“Do you remember when you first heard that refrain from Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech? 'I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man; I will not'.”

This was the question ABC Illawarra journalist Melinda James posed to an audience of more than 300 people at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre last month.

Ahead of Julia the stage show opening at IPAC on September 3, the crowd – mostly women – gathered to hear playwright Joanna Murray-Smith AM and Lord Mayor Tania Brown discuss the impact and legacy of that speech in transcending time and turning Australia’s first woman prime minister into a feminist icon.

Like many working women, Joanna, one of Australia’s best known playwrights, missed the live broadcast from parliament on 9 October 2012: “I walked into my house in Melbourne, and my teenage son said, ‘Have you seen it?’” she told the IPAC audience.

“And I thought, ‘Well, this must be pretty extraordinary, if my teenage boy whose idea of an intellectual conversation is about how Essendon played on the weekend is asking me to look at this screen and listen to it.'

“I have to say – with a little bit of embarrassment – that my first reaction to it was not as a woman alerted to this incredible response to this deeply misogynistic national culture at the time, but it was as a playwright – because I couldn't believe that someone could speak so articulately, so eloquently and structure that speech so perfectly without notes.

“It was an absolutely extraordinary piece … a rhetorical statement that was mind-blowingly well composed.”

A lifelong Labor member, who grew up in Unanderra and began her political career as a councillor before becoming Wollongong's first woman mayor last year, Tania Brown told the audience she was “so proud” to see the misogyny speech.

“As a Labor woman, I was just cheering … that she finally stood up and said, not now, not ever.

“We had all seen the ‘ditch the witch’, ‘ditch the bitch’ [signs], heard Alan Jones say that her father should be ashamed and now put the chaff bag on the head, all those things. I was angry for her, and to see that how she had been treated as our first female prime minister, so to see her stand up and draw that line …

“Again, I was at work. Didn't see it at the time. Watched it later that evening, but I just was so thrilled to see it … you know, while I did my ironing that night.”

This zinger won one of the first rounds of laughter in a skilfully led interview that had all the intimacy of a kitchen table conversation and the warmth of a women's circle.

More than a decade later

Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Julia premiered in 2023, more than 10 years after that speech, by which time Anthony Albanese’s Labor Government was in power and parliament looked rather different. This year, over 120 years since women were first allowed to stand for federal parliament, there are more women than ever. According to June analysis from the Australia Institute, parliament is now almost perfectly split, with 114 men and 112 women in the House of Representatives and Senate combined. “In the House of Representatives, there are 69 women, a new record. Of them, 50 are Labor members but just 6 are Liberals,” the institute found.

Tania told the IPAC crowd: “When you look at the makeup of the current federal parliament, it is incredible to see the majority of women in that Parliament, all the bright coloured jackets streaming across the chamber – and then the loneliness of the women on the other side. And that was done through affirmative action.”

Today, the 13-year-old speech lives on in the internet, inspiring new generations of women and girls.

“My daughter was in boarding school while I was writing the play,” Joanna told the audience. “The girls in year 12 could all recite big swathes of that speech. And that fascinated me … that young women were grabbing onto this speech as an example of, you know, strength and determination on the part of women, not to not to submit to standards established by men, and to overcome them and to put their foot down.

“It's done somewhat jokingly, I guess, but there is also some deeply emotional component to it, which had audiences in every show that I've watched … there are so many people who are crying in Julia, even though it's actually a funny show in lots of ways.

“It told us a lot about the national culture at the time, which I think is very important. It tells us who we were, which gives us a sense of who we are now and who we are becoming?”

Are we different now? 

In discussing the speech’s legacy –  which has included the Macquarie Dictionary expanding its definition of ‘misogyny’ to mean 'entrenched prejudice against women’ – Tania Brown shared stories of recent challenges faced by Labor MPs, who are mostly women. New Whitlam MP Carol Berry has been surprised by the number of people who comment on her outfits in Canberra, Tania said, adding: “Sometimes we just have to give each other a little pep talk, particularly when we see that someone is particularly under fire.

“The Member for Cunningham [Alison Byrnes] has had a position on a renewable energy topic that has made her the target to receive death threats … there's no cause for that.”

Behind the scenes, women do rally round: “It’s not that we gather and sing Kumbaya, but there certainly is a level of support for each other at different times as we're all in the crosshairs.”

The Lord Mayor also told a few stories from her own experience.

“One of the things that was said to me in the last campaign was that I should just go back to the kitchen and menstruate there. And I laughed – because you’ve got to laugh … I said to my friends, I thought it was hilarious that he still thought that happened.

“But I do think it is changing.

“Even if I look at the last two Lord Mayoral campaigns, I could see a change in attitude. There wasn't nearly that much toxicity. A lot of it was more about my support of the queer community than about a feminist position…”

Later in the conversation, after sharing her “very human moment” of bonding with Julia Gillard over their being “first women” in top jobs, Tania said: “I think the best thing about being the first female is that you won't have to wait so long to have another one.”

Joanna closed off the night with a quip that won cheers and whistles, saying, “I think my next play is going to be called Tania!”

Listen to the full conversation on ABC Illawarra. Julia is on from September 3-13 at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre