Ley didn't define herself by her gender but women might relate to her workplace woes

And they say the Liberal Party doesn't get women.

They got this one pretty quickly — after just nine months. One human gestational period elapsed before Sussan Ley — the first woman to lead the Liberal Party in its 82-year history — was crisply sent on eternity leave by an emphatic vote of her colleagues.

Ley isn't the most swiftly-eliminated leader in the party's federal history. She held on to the job 24 days longer than Alexander Downer, and 16 days fewer than Brendan Nelson. So premature ejection isn't exclusively a lady phenomenon.

And Ley would be the last person who'd want to be assessed purely on the basis of her gender. 

Her entire life and career — in farming, aviation, the finance sector, politics — is testament to her preparedness to advance dauntlessly into the denser cock-forests of the Australian biosphere. 

She's prospered in many jobs thanks to her diligence, indefatigability and patience, and she's lost this one due to her inability to carry Australians with her. 

None of the above-listed virtues and failings is gender specific, and it'd be foolish to attribute the vote chiefly to sexism. Or to argue that women won't return to a Liberal Party led by a man. Women are not stupid. Also, it's more complicated than that.

Some classic workplace tropes

The issue for the Liberal Party is not simply the toppling of a female leader. It's also about what happened to that leader while she was in the job.

And while Ley departed the scene yesterday with unimpeachable good grace, channelling the 4th century Christian martyr Agnes of Rome with her spotless white garb and remembering to thank everyone and to be especially nice about Angus, it's entirely available for less even-tempered females to conclude that her party has some pretty wild double standards.

Among professional women, the fastest-growing demographic in Australia, who also — perhaps relatedly — are among the fastest-defecting voters from the Liberal Party, some of Ley's experiences are classic workplace tropes.

For example:

• Adult Man Babysitting: A situation in which female leaders are sometimes called in to nurse male colleagues through tantrums. Absolute calm is required from her in these circumstances, because even though the tantrum may be about quite a small injury to the relevant dude's ego, if she raises her voice she will absolutely acquire a reputation as a "psycho". See: Negotiations with the National Party.
   
• Not In The WhatsApp: A phenomenon in which a female leader may become aware that a group of chaps has openly assembled to discuss which of them will get her job, while she is quite busy doing that job. See: The pre-funeral breakfast gathering in Melbourne last month in which an influential group of Liberal men gathered to nut out who would take Ley's place. See also: Julie Bishop, the previous most senior serving Liberal woman, who weathered several leadership spills and regularly witnessed horse-trading between male colleagues over who would get to be deputy, even though she was the deputy and was sitting right there.
   
• Clean That Up, Would You? In which it becomes extremely urgent for a female leader to fix up a long-standing and extremely knotty problem, even when it has been kicked down the road or in some cases even created by the exact people who are very desirous of a quick resolution. See: Sussan Ley facing pressure from colleagues including Angus Taylor and Barnaby Joyce to abandon the Coalition's commitment to net zero, negotiated in government five years earlier by *checks notes* Barnaby Joyce and Angus Taylor.
   
• Changing Goalposts: In which a female leader takes a deep breath, mutters fervent prayers to an unresponsive deity and — after consulting widely — accepts a position that may not be her own view but seems genuinely to reflect the majority opinion across her team. At which point the chaps who got their way either defect to One Nation or go for her job regardless. (See point 3)
   
• Just, I Don't Know… *vague gesture* ... Not Up To It: A classic of the genre, where everyone is convinced that a female leader is generally just not quite right, though no-one can quite put their finger on why. In the genteel rush to rule out the obvious factor (BOOBS!) much weight will commonly come to rest on minor gaffes. See: Sussan Ley's analysis last year that Anthony Albanese's Joy Division T-shirt was an unforgivable piece of subliminal antisemitism. Rococo, admittedly. But worse than Angus Taylor's inability, in Question Time, as shadow treasurer, to distinguish between monthly and annual inflation?

An interesting coincidence

These are historical matters now, as far as Ley is concerned. The first female leader of the Liberal Party is off to embark on her new phase of life, leaving the Parliament entirely. The Liberal women of the House of Representatives — having previously required a seven-seater to car-share to work, with a space for handbags — will soon be able to travel in a compact sedan.

Ley herself, it's abundantly clear, does not plan to hang around and settle scores. She is moving on, citing a mantra she learned in her piloting days: "If I had an ego, I'd be dead."

It's unlikely there will be regular commentary on the efforts of her successor, or efforts to defend her legacy or revel in whatever misfortune might come the way of her malefactors.

Of the seven former prime ministers of this country who still draw breath, there is really only one who has consistently employed a similar approach. It's the only other woman. What an interesting coincidence.