CANBERRA, Australia – Australia's first woman prime minister, who was dumped by her own party ahead of September's election loss, has revealed she was surprised by the level of aggressive sexism directed at her during three years in power.
Julia Gillard made the comments Monday in her first interview since she was deposed in a ballot of her center-left Labor Party colleagues in June.
She was replaced by Kevin Rudd, a prime minister she had deposed in a similar leadership showdown three years earlier in the face of poor opinion polling. Rudd led his party to a crushing election defeat on Sept. 7.
Gillard told a sold-out audience at the Sydney Opera House that she reacted with "murderous rage" to the sexist attacks on her in social media and elsewhere.
