Kemi Badenoch nails it woman to woman: your results count
She was relatable, intelligent and fearless, someone I would describe as the “wrong kind of woman”. Out of the box.
Last week Badenoch, now Opposition Leader, validated those early views with an eviscerating speech in the British parliament directed at hapless Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves. It was a 20-minute tour de force in which Badenoch clinically and with withering humour tore apart not only the budget but also Reeves’s record and economic agenda, which by any measure have been disastrous.
It was a disciplined verbal annihilation, with a spattering of phrases that sashayed between brutal and brilliant. Politically, it was a joy to behold.
I was glued, for a few reasons. First, we just don’t see this level of oratorical brilliance in the Australian parliament any more. Instead, we get partisan smallness, pettiness and a lack of vision almost criminal in its negligence.
Badenoch’s speech is available online and I urge you to watch it and make up your own mind. I say it was superb. Sussan Ley should take notes.
Badenoch had the room in her hand and, before she’d finished delivering her speech, the world was watching too thanks to three short words around 7½ minutes in.
Badenoch looked at Reeves and while she followed protocol in addressing the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, what she said was directed to the woman on the opposite side of the chamber, her political opponent.
“Let me explain to the Chancellor, woman to woman,” Badenoch said. “People out there aren’t complaining because she’s a female. They’re complaining because she is utterly incompetent.”
Three words: woman to woman. Woman to woman! About bloody time, I silently cheered. About time one woman in leadership had the guts to say it to another: you aren’t feeling the heat because you’re not a man. This ain’t the patriarchy, this is you being rubbish at your job.
I don’t know that I’ve heard a woman be that honest in public life. I can’t recall an occasion when a high-profile woman has fallen short and responsibility isn’t immediately shuffled sideways under the banner of misogyny. This never ceases to disappoint me.
It does a grave disservice, not only to honest social discourse but also to every woman who owns her stuff and is mature enough, secure enough, to say: It’s me. Hi. I’m the problem, it’s me.
Weirdly, in the aftermath, Badenoch was chastised by some in the media for what amounted to claims of having been mean to the Chancellor. It’s almost unintended validation. BBC (of course it was) journalist Nick Robinson asked Badenoch if she’d hesitated before attacking another female politician. Can you imagine anyone asking the same question of a man in parliament? Paul Keating being asked if he thought he was too mean to Peter Costello? What a wild way to twist what was an utterly overdue, refreshing approach to politics: judging someone on their performance rather than their gender or identity.
Badenoch responded that it had “nothing to do with her being a woman” and that she treated everyone equally. She said politics was tough and those in parliament should be held to account for their actions and outcomes. This applied to men, why not women?
Badenoch, rightly called out Reeves for the victim mentality under which she has sought cover from criticism of her performance, terrible budget and broader fiscal agenda.
“All we’ve heard,” Badenoch told the house, “is wallowing in self-pity, and whining about misogyny and mansplaining”.
Are there any other women out there who hate this stuff as much as I do, who would like to see women who miss the mark front up and own it? “It’s because I’m a woman” – spare me. That is so ancient and tiresome and dull.
It’s not just gender that is problematic when it comes to owning behaviour. This episode elevates just one facet of a modern society in which identity is used as a shield. It is often impossible to hold anyone to account for anything without some aspect of identity being wheeled out to run interference.
Blaming poor behaviour on trauma. Blaming poor performance on alleged or perceived racism. Gender. Sexuality. Race. Neurodiversity. It’s not my fault, it’s because of the thing that I am, or the thing that happened to me, or the person who was mean to me because of the thing that I am. And on and on it goes.
I’ve shared before in these pages how in a previous life I quit my job after realising I was being paid half what the nearest bloke was making doing a somewhat comparable role (my role was weightier). Likewise, I have survived and grown through my share of trauma. Most humans who reach 50 and beyond have. I’m nothing special in that regard. While the details are not for sharing, my point is that experiencing trauma is not a licence to divest responsibility for behaviour, actions and outcomes.
And to lay out the most obvious aspect of all of this, refusing to take responsibility for the things you should while blaming gender, sexuality, trauma, you name it, it just diminishes and undermines the circumstances in which there is a genuine link.
It’s such a dance, isn’t it? After my world imploded, what seems like a lifetime ago now, I worked hard to rebuild it, and myself. To grow a robust and well-developed sense of identity that would serve me well rather than make me its slave. Identity, when rooted and grounded in the right things, is a healthy and important anchor in the murky waters of modern life.
I’m a woman. An adult human female. I grew up with a father who I loved dearly but who wrestled with the bottle all his life. I’m a Christian. I’ve been vilified for my faith more than once. I have known personal trauma. I have suffered loss. I have been on the receiving end of some of life’s less pleasant offerings. Disappointment. Betrayal.
In my mind’s eye, I can see many of you nodding along. All of these facets and many more form parts of my identity, but not one absolves me of the responsibility for my actions or excuses them.
Which brings me back to Badenoch. Or Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch (nee Adegoke), as is her full name.
“Bringing in your identity cheapens achievement,” she said in the wake of this monumental speech. A woman who on any given day could play any one of a half-dozen identity cards if she felt like it. But this mighty, impressive and unapologetic women has decided otherwise.
“Real equality means being held to the same standard as everyone else. It means being judged on results.” Woman to woman? That’s a truth worth upholding.
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Two years ago in London, I was fortunate enough to hear Conservative Kemi Badenoch speak. She was, in word and deed, about as far from the Tory “to the manor born” cliche as you could get.