Despite a record election for women in local government, seven Victorian councils still have just one female councillor and one has none at all.
Kerang's Jane Ogden is proud to be the only woman elected to Gannawarra Shire in Victoria's north last month, but the 63-year-old former Landcare coordinator wished she had more female company.
"I'm disappointed the other two women [Jenny Fawcett and Andrea Otto] couldn't get in because they've got interesting backgrounds that would have been great for the community," Ms Ogden said.
At October's polls, a single woman was also elected in West Wimmera, Northern Grampians, Golden Plains and Pyrenees in the west, Moyne in the south-west, and Towong in the north-east.
In Mansfield in the north-east, only men were elected.
These gender-unbalanced councils are in contrast to a much-heralded statewide trend that saw a record 272 women elected, meaning 43.8 per cent of all Victorian councillors are women.
Across central Victoria's seven municipalities, including Gannawarra, the figure is 33.9 per cent, with 18 women of 53 councillors female.
Ms Ogden was motivated to run after a controversy this year that saw then-councillors Sonia Wright and Mark Arians step down amid allegations of bullying and breaches of the Local Government Act.
"I believe women have a very important voice. We think differently and are connected to the community differently," Ms Ogden said.
Progress still needed
Ms Ogden said the gender split in the seven-seat council, which covers Cohuna, Kerang, Koondrook, Leitchville and Quambatook, was not ideal.
But she said elected women had a responsibility to work collaboratively with their colleagues.
"Being the only woman, I thought I would be concerned, but so far, I'm feeling OK," Ms Ogden said.
"I'm going to take it a day at a time.
"I'll have to be very clear on what my focus is and listen well, and I really want the seven of us to be a team."
Licia Heath is chief executive of Women for Election Australia, a non-partisan group committed to increasing the number of women in public office.
She said while reaching 43.8 per cent was an "amazing achievement" there was still work to be done.
"Despite the gains that Victoria made this year, the fact there are still councils that have one woman, or even worse, no women at all, shows we can't rest on our laurels about this type of progress," Ms Heath said.
