Scott Morrison, Father To Daughters, Defends His International Women’s Day Speech
"As a father of two daughters I have three wonderful women in my life with Jen and my two girls, and I’m a champion for women for them."
Scott Morrison, the man who won Australia’s latest game of Musical Prime Ministers, has defended his widely derided International Women’s Day speech by presenting the existence of his wife and daughters. Because, as we all know, being related to a woman grants perfect knowledge and authority on Women’s Issues.
Morrison came under fire on Friday for standing before Western Australia’s Chamber of Minerals and Energy and saying, in actual words generated and approved by his brain, that “we don’t want to see women rise only on the basis of others doing worse”.
“We want everybody to do better and we want to see the rise of women in this country be accelerated to ensure that the overall pace is maintained.”
This, on the day of International Women.
To be fair, Scott Morrison, someone who only became the prime minister of Australia purely because of other people doing worse, would probably be concerned about anything that promoted equal opportunity and actual merit.
— Nakkiah Lui (@nakkiahlui) March 8, 2019
Morrison’s speech was quickly met with harsh criticism from Labor, Greens and Independents, and was even reported on by international newsrooms. Australians everywhere lay face down on the floor and screamed.
Now, Morrison has responded to the response, invoking his authority as Father of Two Girls and Husband of A Woman to label himself a Champion for Women.
“As a father of two daughters I have three wonderful women in my life with Jen and my two girls, and I’m a champion for women for them out of direct self interest I’ve gotta say but for all women across the country,” said Scott Morrison during a press conference yesterday.
“And so what I was saying yesterday is I don’t want to see this agenda pursued by setting women against men. No. Australian against Australian. No. I want to bring all Australians together to focus on this. That’s what my meaning was yesterday, and that’s what I’m fair dinkum about.”
I've decided to go out of my way to make sure my success comes at the expense of Scott Morrison
— anna spargo-ryan (@annaspargoryan) March 8, 2019
It isn’t great that Morrison is apparently only interested in women’s empowerment “out of direct self interest”, and needs a wife and daughters to make him want equality.
But there’s a lot wrong with his speech and subsequent followup, including that he appears ignorant of the fact that men have been rising at the expense of women for centuries. Men thus hold the majority of positions of power, so it stands to reason that progress toward equality will see more women hold them instead.
Men do not have a right to these positions, and portraying their potential displacement as women rising “only on the basis of others doing worse” is dismissive of women’s capabilities and aggrandising of men’s.
So @ScottMorrisonMP has defended his #IWD comments by mentioning that he has daughters, talking up the money allocated for DV…which basically replaced the money he’s cut from DV in recent years…and using the phrase ‘fair dinkum’.
He is indeed a brick wall. #auspol— Bronwyn Hill (@BronwynHill1) March 9, 2019
What further shook people’s sauce bottles was that Scott Morrison’s International Women’s Day speech focused on how progress for women may impact men – on a day dedicated to the celebration and advancement of women.
Turning an event for women to focus on men is incredibly crass, but unfortunately not out of line with the public image the Liberals have built for themselves. The party has a dismal track record regarding women, and only 18 percent of their seats in federal parliament are held by women.