Suze I don't agree with many of Abbott's opinions but he is not the only one in the LNP. I also think he can for the most part divorce ('scuse the pun) his personal from the political platform equally as any other politician who hold personal views that might differ even from their colleagues.

The emphasis on Abbott-bashing as a person is not helpful IMO. It is as meaningless as Antiseptic's obsession with Emily's List and delusions of feminist takeovers by some of our more regular misogynists on OLO (and just to clarify I am not talking about those who have legitimate claims about bias towards women in some spheres).

Abbott is not even close to some in that category.

I came late to this one.
I can see from the first couple of pages that the left wing feminist
trendies are out in force.

If you took an attitude halfway between your opinions and an ideal man
you might have it about right.

Frankly I think you are totally misjudging him with your exaggerations.
I think most of you are believing the Labour Party propaganda.
I suspect he could turn out to be a very good prime minister.
People can surprise you like that.

Dear me, Pelican, Emily's List is many things, but "meaningless" is not one of them. How many other groups can claim to have 30% plus of the ALP members in all Australian Parliaments, across Left and Right?

I hate the way you misandrists categorise anybody who disagrees wwith you as a misogynist...

Anti
You are free to think of me as you please, anything I have to say will not change your one-way view anyway although I would like to see your evidence that I hate men or think men should be overtaken via a feminist conspiracy.

I have never called you a misogynist my view about you is a person who has been hurt by personal circumstances and like many embittered though divorce (I've met women like you as well who make equally as broad generalisations about men) see the world through that experiene. It is what it is.

I am yet to see you acknowledge the boys club mentality which has far more influence throughout history than any Emily's List type organisation. EL was created to encourage more women into parliament, not to overtake men in parliament.

This does not mean Parliament will be any better or worse for it, it still comes down to the integrity or calibre of the individual and on that point men and women are truly equal.

Pelican, I was being somewhat ironically facetious about your "misandry". I had hoped you'd pick that up..

As for the "boys' club", was it really that, or just a sensible organisation of society to fit the biological imperatives generally evident on gener lines? Is replacing that with an artificial "girls' club" based on no such underlying drives really such a great achievement? Why? It's a response to a short-term problem, that of the baby-boom generation aging and it's funded by the fortuitous advent of the mining boom, where all of the hard work is done by men.

The solution being offered by some is to get women into work traditionally done by men, but nobody has suggested what the men will do...

Yeah I probably jumped on you too quickly Anti. Apologies. Reading it back I can see the tongue in cheek.

The men will go on doing what they have always done. There are more jobs now and different sorts of jobs than previously especially since technological advancement that are tailored to either gender.

I also find myself in conflict over gender equality issues to some extent given that I also have a strong belief that children do best (especially young children and infants) when cared for in the home by a parent (either mum or dad) and in that I am probably considered a bit of a dinosar but I think the evidence is overwhelmingly for better and closer parenting than distance parenting. This is not to say that there cannot be a mix of care and that one size fits all. I guess we are all possessed of our own prejudices in this area.