Australia’s first woman PM sworn-in

AUSTRALIA: Welsh-born Julia Gillard, who became Australia’s first female prime minister Thursday, is a tough lawyer and feminist trailblazer who battled her way through the ranks of the ruling party.

Straight-speaking Gillard, 48, spent weeks strenuously denying she was seeking the leadership before demanding a vote against Rudd late Wednesday after the bookish former diplomat lost the backing of key factional leaders.

In the often cut-throat male-dominated world of Australian politics, rising to the top job at a relatively early age is no mean feat. “I’m aware I’m the first woman to sit in this role but I didn’t set out to crash my head against any glass ceilings,” she told reporters after being named the new leader.

Once criticised as unsuitable to run the country because she was “deliberately barren”, the flame-haired Gillard has proven to be one of the government’s best performers in parliament. Handed the two weighty portfolios of employment and education after Rudd’s 2007 landslide election, she has overseen a generous spending programme for schools and the winding back of the previous government’s loathed labour laws. Sydney, Thursday, AFP