Women's roles have changed ovet the last century when we lived in mainly agricultural environments. Large families were common to ensure enough people to work the farm.
I grew up in a poor family in Collingwood in Melbourne. My father was a wharfie and my mother worked in the leather industry. There were many local factories.
I went onto University, mainly because I won both secondary school and univerity schoolarships.
At 14 years of age, my 4 sisters went to work in local department stores - they did not get the same opportunities as me.
But none of this was sexist or mysogonyst - it was the social and economic environment.
Now things have changed and many women aspire to university education. There may be genetic or environmental factors at work, but women seem to dominate (or are well represented in) "caring occupatios" like human resources, medicine, teaching, nursing and so on.
There are exceptions - my niecce is a very Senior Advertising Executive.
I thing that one of the factors working against senior women is a social factor. Members of the Melbourne or Sydney clubs mainly have male members, have interlocking memberships on Boards, play gold together, have connections with prestigous cricket and football associtions, eat, drink and smoke cigars together - the type of club in which Sir Humpy Appleby would feel very comfortable and not to be bothered by women who might get a call about a sick child.
This does not excuse Gillard, but may explain her hatred of the male stereotype. She possibly imagines all men are like this.
But, it also does not excuse senior business men from changing club rules to include senior women.
