“Playing the gender card”: Media representations of Julia Gillard’s sexism and misogyny speech

Abstract

What is at stake for women who challenge sexism? In October 2012, Australia’s first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, delivered a speech in Parliament in which she accused the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, of sexism and misogyny. The speech attracted local and international media coverage, and sparked widespread debate about precisely what constitutes sexism and misogyny, and whether the accusation was justified. This study adopts a discursive psychological approach to analyse a corpus of 216 articles published in the Australian print media in the week following the speech. The analysis identifies common discursive patterns and resources used to construct and represent sexism and examines the ways in which this accusation of sexism was dismissed, minimised and undermined. The analysis also demonstrates how Gillard’s identity was negatively constructed and problematized, and the implications this may have for other women who wish to confront sexism. Finally, the analysis suggests that silence is privileged over speaking up against sexism, and provides evidence for the existence of an ideological dilemma – in which speaking up against sexism is considered “dangerous”, but failing to do so is to tolerate an injustice.