In her first public outing in Australia since she was deposed as prime minister in June, Ms Gillard appeared upbeat and buoyed by a strong show of support in a packed hall at the Sydney Opera House.
During a candid question and answer session, Ms Gillard, 52, was asked by an eleven-year-old girl how she coped with “all that horrible sexism”.
The former Labor prime minister said one of her strongest motivations when she left office was not to give her most strident critics the pleasure of seeing her publicly cry.
“In moments of some stress and pressure… I certainly did say to myself that I would not give those people the satisfaction of seeing me shed a tear,” she said. “[It was] some iteration of ‘don’t let them get you down’”.
Ms Gillard also revealed her reasons for making her famous “misogyny” speech in parliament last year in which she stared down then opposition leader Tony Abbott, now the prime minister, telling him: “I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. I will not.” The speech made global headlines and is set to go down as one of the defining moments of her leadership. » | Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney | Monday, September 30, 2013
