Gender is never off the agenda while denigration of women is a national pastime

[Extract] There has been a renewed focus on gender-related issues in Australian politics lately. Kate Galloway argues that it is time to address the deep seated disdain for women in our society.

According to some commentators, women, including the Prime Minister, have been playing the ‘gender card’. Whatever the ‘gender card’ may be however, it is men who have showed their true hand with revelations of puerile sexual jibes at the Prime Minister’s body and a direct assault on the Prime Minister’s partner’s sexuality. This array of sexual harassment and vilification was topped off by the exposure of ‘demeaning and degrading’ sexual harassment in the Australian Defence Forces.