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When Australian prime minister Julia Gillard launched a ferocious attack on the leader of the opposition for his repeated use of sexist language, she was feted by feminists the world over. But critics in Australia rounded on her for supposedly misusing the word misogyny and falsely accusing Tony Abbott of hating women.
Now, however, Gillard's critics no longer have semantics on their side. In the wake of the row, the most authoritative dictionary in Australia has decided to update its definition of the word, ruling that a modern understanding of misogyny would indeed imply "entrenched prejudice against women" as well as, or instead of, pathological hatred of them. Sue Butler, editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, said that, on this occasion, it had failed to keep pace with linguistic evolution.
"Since the 1980s, misogyny has come to be used as a synonym for sexism, a synonym with bite, but nevertheless with the meaning of entrenched prejudice against women rather than pathological hatred," she said in a statement.
While the Oxford English Dictionary reworded its definition a decade ago, staff at the Macquarie had been alerted to the issue only in the aftermath of Gillard's extraordinary speech in parliament. "Perhaps as dictionary editors we should have noticed this before it was so rudely thrust in front of us as something that we'd overlooked," Butler told the Associated Press.
Gillard – Australia's first female leader – accused Abbott, head of the centre-right Liberal party, of repeated instances of sexism and misogyny, including his description of abortion as "the easy way out", his apparent characterisation of Australian women as housewives doing the ironing, and appearances at political rallies in front of posters urging voters to "ditch the witch".
She told MPs: "The leader of the opposition says that people who hold sexist views and who are misogynists are not appropriate for high office. Well, I hope the leader of the opposition has got a piece of paper and he's writing out his resignation because if he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn't need a motion in the House of Representatives; he needs a mirror."
Abbott had sparked the Labor prime minister's fury by calling for the speaker of parliament, Peter Slipper, to be sacked over a series of sexist and vulgar texts he had sent to a former member of staff. Slipper has since resigned as speaker.
Seized with indignation and pointing her finger across the despatch box, she retorted: "I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. And the government will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. Not now, not ever."
In an attempt to defend himself, Abbott has claimed the attack was part of a government smear campaign. His supporters have also accused Gillard of hyperbole, citing the Macquarie Dictionary as proof that, when she claimed Abbott was a misogynist, she was saying he had a visceral hatred of the opposite sex.
Those figures have not welcomed the dictionary's decision to expand its definition, and Butler said she had received letters accusing it of a political move. "It would seem more logical for the prime minister to refine her vocabulary than for the Macquarie Dictionary to keep changing its definitions every time a politician mangles the English language," Fiona Nash, a senator in Abbott's coalition, said.
Speaking to the Australian newspaper, the manager of opposition business, Christopher Pyne, also criticised the decision. "If Macquarie changes its definition of misogyny to something other than what it is, it undermines Macquarie Dictionary in its entirety," he said. "The prime minister knew when she used the term misogyny that she was calling Tony Abbott a women hater and she should bear the burden of that vicious personal smear."
Gillard's impassioned speech endeared her to feminists throughout the world, with media in Britain, the US and elsewhere praising her for arguably the most outspoken attack on sexism in political life in history. In France, her attack was lauded as an impressive and "implacable tirade", while the New Yorker said that, while her motivation may have been political, Gillard had started a discussion about "something much more important" in the process.
In Australia, however, her performance received rather more mixed reviews, with many concerned about what they saw as her attempt to defend Slipper. Much of the mainstream media wrote off Gillard's speech as a disaster, with one commentator claiming she would "rue yet another bad call" and another decrying her "flawed" judgment, which, they said, had lost her credibility.
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