Once upon a time, it was commonly believed a woman’s place was in the kitchen, and the concept of the working mum was nowhere to be seen. Even though women played an integral part in society, until the 1943 elections of Dorothy Tangney and Enid Lyons, Australian Federal Parliament had never seen a female Senator or Member. 64 years on, and women are still trying to make headway in a man’s world.

Indeed, things are changing, and we have more females in leadership positions today than we have ever had before… But it seems for every time we take one step forward, we also take three back.

Even after the last Federal election, women in politics are still a rare breed.

Subjected to the constant taunts from the media that they are too young, too old, too fat, too thin, too barren, too this, too that; whatever miniscule detail seems to make a good headline for that day – it begs the question, why would a woman even want to become a Member of Parliament when the focus lies predominantly on her appearance rather than her policies? Why run for office when the media seems to focus on her shoes, or her jacket or her hairstyle rather than the people and values that she represents, or makes personal remarks about her ability to balance family life with work responsibilities?

It’s ironic, because when was the last time that we, as a society, critiqued the colour of male leader’s tie, or their shoes or questioned their ability to balance playing dad with playing politician? It doesn’t happen very often, does it?

And whilst individuals like Julia Gillard may be defying typical stereotypes, as the first female Deputy Leader in Australian political history, the fact that in the 2007 election, 18 seats for the House of Representatives did not have a single female candidate fuels the sad reality that at least in the political arena; it still is a man’s world.

Maybe it is about time we, as a society, stopped playing on the stereotypes of what constitutes a modern day mum and stopped focusing on what a female leader should look like, or do, and instead, focus on their policies, their values and most importantly, the people that they represent. Maybe then, women would not be the gender that is forced to make headway in a man’s world.