Human rights lawyer and activist Dr Ramona Vijeyarasa created the Gender Legislative Index as a tool she hopes will help push governments and parliaments to enact better laws for women. It ranks and scores legislation against global standards for women’s rights, and seeks to get the law right in the first place, rather than invest in poor or average laws that later need amending.

Australia’s Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Amendment Act 2012 meets international standards, but our parental leave legislation falls short.

Dr Vijeyarasa is now researching whether, with just 30 female prime ministers and presidents globally, women presidents and prime ministers change their countries and how they might ultimately change the world.