KEEPING THE GATES - WOMEN AS MINISTERS IN AUSTRALIA, 1970-96

Contrary to expectations based on 1980s west-European research, women' s representation in Australian cabinets over the last quarter century has exceeded their proportional strength in parliaments. The paper exa mines this and canvasses explanations. Consistent with west-European f indings, Australian women ministers are overrepresented in social port folio areas and underrepresented in defining and physical resource mob ilisation areas. The paper considers implications and explanations of women's work in cabinet.