Greater challenges for women on council

NEW research conducted in Victoria has found that female councillors are more likely to have negative experiences in local government based on their gender.

The study conducted by Andrea Carsona, Gosia Mikolajczakb, Leah Ruppannerc and Emily Foley indicates that during election periods and the first year of government, women were more likely to receive negative comments on social media, receive doubts about their qualifications or be ignored.

The research focused on all 79 of Victoria’s municipalities, where women accounted for 43.8 per cent of elected councillors in the 2020 municipal elections.

In total, 222 of Victoria’s 621 councillors responded to the survey.

Young female councillors had the most negative experiences by brough on by groups like the media, social media, and colleges, and women were more likely to say they would not run for council again.

Mayor of the City of Greater Bendigo, Andrea Metcalf, said she has experienced some of these issues firsthand.

“The findings of the article are probably not surprising,” she said.

“There is some vitriol on social media about women councillors, like for me it was about my weight and you go that is not important, it’s not impacting how I do my job.

“I don’t know why there is such a scrutiny around how female councillors look; it should be about if they do the job properly.”

Cr Amy Johnson from the City of Ballarat said the balance of family life and work life can also be a deterrent for women or make their experience more challenging.

“In my experience women tend to experience greater barriers to election to council and their ongoing participation,” she said.

“Often the types of commitments that you need to attend as a councillor will be spread right across the day and if you have a partner who works full time and young children you then need to balance it.

“I think there should be more support available for young women.”

Cr Metcalf agreed that the balance of work and family life can be difficult for women.

“It’s a continual juggle for women and I don’t think men would see it as quite as much trouble,” she said.

“There was a Geelong councillor just recently who resigned, and it was around not being able to do the balance.”

Cr Metcalf encouraged women to call out negative behaviour and persevere in leadership positions as it gets easier over time.

“Georgie Purcell from the Animal Justice Party has certainly called out about what she’s been called, and I think that’s a really important part,” she said.

“In a particular council in metro Melbourne, for their young women that were elected in 2016, not one of them ran for council in 2020.

“And I was just thinking you just learnt so much and you really know the role of a councillor and are confident in what you do by the end of your first term.”

Cr Johnson called on the community to get behind female participation in council.

“I’m really passionate about encouraging female participation in local government and have over a number of years encouraged a range of different women to put up their hand,” she said.

“I would love to see more support in Ballarat for women to stand for local government because it can be very challenging.”