Every time a radio or TV announcer talks about the new Prime Minister they use the pronoun “she”, and I get a little shock.  Can it be? “Prime Minister” and “she” in the same statement?  Always the most powerful and telling unit of speech, the pronoun’s in neon at the moment.

When I think of what it means for Australia to have its first female Prime Minister I’m very moved.  Like the election of Obama in the US, it’s what it now makes available in the world that’s the thing. According to Mary-Anne Toy in today’s Age,

the Melbourne headquarters of Emily’s List, the group that Gillard, Joan Kirner and others founded to get Labor women elected, has almost sold out of its ‘Future PM’ t-shirts for girls.

For the first time, 22 million men and women, boys and girls, will see a woman wielding ultimate authority.

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Image: Emily’s List