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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%).

COVID-19 RESEARCH
Read Essential's ongoing research on the public response to Covid-19.
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Two Party Preferred:
Labor
47%
Coalition
44%
In this week's report:
- Performance of Scott Morrison
- Performance of Anthony Albanese
- Preferred Prime Minister
- Federal government response to Covid-19
- State government response to Covid-19
- Confidence in Labor government handling of Covid-19 pandemic
- Satisfaction with speed of Covid-19 vaccine rollout
- Party most responsible for slow vaccine rollout
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