She's also an alumnus of the same institution, interestingly enough. Basically she spoke about whether certain social movements were successful or not, explaining how student unionism was effective in her youth. Gillard made points about how pivotal connections and financing is in the U.S., and how this disadvantages women. She also explained how women's seats in parliament were precarious, and could easily be lost after a bad election. This was her argument for gender-based affirmative action, believing that women of merit were being locked out of politics rather than the men naturally being more talented in this area. She noted that less focused activism is not as successful. Now I feel bad for blowing off Socialist Alternative's protesting earlier that day.