Liberal women are rallying behind the federal party’s first female leader, branding questions about her ascension as sexist after an official walked back her response to her longevity.
Sussan Ley won the leadership on Tuesday, narrowly beating former shadow treasurer Angus Taylor in a partyroom ballot.
Her Liberal Party deputy is Ted O’Brien, the MP who spearheaded the nuclear energy policy the coalition took to their loss-making May 3 election.
However, Ms Ley was immediately warned she could face a “glass cliff” – a term referring to the appointment of women to top positions during times of crisis, meaning they can be set up to fail.
Charlotte Mortlock, who founded Hilma’s Network, which supports women in the Liberal Party, rejected the claims.
She noted there weren’t similar comparisons made when former opposition leader Peter Dutton became leader after Scott Morrison led the party to its worst defeat in decades at the 2022 federal election.
“We didn’t go pick Sussan Ley off the street to take the fall for the party,” she told AAP.
“She has been the deputy leader, she is second in line, it was a completely logical decision.
“She is an impressive and capable woman and to insinuate she has been given this job for any other reason is incredibly sexist.”
Ms Ley rejected the use of the term at her first press conference as leader on Tuesday.
The promotion of a woman into the top job showed the party was listening to the messages sent by women abandoning the party in droves.
“The number of women supporting us is declining and I want to rule the line under that,” Ms Ley said.
But asked on national television on Wednesday how long Ms Ley would last as leader, Liberal Party’s federal vice president Fiona Scott appeared hesitant.
“I don’t know, I mean a day’s a long time in politics,” she told Nine.
“Well, you know – it could be a day, it won’t be a day. I mean, cheeky, but look you don’t know what the political tides will bring.”
Asked about Ms Scott’s statement, Labor frontbencher Penny Wong said “ouch”.
“That’s not the most ringing endorsement I’ve heard but … I’m going to leave it to the Liberal party to sort this out,” she added.
Later on Sky News, Ms Scott clarified she was joking and that Ms Ley was a fantastic choice.
“I did go on to clarify that I absolutely support Sussan, I think it’s a wonderful step forward,” she said.
Gender equality expert Michelle Ryan said that with more than two decades of parliamentary experience under her belt, Ms Ley was “incredibly qualified” for the job.
“But the timing definitely suggests that it’s somewhat of a glass cliff,” the ANU professor, who coined the term with her research partner Alex Haslan in 2005, said.
“The fact that they’ve come out of an unprecedented loss at an election, and this is the first time a woman is leading – I don’t think those two things are unconnected.
The pool of Liberal leadership candidates was relatively small given the scale of the election defeat, and potential leaders such as Dan Tehan and Andrew Hastie were quick to rule themselves out.
“It’s also interesting that people that might have put themselves forward in a better time are not putting themselves forward now,” Prof Ryan said.
“Whoever was going to take on this leadership position was unlikely to be prime minister.”
Ms Ley’s election was also an effort to show women voters it had changed, Prof Ryan added.
“The glass cliff makes it harder to succeed, but that doesn’t mean success is not possible,” she said.
Mr O’Brien also rejected any suggestion that the leadership duo were some sort of placeholders, saying the Liberal team had united around them and would strengthen over time.
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