Clare Martin speaks on being a female politician, 2008

Transcript of interview

There are many disadvantages of being a politician. One is that if you are a woman with children, it's going to be a very ... all the time a very careful balancing exercise between your role as a mother, which I think is a very important one, and your professional life. But women deal with this in all areas, it's not just politics. I think that politics increasingly is becoming more a combat area, and it's very ... Everything you do is subject to scrutiny, and I think as a woman, you've got to think 'Well, do I want that? Is that what I want for me? Is it what I want for my family?'

And they are considerations, because I think with kind of 24-hour media coverage, with the greater scrutiny of politicians that seems to be part of how, you know, politics is going - not only in Australia but round the world - I think they are issues for women that may be more pertinent than for men.