A concerted, organised and strategic pushback by the “manosphere” against gender equality can’t be swept under the rug, Australia’s only female prime minister says.
But advocates also need to turn the spotlight on themselves and assess whether their language has played a role in making men feel excluded from the movement, Julia Gillard says.
The former Labor prime minister, now primarily based in the United Kingdom, has returned to Australia as a keynote speaker at Women Deliver.
The gender-equality conference, which begins on Monday, is focused on improving all aspects of women’s, girls’ and gender-diverse people’s lives.
Melbourne is hosting the event, a significant moment as it is the first time the conference – established in 2007 and held every three years – has been in the Oceanic Pacific region.
Women Deliver is more than a talkfest, with Ms Gillard saying attendees were keenly focused on developing solutions to global challenges.
“People are coming together not just to chat, but to build new links, work through difficult issues, come up with new ideas and then take them away from the conference and implement them,” she told AAP.
The conference is being held against a backdrop of global push-back against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and concerns about the rise of the manosphere and its impact on young men.
“We have seen in many parts of the world a form of politics which weaves together nationalism, isolationism, patriotism and anti-women’s rights agendas,” Ms Gillard said.
“With all of this happening, it’s a particularly important time for people to come together and to discuss what we can do to win the popular debate globally because, at the end of the day, more gender-equal societies benefit everyone.”
Following her departure from parliament in 2013, Ms Gillard has focused much of her attention on improving gender equality, mental health support and education.
In 2018, she was appointed chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London and later founded its sister institute based at the Australian National University in Canberra.
The institute was among the first to spotlight and track the trend of young men’s attitudes towards gender equality going backwards.
That trend could be partially attributed to the equality movement not being as inclusive of men as it could have been, Ms Gillard said.
“To be self-critical … some of the language we’ve used around gender equality has given the impression that it’s solely about women … it hasn’t been inclusive enough to explain that it’s about a better future for all,” she said.
“But it’s not just as simple as we need to change our language and be more inclusive of men and boys.
“I think we’ve got to be pretty knowing that there is concerted, organised and strategic pushback.
“There is a form of politics that has fused with online influencers and the manosphere, who are peddling a particular version of masculinity … (about being) able to project dominance over women in their lives.”
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