The unwritten rules

[Extract] At the end of what a friend described as the 'worst week for women in living memory', in August 2012 radio shock jock Alan Jones said that women, including Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Sydney mayor Clover Moore, were 'destroying the joint'. The import of his statement was that women should not hold political power.

Subsequently, mainstream news and social media went into overdrive following Julia Gillard's powerful naming and repudiation in Parliament, of sexism and misogyny. Watching it live at work, alone in my office, I almost stood and cheered. While her speech resonated globally, particularly with women, the largely male press gallery roundly criticised it. This seemed to miss the point. But that, of course, is the nature of hegemony.