Parliament as a gendered workplace

Abstract

In March 2021, there were mass demonstrations around Australia, protesting over the unsafe work conditions for women in parliamentary workplaces. Two developments provided the background to these protests. The first was the development over the past 20 years of new international standards for Parliament as a gendered workplace. Australia had signed up to these standards, for example at Inter-Parliamentary Union assemblies, but done little to implement them. The second development was the international #MeToo movement, which encouraged many women, including those in parliamentary workplaces, to speak out for the first time about workplace experiences, including sexual harassment and sexual assault. These two developments came together when Brittany Higgins, a former Liberal staffer in the Australian Parliament, spoke out in February 2021 about her experience of being allegedly raped in a ministerial office two years before and how this had been treated as a ‘political problem’ first and foremost. The bravery of her testimony prompted others also to speak. It triggered widespread anger that one of ‘the most heavily guarded buildings in Australia’ could be so unsafe for women who worked in it.