The Liberals used to be the party for women – then John Howard came along
- Written by: Blair Williams, Lecturer in Australian Politics, Monash University
It’s no secret the Liberal Party of Australia has a problem with women. The party has made headlines over the years for its toxic blokey “Big Swinging Dick” culture, underrepresentation of women in the party, and dwindling support from women voters.
Yet it hasn’t always been this way. In its early years, the Liberals achieved most of the “firsts” for women in Australian politics and, for much of the 20th century, enjoyed more support from women than from men. So what changed?
In a new open-access study, I traced this transformation by exploring the influence of leaders on the party’s ideology and changing prioritisation of women’s issues.
A party for women
Women played a crucial role in the founding of the Liberal Party in 1944. In creating a new party, Robert Menzies depended on the support of established conservative women’s organisations such as the Australian Women’s National League (AWNL).
As the largest conservative political organisation in Australia at the time, the AWNL brought an existing branch structure and volunteer base. Its chair, Elizabeth Couchman, came to the table with strong negotiating power and ensured structural equality for women at all levels of the party.
Though not labelled as such, these could be considered early examples of “gender quotas”.
As leader, Menzies was also central to the inclusion of women and their issues in the Liberal Party. Although a staunch traditionalist, he could see the changing times in postwar Australia and acknowledged women’s increasing roles in the workforce and politics.
While Labor remained a blokey party that mainly spoke to working-class male voters, the Liberals were the first party to specifically target women in the 1949 election campaign.
Through socially liberal policies such as legalising divorce, provision of vocational training for women re-entering the workforce, and the landmark Child Care Act in 1972, the Liberals achieved important progress for women.
The party also put more women into federal parliament than Labor, including the first woman cabinet minister.
Enter John Howard
The Liberals began to abandon women’s issues in the later years of the Fraser government. Their social liberalism was replaced with a neoliberal approach that pushed free-market capitalism, corporate deregulation and privatisation, and rugged individualism.
Yet neoliberalism has a woman problem. Neoliberals argue against using the state to pursue social justice, instead favouring traditional roles for women in the home. This is known as the “markets and motherhood” push.
As Fraser’s treasurer, John Howard championed this approach and combined it with the social conservatism of the US-influenced New Right.
This push took greater hold when Howard became opposition leader. The party positioned the family as Australia’s moral centre, with policy manifestos implying women in the home should replace the state in providing care.
Despite the record number of Liberal women politicians, the election of the Howard government in 1996 wound back many of the advances for women achieved in the previous two decades.
Howard opposed feminism. He swiftly defunded women’s organisations and dismantled gender equality measures. Despite pushing “choice”, his government legislated policies such as the Family Tax Benefit, which shaped women’s roles in society to conform with a socially conservative vision.
In doing so, Howard sidelined many of the party’s moderates, and especially its liberal feminists.
Howard’s neoliberal approach ignored the social conditions and structural origins that create inequalities, ultimately worsening conditions for women and minority groups.
While women once voted for the Liberals in greater numbers than men, this changed in 2001. It’s been on a downward spiral since the 2013 election.
Casting a long shadow
Subsequent leaders from Tony Abbott to Peter Dutton have channelled Howard in various ways, especially in their approach to gender equality policy, women voters and women in the party.
Abbott continued to draw on the Howard blueprint. It was during his term that rumours of the “Big Swinging Dicks” club first broke.
Abbott’s “women problem” gained further attention when his first cabinet included only one woman, and the Women’s Budget Statement wasn’t included in the 2014 budget.
Though Turnbull resembled Fraser more than Howard, it was under his watch that the infamous “bonk ban” was introduced.
Morrison also evoked Howard, but with an added layer of evangelical fundamentalism. The Liberal Party’s “woman problem” defined Morrison’s second term, from a blokey “build back better” approach to COVID, to the mishandling of sexual assault allegations from political staffers in Parliament House.
The long shadow of John Howard still looms over the party today.
Lukas Coch/AAP
After three governments and almost a decade in power, the party failed to improve women’s economic security, safety or wellbeing. In fact, the Liberals’ “women problem” had only worsened and became a factor in costing them the 2022 election.
With party leadership falling on the shoulders of Dutton, it lurched further to the right. Dutton’s leadership style of protective masculinity channelled Howard, but his conservatism was more reactionary, focusing less on economics and more on culture wars.
Looking back to move forward
In May 2025, the Liberals were defeated in a landslide election, receiving the worst seat result since the party’s inception. In the aftermath of this crushing defeat, Sussan Ley was elected leader: the first woman to hold the role in the party’s 80-year history.
The number of Liberal women across both houses has fallen to its lowest since 1993. This has sparked renewed calls from those within and outside the party to introduce quotas. Yet the party remains divided.
Given the significance of gender equality for many of its constituents, the party must reflect on why women are losing interest – as voters, members and political candidates – before it can begin to remedy the problem.
Moderates are urging the party to return to the Menzies-era centre and broaden its appeal to reconnect with women and younger voters. Conservatives, however, insist on a move to the right.
By dominating the Liberal Party and shaping it in his image, Howard’s legacy is the transformation of the party for women into one that women largely shun.
If the party wants to solve its “women problem”, it must return to its liberal roots.
Authors: Blair Williams, Lecturer in Australian Politics, Monash University
