The Vanguard’s voice: a feminist analysis of female political potential within the masculinist state

This analysis presents two comparative examples of the first female Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and former Prime Ministerial Chief of Staff, Peta Credlin, which demonstrate twofold how women in the political environment are inherently positioned as threats to patriarchal state processes and subconsciously adopt masculine behaviours in their professional practice. This reveals the coercive nature of the patriarchal state as it fundamentally subverts female political advancement and actively shapes political spaces to reproduce patriarchal hegemony.