THERE are two types of females in this world: the "woman's woman" and the "man's woman".

The latter adores men and is an incorrigible flirt. At a party she will prefer their company. She will never observe the "BBQ rules" that frequently divide Australian social gatherings down gender lines.

She regards attention from men as more important than the regard of women.

A woman's woman loves men just as much but for the most part she abides by a loyalty code to her own sex, which holds that the best way to ruin a good friendship is to compete for the attention of men.

Most women are somewhere along the continuum between the two extremes, and women can move in and out of each camp as they grow older, and depending on circumstances.

But in the current high-octane climate of political misogyny and sexism it is worth noting that the woman who occupies the highest political office in the land, our first female prime minister, lauded as a latter day Boudicea, the patron saint of feminists, appears very much like a man's woman.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. But a man's woman doesn't resort to false claims of sexism and gender victimhood. She appears to know that her sex has been an asset in the climb to the top, and that it is her refusal to be treated as a lesser creature that has earned the respect of men and smoothed her way.

This is especially so in a very blokey environment, such as the union-dominated Labor Party.

The tension between the ALP's macho culture and Emily's List feminism, which has infiltrated the party with demands for affirmative action quotas and ideological purity on abortion, makes a man's woman even more sought-after by male colleagues as a talisman of gender equality. It is not hard to wrap such men around the proverbial little finger with feminine adulation, flattery and harmless flirtation.

This is a legitimate, though unspoken, path to power. No path is pretty and men and women make use of whatever they have.

But women's women are frequently the targets of unsisterly enmity.

In her lively new book Tales from the Political Trenches, ABC journalist turned one-term Labor MP Maxine McKew recounts bitterly how Gillard patronised and ignored her when she served as her parliamentary secretary.

It is venom of a kind that would have a male branded a misogynist, as is the fashion of the moment.

McKew describes Gillard as "punitive and scolding". She, "never included me in wider discussions or sought out my views on any of the substantive areas. I never shook the feeling that Gillard saw me as an irritant."

She writes of Gillard's "girlish giggles", her "lack of generosity towards me her pattern of condescension and the way her office had locked me out of some important policy development".

And later: "The photos of the country's first female prime minister standing beside Governor General Quentin Bryce suggested a new era of girl power ... But it was a deceptive image."

McKew was a Kevin Rudd loyalist, so she may not be an altogether reliable witness to Gillard's sisterliness.

But the point is that when any woman whips out the sexism card, she's lost the argument and a man's woman knows that better than anyone, because she hunts with the beast.

That is why to me and many others Gillard's misogyny speech appeared inauthentic, even apart from its context. Despite her raised voice and flapping hands, despite the direct language, whinging about sexism is not her way, and she must be fair minded enough to know it was a fraud. She's a doer, not a complainer. She's a pragmatist who will take any weapon that comes along, but sexism will end up shooting blanks, despite any short term damage it does to Abbott.

That is what a forensic examination of Newspoll tells us, and I am indebted to Dennis Shanahan of The Australian for his analysis.

When asked if they thought Abbott has behaved in a sexist way towards Gillard recently, 45 per cent of people said no and 16 per cent had no answer. Fewer - 39 per cent - said he had been sexist.

Females were more likely to see sexism. But even then, they were split evenly, 43 to 41 per cent, the difference within the 3 per cent margin of error. More men (48 per cent) thought Abbott had not been sexist than thought he had (35 per cent).

The youngest people, aged 18-34, were least convinced, with just 33 per cent agreeing Abbott was sexist and 45 per cent saying he wasn't. As the inheritors of a politically correct world, they are more alert to fakery.

The truth is that while Abbott comes across as a blokey bloke who would fit right in to the ALP, he also comes across as a woman's man, one who adores women.

His six-month paid parental leave scheme shows how women would fare under his policies, particularly those least respected by Emily's Listers, women who want to put family before career, at least in the early stages of childrearing.

"Maternity leave schemes are better thought of as a means of encouraging more women to keep the most traditional role of all, that of a mother" wrote Abbott in his 2009 book Battlelines.

"It's the fact that so many mothers and mothers-to-be can't afford to give up work that makes a national paid maternity leave scheme necessary."

He also sees the baby bonus, not as middle class welfare but as a tax refund "a benefit based not on need but on the contribution (parents) are making to Australia's future". This is a message that will be very attractive to Australia's women. And that is why Labor is working so hard to block it.

Originally published as PM sexism card didn't trump Abbott