Recent policy and academic writing on women in the Pacific has focused on the barriers women in the region experience when seeking to participate in formal politics. This paper contributes to the small body of work that seeks to explain how some women defy these barriers, are elected to parliament and achieve high office.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull claims there are more women in his current cabinet than in any previous government.

This report argues that political parties and institutions must seize the recent increase in voter turnout among young women to dramatically increase the numbers of women going into local politics in the United Kingdom.

Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek claims the last time there was only one woman in Cabinet was 1976.

Australian of the Year Ita Buttrose claims the lack of women in Prime Minister Tony Abbott's cabinet shows the glass ceiling still exists in Australia and that women are yet to break through it.