title: Because I am Woman: The Representation of Women in the Queensland Parliament 1915-2015
Creators: name: Meiklejohn, Ainslie Rose
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Queensland Parliament
subject: Women Members of Parliament
subject: Under-representation
subject: Masculinist culture
subject: Gender inequality

description: Between 1915 and 2015, 83 women held seats in the Queensland Parliament. This thesis seeks to understand why the women Members of the Queensland Parliament are under-represented and less likely to hold leadership positions. Moreover, the narratives for these women have not been recorded or heard. This aims to understand this under-representation, and further, by developing qualitative and quantitative data, this thesis seeks to add to the existing literature on women’s experiences in parliament. Further, I argue gender can be understood within Bourdieu’s concept of capital (Bourdieu, 2002, 2001), as an additional category of capital and I posit that gender capital is a part of the explanation for the persistent under-representation of the women Members of the Queensland Parliament. By understanding capital, and gender capital, the data in this thesis outlines the masculinist culture of the Queensland Parliament and the political parties. The qualitative data, which included one-on-one, in-depth interviews and ethnography, defines the depths of the both implicit and explicit and masculinist culture, which remains one of the more pervasive barriers to women’s representation in the Queensland Parliament. This thesis includes qualitative data, from one-on-one, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with past and present women Members from the Queensland Parliament 1915-2015, and ethnography from the Queensland Parliament. From this data, I argue the culture in the Queensland Parliament is masculinist, and this sits within the wider masculinist cultural milieu. By applying Bourdieu’s concept of capital (1984, 2002) to gender, I argue men and women exist within the constraints of masculine and feminine capital. In a masculinist culture, with masculine as the default, and specifically in the example of the Queensland Parliament, where women are under-represented, women are marked by their bodies and their capital. Thus, women are judged in ways that men are not, and often perceived to be lacking capital. The Queensland Parliament is an unequal working environment, and despite the contemporaneous advances in women’s representation, the masculinist culture continues to be a barrier for women entering the Queensland Parliament. This thesis which draws on Bourdieu (1977, 1984, 1993, 2001, 2002), Huppatz (2006, 2009, 2012), Crawford and Pini (2010a) and Acker (1992, 2000, 2006a, 2006b, 2009) to understand how gender operates in male dominated industries. I argue gender inequality is a cultural issue, entrenched in our everyday lives, extending into the workplace. Gender is invisible for men, who have masculine capital in a masculinist setting, however, there remains a barrier for women whose skills and capital are under-appreciated and undervalued. Overall, this thesis draws on the quantitative data to indicate the success of Voluntary Party Quotas in the Queensland Parliament, which act as a counter to the masculinist culture of the political parties in the Queensland Parliament. Further, this thesis adds to the existing literature by including the concept of the stumbling trajectory. I argue women experience gender in ways that men do not, and this is reflected in the stumbling career trajectory. This research concludes that women do have ambition and drive to be included in pre-selection and positions of leadership, however this is tempered by outside gender-based factors such as motherhood, the traditional roles and expectations of women and internal party politics. By using Acker’s concept of male dominated workplaces (Acker, 1992, 2000, 2006a, 2006b, 2009) and Crawford and Pini’s (2010a) concept of the gendered parliament, the experiences of the women Members can be understood in terms of capital. Further, as re-worked by Huppatz (2012), Bourdieu’s concept of capital now includes gender capital, and this research also argues for the inclusion of gender capital while addressing the gap pertaining to gender and Bourdieu. The other significant contribution this thesis makes is the collection and collation of qualitative data from the women Members. Finally, this thesis acknowledges, the representation of women, and women in leadership, is moving in a positive direction. Examples of this lie in former Premier Bligh, Premier Palaszczuk, former Deputy Premier and current Treasurer Trad, former Leader of the Opposition and former Deputy Premier Sheldon, Deb Frecklington as Leader of the Opposition, The Honourable Leneen Forde, The Honourable Dame Quentin Bryce, and The Honourable Penelope Wensley. Future research may include the political parties, as there is no demarcation of the political parties, to avoid identification of the participants. Future research could also be directed specifically to pre- selection and gate-keepers within political organisations. Research investigating the hierarchical nature of the political parties would also be significant for women’s representation.