In all the discussion about the election outcome, there has been little understanding of the impact, especially on women voters, of what happened to Julia Gillard.

Media commentators seem to think that once Julia Gillard had been deposed by Rudd and graciously departed the scene, gender ceased to be relevant to the election outcome. With Gillard removed, it seemed politics could return to normal, conducted, once again, ''man to man''. Christine Milne, leader of the Greens, widely denigrated as a ''school-marm'', was not in the picture.

But contrary to the message of most media coverage, gender remained, in fact, an incendiary issue, shaping the campaigns, motivating voting patterns and, in the end, fuelling Rudd's crazily elated ''concession'' speech.

Even a cursory reading of letters to the editor in this newspaper during the past two years or attending to discussions on social media made it clear that many voters, especially women, were outraged by the treatment of Julia Gillard as Prime Minister and they intended to make that clear at the ballot box. How they would register their alienation would differ: some intended to vote Green, some would prefer to cast an informal vote by conveying their disillusionment in a message (''Vote 1 Julia Gillard''), some would transfer their vote to the Liberal Party, for they after all had a woman as deputy leader, while others would use the Senate voting paper to do their own thing.

It has been surprising how little media commentary seemed to grasp the play of gender identification in people's engagement in politics. Sure, policy choices and local candidates are important, but opinion polls consistently showed large discrepancies between men's and women's voting intentions with men always favouring the Coalition. It was when polls suggested that men were deserting Labor in droves, because they didn't like Gillard, that Rudd's shrill supporters were emboldened to act. But the relentless undermining of Gillard, the viciousness of the attacks on her, the endless representations of this woman in high office as incompetent and untrustworthy (classic sexist charges against women) dismayed thousands in the electorate, who, regardless of their traditional party affiliations began to feel deeply angry. I know this because many of them wrote to me. Many Australians were simply appalled at what was happening to Gillard.