Why female prime ministers and presidents matter more to women

While women make up roughly half the global population, only about 14 per cent of countries have women at the helm.

UTS Faculty of Law associate professor Ramona Vijeyarasa said that level of parity would be "unacceptable" in any other area and had negative flow-on effects.

"The fewer women there are in power, the fewer women who feel they have a right to be there and can contest," Dr Vijeyarasa said.

The harder it was then for parties in parliamentary systems to nominate women for leadership and have people vote for women, she said.

"In any place we need to give other women a sense that they have a right to be there," Dr Vijeyarasa said.

In researching what effect female presidents had on women through the law in three Asian countries, Dr Vijeyarasa found female political leaders mattered to fellow women for three distinct reasons.

The first was by helping women up the political ladder through their appointments.

"I found that the women presidents in the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Indonesia had chosen more women to be part of their cabinet then the men who went before them," Dr Vijeyarasa said.

The second was legislating for women.

"You could see a direct footprint on the law," Dr Vijeyarasa said.

"When these women were in power, the three countries passed their first ever laws on gender-based violence."

Female leadership could therefore offer opportunity for activism and change, she said.

The third reason female political leaders were important now and into the future was the significance of their titles.

"It's really motivating for other women to see a woman in a leadership role," Dr Vijeyarasa said.

2022 saw a federal election-swinging wave of female teal independents and celebrated 10 years since Julia Gillard's iconic 'misogyny speech'.

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But it was also defined by sexist double standards applied to women in power.

For example, debates surrounding the social life of Finland's Sanna Marin or media questioning if the young prime minister and New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern met as leaders because of their similar ages.

The 2021-22 Reykjavik Index for Leadership, which measures how people across the world perceive female leaders, also found that younger Australians "are more prejudiced against female leadership than older generations".

Dr Vijeyarasa said "it was great to see not only how many women were voted in - but also that the women's vote is significant and that we could turn the election outcome."

"There's a really genuine belief that we can improve our current status - ambitious to the point where the federal government wants to become a world leader on gender equality.

"Whether that's too ambitious remains to be seen."