Strong Female Lead

One in three Australian women experience discrimination or harassment in the workplace. Australia’s first and only female prime minister, Julia Gillard, was one of them. Strong Female Lead is a film about Australia’s struggle with the notion of women in power. Using only archival footage from Julia Gillard’s three-year term in office, this film is an honest portrait of the nation’s response when a woman took the top job.

People celebrated the long awaited election of a female prime minister, but Gillard’s honeymoon period was particularly short lived. Gender based attacks from the media, parliamentary colleagues and the public were shocking in their violence and veracity. Strong Female Lead leaves us in no doubt that Australia’s parliament is a boy’s club and if women are ever to lead on equal footing with men, it’s time for refurbishment.