Women urged to 'remain vigilant' to safeguard progress
But while diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies are being wound back overseas, most notably by the Trump administration in the US, Australian workers are not experiencing the same pushback.
"In Australia, our ethos of everyone having a fair go and treating people equally is really strong - certainly across business, community and government," Senator Gallagher told the Women in Media national conference on Friday.
"There is a worrying trend emerging ... particularly with young men thinking that women are getting too much and that their rights are going backwards, and there's too much focus on women."
Senator Gallagher wants to embed reforms in favour of women and diversity so they cannot be reversed by a change in government.
The Australian Labor Party has the first gender-equal cabinet in the federal parliament's history, with a caucus comprising 56 per cent women.
But Senator Gallagher remembered the "fierce resistance" from men within the party when affirmative action was first introduced decades ago.
In 1994, the party agreed to introduce quotas for women, with a target to have women represent 35 per cent of Labor candidates preselected for winnable federal seats by 2002.
"Our caucus is starting to look like the Australian people - our community that we're there to represent - but it wasn't easy and we've got to remain vigilant," Senator Gallagher said.
"You can make gains but you cannot take your eye off the ball, because those gains can be taken away just as quickly as you reached them."
In May, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley became the first female federal Liberal leader but the overall number of women in the party has not increased significantly in a decade.
Just 33 per cent of MPs in the federal coalition are women.
Hilma's Network founder Charlotte Mortlock said she had tried to talk about quotas for the Liberal Party "quietly" during the previous term of government, but nobody listened.
"When you are accustomed to privilege, equality can feel like oppression," she said.
"Nobody wants quotas, nobody wants DEI and we all wish that this would happen organically but when it's not, at what point do you say, 'OK, this is no longer working'?"
Ms Mortlock said it was important not to demonise men in the pursuit of more opportunities and representation for women.
"We have to be responsible in the language that we are using because when young men go off the rails, it impacts women," she said.
"It is in (women's) interest to have really healthy, flourishing, well-rounded men."
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