Professor John Warhurst of the ANU analysed the referendum result in his weekly column in The Canberra Times and comments on the huge gender gap evident. He writes, “A majority of men may have voted for the republic. Women were solidly and strongly for the NO case, despite the attempt by the YES campaign to promote women’s voices. Various untested reasons have been attested for this phenomenon, such as admirable female caution, the Women’s Weekly affection for the Queen and lack of political knowledge.” He finishes by saying that much more thinking and research is necessary before this and many other aspects of the result are well understood.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
