79 5 High-vis and hard hats versus e cae ec Blair Williams and Marian Sawer Gender was a very important part of the story of the 2022 federal election, particularly the perception of many women that ‘their’ issues were being ignored or dismissed by the Morrison Government. In seats such as Goldstein, Kooyong, North Sydney and Wentworth, where women voters outnumbered men on a ratio of about 53–47, women’s concerns about climate change, integrity issues and women’s safety became pivotal issues. There was a disconnect between women’s discontent and the predominant image of the prime minister during the campaign wearing a high-vis vest and hard hat to relay a message about his target voters. The back story of gender in the 2022 campaign began in March 2021 when Brittany Higgins made her explosive allegations about being raped in Parliament House and the way it had been hushed up two years before. Women took their anger to the streets, with some 10,000 demonstrating outside Parliament House in Canberra and some 100,000 more around Australia. Polls conducted at the time showed a steep increase in women’s disaffection with the Morrison Government and this ‘modern’ gender gap (with women to the left of men) continued until the election. While some commentators asked where women’s anger had gone as they disappeared from the streets, it became clear that, among other things, it had fuelled the campaigns of the Teal Independents. The 2022 election showed that women had turned sexual misconduct in the parliamentary workplace into a highly salient political issue.