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ABC News: Julia Gillard addresses misogyny in parliament

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Julia Gillard stands in parliament
ABC News: Julia Gillard addresses misogyny in parliament

SUBJECTS:  Civics and Citizenship, English, History

YEARS:  9–10


Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard's 2012 address to Parliament, in which she described the Federal Opposition's criticism of her support for controversial politician Peter Slipper as being misogynistic, proved to be one her most memorable.

The speech went viral and was reported widely in international media, scoring over 2.5 million hits on YouTube.

Explore why as you watch this clip from the speech.


Things to think about

  1. 1.An important rhetorical strategy, or technique of persuasion, is 'refutation'. Find out what this term means. How might you go about refuting someone's argument? A search using 'misogyny etymology' will show that misogyny is derived from two Greek words: misos (hatred) and gune or gyne (woman).
  2. 2.What tactic does Julia Gillard use to refute Tony Abbott's claim that her government is misogynistic? Why would this be an effective strategy? What do you notice about how Ms Gillard uses her voice when quoting Mr Abbott? What tone does she use when thanking Mr Abbott for 'that painting of women's roles in modern Australia'? What does Ms Gillard's speech suggest about the manner in which Mr Abbott views women?
  3. 3.How successful do you think Ms Gillard is in painting Tony Abbott as a misogynist? In attacking misogyny, what values does she convey? The misogyny debate arose when Mr Abbott called for the resignation of Peter Slipper, which would have undermined Ms Gillard's already slim majority in the House of Representatives. How might knowing this influence our perception of Ms Gillard's purpose in the speech?
  4. 4.Following Ms Gillard's speech, both Mr Abbott's and her approval ratings improved. Why might the public have responded in this unexpected way? This speech fired a lively debate about how the terms misogyny and sexism are defined and popularly used and understood. Find out more.


Acknowledgements

Department of Parliamentary Services Broadcasting.


Date of broadcast: 9 Oct 2012


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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History Education, English, Society