Suse,
No, I don't think Julia Gillard made mistakes because she is a woman or that they were a woman's mistakes, she is a person of modest talents who was put into a position to which she was not suited via affirmative action, factional deals and the deal with the Greens and independants.
No Julie Bishop isn't leadership material and the "old boys" aren't holding anyone back, the real leader of the cabinet is a woman, Peta Credlin.
Labor promote nonsense like the "wage gap", the Liberals promote other nonsense but their "schtick" as exemplified by Julie bishop's speech is closer to the way real men and women think of themselves and each other.

Not often do I find myself agreeing with Jay Of M, but on Gillard I tend to agree, she was rather a lackluster leader and there may have been a degree of affirmative action which catapulted her into that leaders position. In Gillards defense, one could argue who could have done better given the circumstances, certainly not Abbott. The poison chalice of leading a minority government was too much for Julia given her limited leadership talents. The resurrection of Rudd seen the Labor Party admitting it had got it wrong, but it was too little, too late. I had been in favor of handing government to Abbott in 2010, given his very dubious capabilities.
Is Julie Bishop the best the Liberals have to offer, I would have hoped not, with the exception of Turnbull, there is little in the way of leadership talent on the governments front bench, Abbott in the Howard days was considered a non goer, but we now see him in command. Who else is there, Hockey, Pyne, oh please no. If these are the alternatives to Abbott, maybe Bishop is "outstanding" given that the for-mentioned are totally lacking in talent.

<I asked my partner "T" last night if she considered herself a feminists. She said "Yes I
<am, I'm a human being first, a Maori second and a women third, and all three are telling
<you to do the washing up, NOW!" "Yes dear, straight away dear, sorry dear, should
<equality apply to doing the dishes?" LOL
Posted by Paul1405, Monday, 3 November 2014 7:12:58 AM

That is priceless. LOLO

Here is a simplistic definition - feminism entails the advocation of political, social, legal and economic rights for women (euqal to those of men). I am a feminist myself, yet I do not consider men inferior. I believe strongly in equality for both men and women....this is the heart, the crux of true feminism. people in competion who consider men less are simply ill educated assaholics claiming to be feminists and using it as a an excuse to back their simple minded perceptions. these people are not tue feminists lol. they are distasteful, angsty little gils who have embraced a concept, misunderstood purpose and taken it to the extreme. There are only THREEEE rights based elements to consider in life---sexuality, gender and race. Each of these focal elements are vital to euqality and acceptnce of identity. These are elements based on who we are from birth NOT who we are established by choice or preference. U cannot alter ur skin, you cannot alter ur sexuality and you cannot alter ur gender. straight up, these three groups had their rights stolen...rights that should have existed from the get go. history tarnished them. history has been harsh to these groups. and the funniest part exists when we consider that these groups are each socially constructed. gender is a social construct. race is a social construct. sexuality is a social construct. the bigger picture which i hope u can all appreciate is the fact that we are all human. we are humans...we bleed the same blood. have the same organs. people are people nothing more nothing less. the artificial social concepts are to promote segrgation aned inferiority/hate. my main position is that yeah feminism is great. tue feminism is beautiful. it is all about peace and euqal opportunity between men and women with no relevnce to the notion of one being superior to the other. google the def regarding it. think bout it too...all religions have their extremists and all political movements do too! people who believe men to be inferior are just ill educated extremists. simple! peace xx

btw, these posts are from....DAUGHTEROFGLOIN. tc everyone. embrace equality and abolish judgements.

If only?

Feminism claims to be about challenging 'gender' stereo types, yet on the same hand creates it's own gender stereo types. It is a one way communication line, telling us men what is wrong with us men.

As many of the feminists on this site display, they are only happy with communication from men who agree with them and what they are saying.

Should a male disagree with them, various tactics, such as name calling, or guild tripping are used in order to shame these dissident males back into line.

Feminists rather than opening the lines of communication to explore ideas and issues, shut down such debate unless it complies with their own agenda.