TO QUOTA OR NOT TO QUOTA?

You may have heard the argument that we live in a meritocracy, where the best person for the job will naturally get it – so we don’t need to make sure the candidates are gender-balanced (known as a having a quota of women). Former Liberal MP Julia Banks, who left the party over its treatment of women, says that’s rubbish. “We’ve seen the meritocracy [argument] is flawed because there are two things that get in the way of it. One is discrimination. The other is unconscious bias. We all have unconscious biases, men and women – biases that women shouldn’t be away from home, should be looking after the kids, that a man is best for the job – all sorts of biases. The meritocracy argument just falls down in a heap.” And the Liberals’ thanks-but-no-thanks attitude towards quotas isn’t doing them any favours. In November they experienced what Banks calls “a blistering defeat” in Victoria, replaced by a Labor government that’s composed of 50 per cent women, 50 per cent men. Ah, Melbourne: always so on-trend.