Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech has empowered me – to speak up about her government’s shortcomings

‘While Julia Gillard will never be my feminist hero, I will celebrate one of the speech’s outcomes: it’s empowered me to speak out in anger.’ Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

On Tuesday night I was one of the almost 3,000 mostly women at the Victorian Arts Centre who rose from their seats in thunderous applause when the former prime minister Julia Gillard came to the stage for Not Now, Not Ever, a star-studded event commemorating 10 years since her misogyny speech, which boldly and articulately called out the treatment of women in parliament and the media.

The evening was one of celebration; of remembering what life was like for our country’s first female prime minister; of celebrating how far we’ve come, while acknowledging the work that still needs to be done.