Australia's first female premier Julia Gillard has opened up for the first time on the sexism that plagued her leadership and her famous misogyny speech in her final interview before being ousted.
Gillard, an unmarried, atheist lawyer, was dumped as Australia's prime minister by her ruling Labor party last month, almost three years to the day since she toppled Kevin Rudd - now reinstated as PM - in a shock coup.
Her time in office was marred by slights on her gender and sometimes violently sexist commentary, including from members of the conservative opposition, prompting a fiery speech about misogyny last year that went viral and earned her global accolades.
The galvanising speech on the floor of parliament saw her become a torchbearer for women around
the world.
Welsh-born Gillard opened up for the first time at length about the sexism she faced in what would ultimately be her final interview as prime minister, telling author Anne Summers you "wouldn't be human if you had no reaction to it".
Australia's first female leader said conservative leader Tony Abbott had tipped her over the edge, portraying himself as "some convert, or someone with a real understanding about what it's like to face the world as a woman and to feel the weight of that?"
Gillard revealed that she had spoken to former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the travails of female leadership.
"She said to me that she never really felt that issue about gender when she was a senator. It's when she put herself forward for executive office that she felt it very acutely, and so she talked
about the crack she put in the glass ceiling," she said.
They had also discussed the loss of privacy that came with public office and an "obsessive" media poring over every detail of their past lives, Gillard said, recalling how Clinton advised her "to stand up to it".
She also described her affinity with US President Barack Obama, forged in part over their place as "The First" - she Australia's first female premier; he the first African-American president.
In remarks foreshadowing her fate just two weeks after the interview, Gillard said the constant leadership speculation which ultimately brought her undone had been the worst aspect of her time in office.
Gillard will not be standing for re-election when Australia goes to the polls later this year after promising to retire from politics if she lost the Labor leadership ballot. Rudd beat her 57 votes to 45.