Families Come First

We have our first ever female Prime Minster, be it for only a few days while the elected PM is overseas on official climate change business. Ms Gillard is using this as an opportunity to inspire young women to consider a career in politics and perhaps to dream of being elected PM one day.

I find it interesting that she is doing this and in the process elevating herself to female role model. I can’t help but think of the relevance of Bill Heffernan’s bluntly truthful yet tactless comment in describing Ms Gillard as “deliberately baron.”

In a climate where many MP’s have resigned from parliament for family reasons, Gillard just hasn’t had to deal with the same problems as she has chosen to not have children.

She’s selling a false reality to the young women of Australia. She is selling that women can do it all when she hasn’t done it all. Reality is that she had to make a HUGE sacrifice to get where she is today. Fellow MP’s Jackie Kelly and Carmel Tebbutt (NSW) have recently resigned from parliament because they felt they were missing out in their family life and it wasn’t worth that sacrifice.

Doesn’t just apply to females. Men also have to make a huge sacrifice in regards to family. Peter Costello in his speech following the election loss emphasised the fact that his family had a lot to deal with while missing his presence.