The exceptional thing about the battle of the bobs? It’s not exceptional

When Jacinta Allan sits around the cabinet table with her other ministers, two out of three people in the room are women.

Such is the female domination of Victorian politics – and standardised choice of parliamentary hairstyles – the 2026 election has already been dubbed by one party insider as the Battle of the Bobs.

Julia Gillard, the only woman to serve as Australian prime minister and now the chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, last year reflected on the additional pressure that comes with being the first woman to do anything of note in public life.

Julia Gillard says the first woman in a job carries an additional burden.Credit: James Brickwood

“For the first woman who gets to a new position of power, there’s this unspoken but very deeply held underlying question,” she said. “The question is, ‘can she do the job?’ Once you’ve had several women do the job, I think that question falls away.

“It is clear that women can do the job but for the first woman, there’s this extra burden.”

In global politics, this burden is currently weighing most heavily in Japan, where Sanae Takaichi, the first woman to lead the socially conservative Liberal Democratic Party, last month became her country’s first female prime minister.

Takaichi leads a national parliament where only one in six MPs are women and a patriarchal society which still requires married couples to share the same surname. As an aside, her first husband took hers.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ascension to power is seen as a qualified advance for women’s rights in Japan. Credit: Getty Images

Takaichi is an intriguing political figure who nominates the Iron Lady as her political hero and Iron Maiden as one of her favourite bands.

Her socially conservative views, which include the value of traditional family roles for women, has in the minds of women’s rights advocates put as asterisk next to her historic ascension to power in Japan. But as the first woman to lead a national government, any misjudgments she makes and difficulties she runs into will inevitably be analysed through the prism Gillard talks about.

Michelle Obama delivered a blunt assessment of American politics and society this month when she remarked on the prospects of a woman becoming US president. “Sadly, we ain’t ready,” she said.

Jess Wilson takes questions at her first press conference after being elected leader of the Victorian Liberal Party. Credit: Jason South

Jess Wilson, for reasons that have nothing to do with her sex, is a different kind of Liberal leader. She is only 35 years old and has spent just three years in parliament. Across a flurry of radio and TV interviews on Wednesday, her introductory pitch to votes could be distilled into a simple message: I’m a Millennial and I’m here to win the next election.

But it is Wilson’s sex, rather than her generation, which invites a different sort of scrutiny.

A confession. During Wilson’s first press conference as opposition leader, I couldn’t help but observe and take detailed notes about her shoes until an angry voice on my shoulder – let’s call it my feminine side – angrily pointed out that I’d never taken much of an interest in Brad Battin’s boots.

In my defence, Your Honour, I would submit that we can learn things about a woman politician from her choice of shoes that we can’t from the ubiquitous RMs of male parliamentarians. In Wilson’s case, her blue suede slingbacks – adorned with a slightly punkish buckle and studs – was the only break from the customary, pantsuit uniform that gave an inkling of personality.

Her brand of her shoes, Bared Footwear, is well known among busy women for offering orthopaedic support without compromising on style. This suggests there is a practical streak to Wilson and a willingness to spend long days on her feet, if that is what it takes, to prosecute her case.

Or maybe, I’m just an ageing bloke whose eyes are having trouble adjusting to an important, overdue change in the Victorian Liberal Party and our state parliament.

Chip Le Grand is state political editor.