Women Now Dominate Our Bureaucracy

Women Now Dominate Our Bureaucracy
CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 01: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese poses for a group photo with his female ministers after a swearing-in ceremony at Government House on June 01, 2022 in Canberra, Australia. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled his new cabinet on Tuesday following the Labor party's victory in the Australian Federal election on 21 May 2022. (Photo by Jenny Evans/Getty Images)
Bettina Arndt
8/17/2022
Updated:
8/22/2022
0:00
Commentary

Liz Truss, who may well become the next UK Conservative Party leader, has pledged to slash 350 woke jobs from the civil service, claiming such jobs “distract from delivering on the British people’s priorities.”

It would take a lot more to rid the Australian government of ideologues working against the priorities of ordinary people. Over the last few decades, our entire public service has been taken over by a female tsunami, including many firmly intent on pushing policies set to favour women at the expense of men.

The figures are extraordinary. We now have 67 percent females in the Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet, 70 percent in health and in social services, 68 percent in attorney generals, 62 percent in education and employment, 59 percent in foreign affairs and trade, even 51 percent in treasury and 51 percent finance. Overall, 31 of 96 government agencies have 70 percent or more females.

These are the people writing government policy for our country, deciding how to spend our money, and determining what matters and what doesn’t. Hardly surprising then that women’s business is always on the agenda, with “Ministers for Women” in both Commonwealth and state governments, while men’s issues are ignored.

It’s not just the federal bureaucrats who are throwing their weight around.

Last month, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government announced they are requiring successful tenders for the build of a new school to have a 100 percent female management team on site. We’re talking about the construction industry, where women represent only 12 percent of the workforce. Yet Canberra building companies are now expected to come up with an all-female bunch of bosses to run building sites for the government contracts that keep the big firms in the business.

Feminist Push From the Top

Of course, that is the ACT, which appears to be dominated by the feminist bureaucrat. But it has been shocking to trace how successive federal governments have caved to feminist pressure and allowed women to run the show, all in the name of gender equity.

It all started with our former Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, naturally, who proudly introduced positive discrimination to ensure more women were recruited into the then male-dominated Australian Public Service (APS). Suddenly public service job descriptions required a “demonstrated commitment to feminism.”

A session at the Labor convention in memory of former Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam at the Melbourne Convention Centre in Melbourne, Australia, on July 24, 2015. (AAP Image/David Crosling)
A session at the Labor convention in memory of former Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam at the Melbourne Convention Centre in Melbourne, Australia, on July 24, 2015. (AAP Image/David Crosling)

Hester Eisenstein, an American who joined their ranks at the time, wrote gleefully about the “spectacle of very traditional-looking male bureaucrats, in pin-striped suits and conservative ties, reading over the credentials of women candidates and discussing seriously their respective claims to authentic feminist commitment.”

The old boys rolled over and ushered in a new feminist era so that by 2001, half of all federal public servants were women. We can plot the relentless female takeover as it gathered steam over the past 30 years, despite variations in politicians’ enthusiasm for the matriarchal government.

Former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard made efforts to stem the tide, announcing that with women having reached a majority in the APS, they would no longer be considered a disadvantaged group.

But the Malcolm Turnbull prime ministership ensured women’s long march through these government institutions kept rolling on. As just one example, his government’s strategy aimed for more women on public service boards. Within just five years, most members of APS boards were women.

Recruitment Bias

Similarly, women are being relentlessly recruited to take the places of men throughout the public service, and they now have the majority of both executive and senior executive positions.

More women than men are being recruited at almost every level in the APS, including executives, with women receiving a disproportionate share of promotions as well. No surprise that they now have most of the plum jobs—with men now a minority at executive and senior executive (SES) levels.

The very senior rank, SES 3, still comprises 73 percent men, but this imperiled species of the top dog must be feeling the female hoards snapping at their heels.

So how do the bureaucrats explain away the embarrassing lack of gender diversity in our national public service?

Basically, they just pretend it’s not happening.

One rare exception was in 2018 when Deputy Public Service Commissioner Jenet Connell admitted that the 60 percent female APS resulted from “such a positive bias towards women” that young men were complaining of feeling disadvantaged.

A pigeon sits on top of the Australian Capital Territory coat of arms outside the Magistrates Court in Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 16, 2016. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)
A pigeon sits on top of the Australian Capital Territory coat of arms outside the Magistrates Court in Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 16, 2016. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

She mentioned the famous APS study on blind recruiting, which found when they removed references to the gender on job applications, far more men got through the blind process—proof of the APS’s strong bias against men.

But, instead of proposing that blind recruiting should become the norm, the commissioner simply stated the result was “interesting, and we are having a look at that.”

It’s A Woman’s World

It does your head in to read the words pouring out from this mob as they celebrate gender diversity. Like weeds given a dose of Roundup, male public servants are being systematically eliminated.

It’s actually far from a joke. Maybe it wouldn’t matter if these female public servants simply did their jobs rather than using their positions to promote injustice towards men and boys.

But every day, we see examples of biased policies tilted to favour women.

As the discrimination of the Canberra construction industry makes clear, femocrats are no longer content to use their numbers to distort government policies. They are pushing their ideology into the wider world, forcing everyone else to comply with gender dictates.

That wider world isn’t confined to Australia. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (59 percent female) puts “gender equality and women’s empowerment as a priority in Australia’s foreign policy, economic diplomacy, and development program.”

Since 2014, the policy requires “80 percent of all Australia’s foreign aid, regardless of objectives, perform effectively in promoting gender equality,” which means, for instance, prioritising school retention, but only for girls and teaching business and vocational skills only to women.

A better world for women. No matter if men and boys just fall further behind.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Bettina Arndt is an Australian writer and social commentator on gender issues. She was the country’s first sex therapist and feminist, before focusing on men’s rights. She has authored several books and has written for major newspaper titles, magazines, and has featured regularly on television. She received the Order of Australia in 2020 for her work in promoting gender equity through advocacy for men. Find her online at her blog, BettinaArndt.substack.com.
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