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

• The main barrier to female representation in parliament is seen to be the parties themselves. Almost two-thirds agree that political parties do not do enough to encourage gender equality in their organisations. Agreement with this statement has increased from 57% in 2019. The majority of Coalition (59%), Labor (71%) and Greens voters (75%) all agreed with this statement.
• Just over half of people (56%) agreed that the selection process is biased towards men.
• Women are more likely than men to agree that ‘Political parties do not do enough to ensure gender equality in their organisations’ (68% to 58%) and ‘The process used by political parties to select electoral candidates favours men, not women’ (60% to 53%).
• While men are more likely than women to agree that ‘Women choose not to get involved with politics’ (52% to 34%), ‘Voters prefer to elect men, rather than women’ (43% to 36%) and ‘Women are less likely than men to have the experience and skills to make a good politician’ (28% to 12%).