She is currently the sole female councillor in the chamber, owing largely to the fact she was the only woman to lead a ticket at the September 2017 poll and few other women who ran were in a position to be elected among the record 88 candidates. 

By comparison, Bathurst has two female councillors in nine, Dubbo and Parkes have three in 10, Cabonne has four in 12, while Forbes has four in nine, including a female mayor. 

Cr McRae said in the time since the election, she had become more aware of the barriers women faced when running for local government, which did not just include family responsibilities.

“We have concerns as women we will be judged for what we do more harshly than our male counterparts,” she said. 

“I thought my sexuality would be more of a hurdle, but it’s been shown it’s not and people will vote for people who will do a good job.”

She said it had been important for her to chair the council’s finance committee, rather than sticking to social issues, and felt quotas could make a positive impact on equalising female representation.

“We need candidates with the skills and the ability to do the job,” she said.

“But if you said we’re going to elect school captains of a local high school and we ended up with 11 males and one female, would you say that was merit-based?”

She said she would make herself available to help any woman who wanted to run as a councillor.

“We need to think about succession planning.”

This story was part of a broader feature of women in politics.

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