A newspaper in a region of Victoria that has struggled to attract and retain females to local government has drawn criticism after publishing a cartoon depicting the council’s new chief executive as a woman in an apron wielding a broom.
Fiona Weigall has signed a five-year contract as the East Gippsland Shire Council’s first female leader.
She has a Master of Business Administration and was included in the Victorian Public Sector’s Top 50 Women in Leadership in 2021.
Yet in a cartoon published by the Bairnsdale Advertiser, Ms Weigall is shown wearing an apron, holding a broom and sweeping out the mess.
Cartoon an ‘old, sexist trope’
Former regional Victorian mayor Ruth McGowan, who has led a push to attract more women to leadership roles in government, said the cartoon was an “old, sexist trope” that attempted to put women down.
She is lodging a complaint to the Australian Press Council.
“It might look harmless … but it actually has a dangerous undertone,” Ms McGowan said.
“It’s an attempt to say women belong in the kitchen, and whenever a woman leader steps up we’re going to try and put her back in her place.”
The cartoon was drawn by Glenn Robinson, who uses the tagline “GRob”.
The ABC has contacted both Mr Robinson and the newspaper’s managing editor for comment.
A new broom sweeps clean
Cathy Wilcox is a cartoonist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald and the president of the Australian Cartoonists Association.
She believed the cartoon was a depiction of the phrase, a “new broom” sweeps clean, which referred to a new leader with plans for change in an organisation.
Ms Wilcox said she always assessed power dynamics when depicting people in her cartoons.
“My best way of approaching this is, if we want to live in a world where women and queer people and people of colour … have equal opportunity and equal access, then when people achieve those places of power, then they’re going to need to be able to be scrutinised in the way of anybody in power,” she said.
Ms Wilcox said she did not believe the artist intended to demean Ms Weigall.
“I don’t think the depiction of the person is demeaning — particularly I don’t think she looks like she’s been depicted like a cleaning lady,” she said.
“I think that she’s holding a broom in a manner that suggests, in fact, that she wants to do business.”
While the cartoon could incite different meanings for different readers, Ms Wilcox said cartoonists aimed to be deliberate in their drawings.
“You want people to understand what you’re saying,” she said.
“But we bring our own baggage to everything that we have. We’ve all got our particular experience, and we’ve got our prejudices, and we’ve got our agendas.”
Cartoon fails to amuse
The cartoon has fallen flat with former Regional Cities of Victoria chairperson Judy Verlin.
“We’re starting to see women stand up and be counted,” she said.
“We’ve come a long way, and then something like this just takes us right back to where we started.”
East Gippsland Shire Council declined to comment on the cartoon but mayor Tom Crook said it was pleased with the appointment of its first female CEO.
Victorian cartoonist Mark Knight last year copped criticism of his cartoon depicting Victorian premier Jacinta Allan walking naked down a catwalk.
In 2019, a Mark Knight cartoon of tennis star Serena Williams drew accusations of racism and sexism from around the globe.
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