Jane Goodall (2013, p.31) speaks of the painful issue of developing a dress code for women in Australia, that speaks of power in traditionally male territory.

When Julia Gillard was elected leader of the Labor Party and Prime Minister of Australia, the’lack of fit’ of her physique to a female version of the business suit, was used by her detractors, as a metaphor for her supposed lack of ‘fit’edness for the role of Prime Minister. 

It must have seemed the last straw when Germaine Greer said on the ABC’s Q&A program, “What I want her to do is get rid of those bloody jackets!’  ‘They don’t fit!’  ‘You’ve got a big arse Julia, get over it!’

Although her image changed alarmingly rapidly, and sometimes illadvisedly, possibly due to the speed of events surrounding her promotion, I think the concentration on her clothing was perhaps, for her detractors, shifting the field of battle to safe grounds.  Goodall says her most ferocious critics were older men, lead by shock jock, Alan Jones (one of their own).  She suggests that their declining physical and social potency (exacerbated by diminishing labour opportunities for older men) made it such a virulent attack.  Also, as the formative years of these men were at a time when women were thought to be fashioned from Adam’s rib (God et al, in the beginning), I think it is not surprising that they found a female PM a bridge too far.   However, I think the cardinal sin for them was the PUBLIC EXPOSURE attached to the ‘Rudd dumped, Gillard in’ scenario.  For generations these men have lived with the private humiliation of ‘women who wear the pants’.   To have the flimsiness and conceit of the myth of male supremacy exposed, like the Emperors’ New Clothes, was insupportable.

NB It is interesting to note that, on the occasion of her first press conference as party and country leader, Gillard wore a black dress with white spots.  Mary Delahunty (2012, p.22) desribes this as a salute to her mentor, Joan Kirner, who had been relentlessly depicted in political cartoons as a housewife in a shift of red polka dots!

References

Delahunty, M 2013, ‘Liars, witches and trolls, on the political battlefield’ in J. Schultz (ed), Griffith Review 40: Women and Power, pp 18-30. 

Goodall, J 2013, ‘Cracking the dress code’, in J Schultz (ed), Griffith Review 40: Women and Power, pp 31-41.

Pictures retrieved from http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/julia-gillards-technicolour-coat-shows-prime-minister-needs-an-allowance/story-e6freuy9-1225888233550 and http://thehoopla.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/julia-gillard-all-the-bits-post.jpg