Mirko admits that the reason women are "so grossly under-represented in politics and senior jobs" is "because they’re smart enough to know that more often than not the price to be paid for securing a high-flying position is too high."

But it is not just the process of obtaining political power that is a disincentive to family-centered women; it is also the tremendous burden such positions place on family life.

Hence, those women who are in Parliament as a group are disproportionately single, separated, divorced, remarried or childless and not that representative of the vast majority of women.

An indication of this is the fact that women MPs were more strongly supportive of abortion than male MPs in the recent RU486 vote in Federal Parliament, when opinion polls show the opposite to be the case in the wider population, i.e. women are more pro-life than men.

As quotas would give us more of the same (as the ALP has discovered), then for the sake of good government let's go the other way and push for all pre-selections in all parties to be based solely on merit.

If the system is broken, let's fix it rather than rig it.

Steel,

You were witness to "a case" where a male was discriminated against in your opinion due to gender. If women are promoted because of flirting well the men definitely are thinking with what I suggested earlier... sorry it proves my point. But a flirt may also have the skills and get there on merit.

Perhaps we should setup a scoreboard... I wonder where the most discrimination would be occuring... men discriminated against by women... or women discriminated against by men. I know which group would win!

On a radio show today it gave these stats... 10 out of 11 senior management and board members were men. It is just way too far out of whack with the rest of society. 51% of society are women!

I can imagine that women wouldn't necessarily want to be exposed to the abuse that Cheryl Kernot got. It allegedly took two to tango... but Gareth Evans got a key overseas position... Kernot didn't! Yep no discrimination there!

Good looking women will always have an advantage as do good looking men... I know I'm ugly...lol

Big Al... How can you think that will work? It hasn't in the past ... women get the cruddy seats... have a look at history. It would be lovely to think that at the branch level things worked so nicely but they don't. That is why laws are introduced to encourage change.

Next time you get together with a bunch of just your mates listen to what they say about women like Vanstone et al... not too pleasant! Now what do they say about a similarly built male... not much!

Imagine if Amanda Vanstone was in the House of Reps... would men vote for her? In the senate she has greater opportunity because she is on a Liberal Senate ticket in a certain position. Most people vote for the Libs so personalities, looks etc. don't come into it

If we are going to go this way, perhaps I should suggest on behalf of other under-represented groups that quotas be implemented.
Lets see, we have a diverse range of people born from different countries and cultures...we should have a minimum number of representatives based on percentage of the voting population each represents. AND Im a left hander....perhaps we need to address that too! At last count that means 20% of the seats need to be reserved.
For those that dont get my facietiousness, fake boosting of any group in favour of another is a) discrimination (illegal I believe) b) Highly unlikely to succeed since we may have to FORCE people to stand for elections to meet the quotas (Hardly democratic is it?) c) Doesnt reflect the political ambition of the targeted group. There is nothing stopping women nominating now yet they choose not to. I think they have already voted on this dont you? As an example look at the current lamenting regarding the fewer female candidates at the Tassie and SA elections.
Silly idea.....NEXT!

"Feminism would have you believe women are the powerless victims of men. While this had some merit in earlier times, there is little use for it now. Misogynist is a word commonly thrown around by feminists, the kind of feminists or women who hate men. Anyone know what that is called? I don't. STEEL"

The word is misandrist
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=misandrist

AJNT

I understand your facietiousness but we are talking about 51% of the population... I think that is called the majority... so your fake boosting of a particular group argument doesn't apply. Was it a fake boosting when women got the vote? It was made law for a reason.. women not having a vote was inequitable & unjust.

Women have been oppressed politically for 1000's of years and deserve better representation in parliament. There is no force being applied here... it's called encouragement. If a woman can't be found for a particular reason then obviously a man would take her place... you could try a kangaroo but a man would be better....lol But all the merit based arguments are flawed from an intellectual stand point because men haven't necessarily got their through "merit". You can't have it both ways.

Now the next step in this long process is to increase women's representation within our parliamentary system.

That you say "silly Idea Next" won't make the problem go away... lol

AS lefthanders only represent 20% of the population perhaps we should put them down to stop them becoming a pressure group....only joking lol

In global politics and business, where relationships between communities, countries and leaders are formed or disposed of, here, where compassion and understanding are clearly required, why are women still overlooked as the natural sources of these delicate and necessary diplomatic qualities?

Leadership, strength of mind and even physical strength aren't exclusively masculine qualities.

Women lead as mothers and they bear children with mysterious strength. Instead of promoting our unique strengths and differences, our high-powered mental-emotional-social processes, our capacity for forgiveness, instead of placing importance on, and utilizing these attributes, we spend generations competing with men on their level. Consequently, our own expectations of ourselves, as women, are narrowed, since our uniquely feminine approach is greatly ignored as an ethically productive strategy, in a war-ridden male dominated world.

We got the vote, and that was hard enough! Slogging away at fair pay has been demoralizing. Tragically, generations of young women are instructed that in order to contribute any worth to society in business or politics, they must assume the posture and attitude of a man, especially when entering a male dominated work environment.

Affirmative action for women in governance and politics everywhere!

If you erect it they will come!