Strong Female Lead

One in three Australian women experience discriminationor harassment in the workplace. Australia’s first andonly female prime minister (PM), Julia Gillard, was oneof them. She lasted in the job for three years and threedays. This film tracks what happened in that fragmentof time when a woman had the top job: how the mediaresponded, how colleagues milked the moment and howthe public joined a chorus of criticism based, unarguably,on gender. The film relies on archival footage onlyto describe Gillard’s time in office and creates anhonest portrait of a nation’s response to a female PMand illuminates the chain of events which culminatedin Gillard’s now-famous misogyny speech. Peoplecelebrated the long awaited election of a female PM,but the honeymoon period was particularly short lived.Gender based attacks from the media, parliamentarycolleagues and the public were shocking in their violenceand veracity. Strong Female Lead leaves us in no doubtthat Australia’s parliament is a boy’s club and if womenare ever to lead on equal footing with men, it’s timefor refurbishment. This unashamedly feminist work wascreated on behalf of all the young women who should begoing into politics and demonstrating that gender equityin politics creates better outcomes for everyone. Thisis a film about Australia’s struggle with the notion ofwomen in power.