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Should Gladys Berejiklian be steeling herself for an onslaught of sexism?

Before today, Australia has had a total of 11 women serve as heads of government. One prime minister, six premiers and four chief ministers of a territory. Only one of them, Kate Carnell, chief minister of the ACT (1995-2000), was from the Liberal party.

Gladys Berejiklian​ is the second woman, and first from the Liberal party, to be chosen as premier of New South Wales. In the lead-up to her appointment, dozens of articles cited her parliamentary experience, Armenian background and educational achievements.

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Oh, and of course, the fact that she's not married and has no children.

It's very early days yet, but it's going to be interesting to see how the rampant misogyny that dogged so many female politicians will play out with a Liberal premier. Will she be marked as "unfit for leadership" because she's "deliberately barren", as Senator Bill Heffernan said of Julia Gillard?

Will she be painted as "wooden", lacking empathy and a true understanding of love by Mark Latham?

Will her "lifeless kitchen" and "empty fruit bowl" be the subject of media speculation? Will she, like Lara Giddings (first female premier of Tasmania) attract headlines about looking for "Mr Right"?

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Will she be told to "make an honest woman of herself", as Tony Abbott said of Julia Gillard, with all its gendered implications about unmarried women?

The specific words might change, but it's unlikely the underlying sentiment will. Ambitious, successful women in positions of power are consistently held to different standards than men.

If they're not married and have no children, they're pilloried for being unwomanly. If they do have husbands and children, they're constantly asked the question no men ever get: "Who is looking after your children?"

Men have wives to look after their children; women have husbands and children they're supposed to be looking after. Or, if they don't, they become an object of suspicion. It's a classic case of damned of you do, damned if you don't.

As Tanya Plibersek​ told Annabel Crabb for the latter's book The Wife Drought, "So many of the criticisms of Julia Gillard were about the fact that she was unmarried and childless. But on the flip side, if she'd been exactly who she was, only married and a working mother, the criticisms about neglecting her children would have been just as strong … possibly, they would have come from the same people."

Plibersek's point about the source of gendered criticisms is an interesting one. Will the fact that Berejiklian is from the Liberal party make a difference?

Alan Jones, whose terror of women in positions of power "destroying the joint" is well documented, has not (yet) advocated her disposal in a chaff bag. He did, however, call 2GB from his hospital bed to express his considered opinion that although "Gladys Berejiklian is a nice person, she is not across these issues in a million light-years".

Perhaps it was her two postgraduate qualifications, 14 years in parliament, 12 years in portfolio positions, three years as deputy leader of the NSW Liberal party, and nearly two years as NSW treasurer that led him to this conclusion.

Jones, however, is not the only source of gendered commentary. Before she even took the leadership, there was discussion of whether Berejiklian "is too nice and too understated to carry the party to an election victory".

Niceness, in its excess or lack, is not something commonly examined in male politicians, but the double standard rolls ever onwards, and it's a frequent indication of female failing.

"Nice" women are not ambitious, tough, hard-hitting, determined or assertive. These are solely the province of successful male leaders. Women are shrill or ruthless, too masculine to be likeable or too feminine to be effective leaders.

And of course, there is the inevitable focus on appearance. Women's clothes, hair, make-up, figures, shoes and earlobes are the source of endless critique.

Andrew P Street, a regular Fairfax columnist, says that while he gets an enormous amount of negative feedback, his weight and the number of sexual partners he's had are mentioned "very, very rarely and absolutely never, respectively".

I couldn't find a female columnist who isn't regularly called a fat slut in comments, tweets, Facebook threads and emails. Such comments are the norm for any woman in public life.

Some of this commentary about Berejiklian started before she became premier. Last week The Australian ran a comment from "someone who knows her well" who was quoted as saying "Mr Right hasn't come along yet. She's a powerful woman."

Another bizarre article from 2011, just after she was sworn in as transport minister, had this to say about her: "There is something of the Jane Austen heroine about her: not so much the flirty Elizabeth Bennet as the cautious but passionate heroine of Sense and Sensibility, Elinor Dashwood". The article also noted that "she seems to have a comfort in her skin unusual in female politicians, who so often can come across as brittle, flirty or motherly".

Being unmarried and childless will, in some ways, work to her advantage. She won't have to worry about stacking her freezer with food (labelled with cooking instructions) as Anna Burke did. She won't be chastised for breastfeeding, as Kelly O'Dwyer was. She won't be called a bad mother or a neglectful wife, or even have to worry about whether those things are true.

But she might have to suffer intrusive public queries about her private life, possibly even abhorrent questions about whether her partner is gay. And we will all know that none of this would happen if she were a man.

Berejiklian's success or failure as NSW premier will depend to a large extent on her abilities in the role. But, to paraphrase Julia Gillard: While gender will not be everything in the next stage of her career, it won't be nothing either.

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