||
| The process used by political parties to select electoral candidates favours men, not women | 56% | 53% | 60% | 54% | 59% | 56% | 63% | 52% | 67% | 55% | ||
| Women choose not to get involved with politics | 43% | 52% | 34% | 36% | 45% | 47% | 37% | 51% | 39% | 49% | ||
| Voters prefer to elect men, rather than women | 40% | 43% | 36% | 52% | 40% | 29% | 37% | 46% | 39% | 41% | ||
| Women are less likely than men to have the experience and skills to make a good politician | 20% | 28% | 12% | 23% | 23% | 13% | 16% | 27% | 17% | 19% | ||
| Base (n) | 1,100 | 539 | 561 | 332 | 382 | 386 | 382 | 389 | 92 | 122 | ||
Parliament House, treatment of women, women, workplace culture
Q. Following allegations of sexual assault and misogynistic behaviour by staffers, a review into Parliament House workplace culture has been initiated.
Which of the following is closest to your view on the issue?
| Total | Gender | Age Group | Federal Voting Intention | |||||||||
| Male | Female | 18-34 | 35-54 | 55+ | Labor | TOTAL: Coalition | Greens | TOTAL: Other | ||||
| Recent revelations about the culture in Parliament House is an isolated workplace issue, primarily about the safety of women working in politics | 40% | 50% | 30% | 47% | 44% | 29% | 30% | 52% | 30% | 41% | ||
| Recent revelations about the culture in Parliament House are symptomatic of the discrimination of women in society | 60% | 50% | 70% | 53% | 56% | 71% | 70% | 48% | 70% | 59% | ||
| Base (n) | 1,100 | 539 | 561 | 332 | 382 | 386 | 382 | 389 | 92 | 122 | ||
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”.
Q. To what extent do you support or oppose political parties setting gender quotas when selecting candidates to achieve a representative number of women in parliament?
| Total | Male | Female | Aged 18-34 | Aged 35-54 | Aged 55+ | |
| NET: Support | 46% | 45% | 48% | 59% | 44% | 38% |
| NET: Oppose | 40% | 44% | 36% | 29% | 40% | 49% |
| Strongly support | 18% | 17% | 19% | 26% | 14% | 14% |
| Somewhat support | 29% | 28% | 29% | 33% | 30% | 24% |
| Somewhat oppose | 20% | 21% | 19% | 16% | 19% | 22% |
| Strongly oppose | 20% | 23% | 18% | 12% | 21% | 26% |
| Don’t know | 14% | 12% | 16% | 12% | 16% | 14% |
Just under one in five (18%) strongly support the introduction of gender quotas when selecting political candidates. Overall support was highest among 18-34 years olds (59%).
| Total | Labor | Liberal + National | Greens | NET: Other | |
| NET: Support | 46% | 59% | 37% | 65% | 32% |
| NET: Oppose | 40% | 30% | 50% | 22% | 52% |
| Strongly support | 18% | 24% | 13% | 27% | 11% |
| Somewhat support | 29% | 36% | 24% | 38% | 22% |
| Somewhat oppose | 20% | 17% | 22% | 16% | 25% |
| Strongly oppose | 20% | 14% | 29% | 6% | 28% |
| Don’t know | 14% | 10% | 12% | 13% | 15% |
Support for gender quotas was highest among Greens voters (65%), followed by Labor (59%). Under half of Coalition voters (37%) were in support.
challenges facing women, discrimination, discrimination against women, quotas, sexism, women
Q. Would you support or oppose the Liberal Party adopting quotas to increase number of Liberal women in the parliament?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote Other | ||
| Total support | 61% | 63% | 68% | 68% | 50% | |
| Total oppose | 21% | 18% | 27% | 14% | 35% | |
| Strongly support | 19% | 17% | 21% | 32% | 18% | |
| Support | 42% | 46% | 47% | 36% | 32% | |
| Oppose | 14% | 12% | 16% | 13% | 23% | |
| Strongly oppose | 7% | 6% | 11% | 1% | 12% | |
| Don’t know | 18% | 19% | 5% | 18% | 15% |
61% support the Liberal Party adopting quotas to increase number of Liberal women in the parliament and 21% oppose.
68% of Liberal National voters support quotas for women and 27% oppose.
56% of men support quotas for women compared to 65% of women.
discrimination, discrimination against women, women
Q. Which of the following statements is closest to your view?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Men | Women | Aged 18-34 | Aged 35-54 | Aged 55+ | |||
| Significant obstacles still make it harder for women to get ahead than men | 46% | 48% | 41% | 71% | 46% | 31% | 60% | 43% | 45% | 51% | ||
| Obstacles that made it harder for women to get ahead are largely gone | 40% | 39% | 47% | 20% | 45% | 53% | 27% | 42% | 37% | 40% | ||
| Don’t know | 14% | 13% | 12% | 9% | 10% | 16% | 13% | 15% | 18% | 9% |
46% think significant obstacles still make it harder for women to get ahead than men and 40% think that those obstacles are largely gone.
Those most likely to think there are still significant obstacles were Greens voters (71%) and women (60%).
53% of men think those obstacles are largely gone.
Q. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
|
Total agree |
Total disagree |
Strongly agree |
Agree |
Disagree |
Strongly disagree |
Don’t know |
Total agree men |
Total agree women |
|||
|
In general, women’s sports are just as exciting as men’s |
61% |
28% |
17% |
44% |
21% |
7% |
10% |
55% |
68% |
||
|
The media does not pay enough attention to women’s sports |
68% |
20% |
27% |
41% |
16% |
4% |
12% |
62% |
75% |
||
|
In general, people are not interested in watching women play sports |
42% |
43% |
7% |
35% |
30% |
13% |
15% |
40% |
43% |
||
|
Most women aren’t interested in playing or watching sports |
27% |
60% |
4% |
23% |
40% |
20% |
13% |
30% |
24% |
||
|
Women athletes are great role models for girls |
84% |
7% |
36% |
48% |
4% |
3% |
9% |
78% |
90% |
||
|
In general, compared to men, sportswomen are underpaid and the financial rewards inadequate |
72% |
13% |
34% |
38% |
9% |
4% |
16% |
65% |
78% |
A substantial proportion of respondents agreed that “Women athletes are great role models for girls” (84%), “In general, compared to men, sportswomen are underpaid and the financial rewards inadequate” (72%) and “The media does not pay enough attention to women’s sports” (68%). A majority also agreed “In general, women’s sports are just as exciting as men’s” (61%). They were divided 42% agree/43% disagree over whether “In general, people are not interested in watching women play sports” but 60% disagreed that “Most women aren’t interested in playing or watching sports”.
Overall, women had a more positive opinion than men on most issues except “In general, people are not interested in watching women play sports” where men were 40% agree/44% disagree and women 43% agree/42% disagree.
22 October 2012, 221012, appearance expectations on women, behaviour expectations, women
Q. Do you think women face more or less pressure over their behavior and appearance than they did 20 years ago?
|
Total |
Men |
Women |
Aged 18-34 |
Aged 35-54 |
Aged 55+ |
|
| Total more |
49% |
39% |
58% |
56% |
44% |
48% |
| Total less |
30% |
37% |
25% |
27% |
33% |
30% |
| A lot more |
24% |
14% |
34% |
24% |
23% |
27% |
| A little more |
25% |
25% |
24% |
32% |
21% |
21% |
| A little less |
15% |
16% |
14% |
17% |
15% |
13% |
| A lot less |
15% |
20% |
11% |
10% |
18% |
17% |
| About the same |
16% |
17% |
14% |
9% |
19% |
19% |
| Don’t know |
5% |
7% |
3% |
8% |
4% |
3% |
49% of respondents believe that women face more pressure over their behavior and appearance than they did 20 years ago and 30% think they face less pressure.
58% of women and 56% of people aged under 35 think there is more pressure on women.
By voting intention, 56% of Labor voters think there is more pressure compared to 52% of Greens voters and 45% of Liberal/National voters.