The treatment of women in Australian politics has been dominating headlines, and calls for quotas in the Liberal party are gaining momentum. We thought it necessary to take a look at the gender balance in Australia’s parliament – not simply at a whole, but across several variables – to better understand gender dynamics in politics. The data reveals some fascinating insights.
Overall women form 38% of our federal parliament but breaking it down between the two houses reveals a discrepancy. While women make up only 31% of the 151-member House of Representatives, they’re the majority in the 76-member Senate at 53%, which puts Australia ahead of Canada and the US in terms of female representation in the upper house.
Labor is largely responsible for the improved representation of women in the lower house, with the party nearing parity at 43%. The lag is apparent on the conservative side, however, with the Liberals at 21% and the Nationals having just two female MPs in the lower house: Anne Webster and Michelle Landry.
Three of the main four parties – Labor, the Greens and the Nationals – boast majority female representation in the upper house, leaving the Liberal party in the lone corner with female senators in the minority.
Women across the two major parties were more likely to be placed in marginal seats than men. Female MPs represented 55% of Labor’s marginal seats and and 35% of Liberal marginal seats.
While looking at gender breakdowns in parliament, we also decided to take a peak at the professional backgrounds of MPs to assess whether perceptions of privileged pathways to parliament were accurate. The data packs few surprises, with the Liberals overrepresented by MPs with law and finance backgrounds and Labor with union backgrounds. The Greens take the cake when it comes to proportion of members with science backgrounds.
For example, 55% of Liberal members of parliament possessed a finance and business background, and 49% had a law background. Labor also had a high proportion of MPs with a law background at 38%, and over-indexed compared with other parties in education (14%) and party officials/unions (24%). Interestingly, few politicians actually have a background in political science or public policy.
Noting the backgrounds of parliament members helps explain the perceptions of each party – the Liberals as business-friendly, Labor as worker-friendly, and the Greens as pro-climate/science. It also adds weight to the argument for more diverse representation in parliament to bring forth the issues and interests of those without a clear voice in the nation’s most powerful chambers.
Compared to our Five Eyes allies – New Zealand, the UK, the US and Canada – Australia is second only to New Zealand (48%) in terms of overall female representation in federal parliament. Of the three countries with a senate – Australia, Canada, and the US – Australia outperforms, with 53% female representation, compared with Canada at 49% and the US at 24%.
Josh Nicholas contributed to this data blog
