On Merit

On Series (Little Books, Big Ideas)

by Paula Matthewson

How the red shoe resistance is busting the merit myth in the Liberal Party.

Merit has very little to do with the increasing dominance of men in the modern Liberal Party. Yet Liberal women continue to defend it. Until now. ‘On Merit’ explores this imbalance, its implications for the party's future, and how a pair of red shoes may spark a rebellion against the merit myth.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[Noely Neate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had been looking forward to reading this book as the issue of not enough women in politics in Australia - particularly on the conservative side of politics has been building for a long time now. I'm still cynical about a few usual suspects who now seem to have seen the light and are actively encouraging more women in the Liberals, though was good to read about the background from a well researched point of view as to how they got where they are now, a lot of which I was unaware of before reading this.

It is all well & good to see there is a problem where 50% of the population are not being represented in government but a whole other thing to understand how we got to this horribly low representative level.

Pretty sure the next Australian election will give Paula even more fodder for a follow on book here to see if internal party initiatives do improve the number of women in Parliament for the conservative parties or if the women who 'could have been' and are standing as Independent prove successful. Either way it will be fascinating to watch.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sexism in my racism? It’s more likely than you think.

While this was interesting and chronicled the women in the liberal party it was kind of willfully ironic? Besides the fact that women who aren’t rich or white are not mentioned at all there was this shock that the liberal party would be so outright sexist after years of liberal women saying feminism is bullshit and a blatant disregard for anyone who isn't rich and white and male? Also the fact that in 2020 a few years after this was published there’s still Scomo interrupting women in a press conference about women? Its great to want to make change but talking about it and doing it are obviously very different and nothing has been done by the liberals to change anything? Also as per usual the liberals have forgotten that more than rich white women exist and so if you’re looking for any mention of diverse women you’re not going to find it.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a perfectly excellent précis of the one of the central issues wracking the Australian Liberal Party in the late 2010s - their seeming inability to meaningfully include women in their midst. Matthewsen addresses the central argument the party machine uses to justify a forest of penises, that no meritorious women have put themselves forward. She holds up and examines history and notes the contradicting behaviour. She compares the past thirty years of the ALP and pointedly notes the most relevant point of difference - the ALP committed to quotas while the Liberal Party refuses to.

It’s a well argued piece and well worth the read. It is short, part of the publisher’s big ideas in short books series. In the other hand, we’re this published in the web it would be referred to as a Long Read.

[Dean Cool · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent analysis of the difficulty the Liberal Party has when it comes to women and the problem with their rejection of quotas.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the Little Books on Big Ideas series has been rebadged as the On Series by Hachette (who've taken over the series from Melbourne University Press), I'm keeping them all together under the old name.  You can find them under the old name and the new listed at Dymocks and the number of titles seems still to be expanding.

On Merit, however, has been on the TBR too long and for me, though it was mildly interesting on a train journey into town today, it has in some ways missed its moment.  Published in 2019, Matthewson's little book is about the way that the Liberal party had failed to move with the times in terms of female representation, and she predicted a groundswell of discontent which was going to force change in the form of quotas on the die-hards in the party.  It was written before the change of government in 2022, a change which saw the emergence of a group of Independent women candidates badged as the Teals.  Although on economic and social policy they are liberal in orientation, these women were not interested in change from within, and — as documented in The Big Teal, (2022) by Simon Holmes à Court — they stood in safe Liberal seats on a platform for action on climate change, and for the establishment of a corruption commission (both of which were opposed by the Liberal party but were ALP policy anyway).   It remains to be seen how they will fare at the next election now that those policy promises have been implemented by the government.

However, although the Liberal's humiliation of Julie Bishop, an able woman who might have led the party well if she'd been given the opportunity, is ancient history now, and most of the women who feature in Matthewson's analysis are no longer in the parliament, the book does identify the basic problem.  The Liberal ethos is about individualism, and the idea of collective action to achieve gender parity is anathema to them.  They believe that the criteria for preselection and senior positions in a government should be based on merit, and they have a very limited idea of what merit might mean. So while the ALP has made steady progress in female representation, the Liberals have gone backwards.

Did the learn from their election loss that they need to lift their game? Nope.  Their analysis of the election loss recommended against setting up quotas and women are still underrepresented. 

Maybe they should have read this book when it was published...

'Real equality is when a female mediocre fool gets the same job that a male mediocre fool has now.' (Amanda Vanstone)

To read my reviews of others in this series, please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/05/19/o...

[Wide Eyes, Big Ears! · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this essay, On Merit, Paula Mathewson examines the lack of women who get preselected or promoted in the Federal wing of the Australian Liberal Party. Mathewson argues that so-called ‘merit-based selection’ is clearly a myth (1) given the quality of the male candidates who represent the Party, and (2) given the number of high-quality women passed over for preselection or promotion. She gives the example of Julie Bishop failing to gain the party leadership. She also outlines the Liberal Party’s ‘problem with women’, citing the treatment and resignation of Julia Banks. She argues that the Labor Party’s system of quotas, not only for the number of seats, but also for safe seats, should be adopted. This ties in neatly with the essay, En Garde, in which Sarah Hanson Young details the deplorable treatment she has received from conservative Federal senators.

[Jcd · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was John C Maxwell who said “People are persuaded not by what we say, but by what they understand”. In ‘On Merit’, commentator Paula Matthewson explains the gender politics of the Liberal Party of Australia in a manner which not only details the facts but engages us so we can begin to understand. Well researched, the book is a not to be missed short form publication for any of us affected by politics. Which is of course why I highly recommend it to everyone.

[Sky · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a book!! A nice little piece on politics and the lack of female representation in the Australian government. The narrator had an amazing voice and just punctuated at the right points to convey female rage and it felt like a cry for Australian women to stand up for themselves. I wish them the best of luck.

[🌶 peppersocks 🧦 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reflections and lessons learned:
A great discussion on a constantly pertinent theory: merit vs quotas… I enjoy these books as an insight into a two dominant party politics approach from a new world small island. This one gives more background to the two parties but focuses on the red shoe brigade

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5*
I was hoping this would go into merit and women in the workplace more broadly, but it was very nitty gritty on the Australian liberal party internal politics

[Maxine McEwan · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars.