Australian and international examples give us many clues to this mystery, and I hope that at a local level we can work together to have the best teams possible leading our councils from September.

The Australian Labor Party has successfully used quotas for female representation at all levels of government; their almost gender parity is well known.

But this change takes time - it was a policy implemented over 25 years ago that led to the pre-selection of many of the Labor party's most successful politicians, including Tanya Pliberserk, Nicola Roxon and Julia Gillard.

In local government, a policy in India set aside one third of local council seats for women.

Researchers found that female councillors invested more in social services and were less likely to take bribes.

Similar results have been found in other countries, including results showing that female politicians are more collaborative, respond more to the needs of their diverse constituents and invest more in improvements to health and wellbeing.

Orange will have several female candidates at September's elections, many of whom are local leaders through their volunteer and work roles.

I encourage voters to take time to learn about these women and consider voting for them, rather than just putting 1 against the names they've heard of before.

It may be the key to a more transparent, collaborative and healthy Orange.