It was at the Harvard Business School in 1996, during a sabbatical from law, that Julie Bishop thought about getting into politics.
Now she's helped launch a new University of Melbourne program, modelled on another offered at Harvard University, to support female graduates and alumni who aspire to be elected to parliament.
Members of the non-partisan program will attend seminars from members of parliament, campaign strategists and public policy experts.
Launching the 'Pathways to Politics Program for Women' at Parliament House on Wednesday, Ms Bishop said she wished there had been such a program when she was starting out.
Australia has come a long way in the representation of women, she said.
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She recalled recent talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in Boston, alongside her colleague Marise Payne.
"Both remarked that this was the first time that either of them had met with their counterpart ministers who were females representing one country," she said.
Since Carol Schwartz, chair of the Women's Leadership Institute Australia, conceived the program, Ms Bishop was pleased to report the number of women in cabinet had increased to five.
She also says female representatives at the 193-member United Nations have increased almost four-fold since former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright dubbed them the 'G7'.
"I was chatting with the Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi the other day and we sat down to work out how many female foreign ministers there are," she said.
"We'll call it the G27, but we're just concerned that given the political cycles around the world ... we might have to change that number from time to time."
Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek, who helped launch the program, shared correspondence she received a few years ago from a man saying women have ruined politics.
Ms Plibersek noted the country had now had a female prime minister and governor-general.
"But we need to do better still to reach full equality in Australia," she said.
Ms Plibersek defended her push for quotas, saying since targets have been introduced in the Labor Party in 1994 there's been an increase in female representation.
