An Australian graduate school has graded as A the performance of Prime Minister Julia Gillard. The Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) released the report on Thursday, to coincide with the International Women's Day. Ms Gillard is Australia's first female prime minister.

AGSM graded Ms Gillard on conflict management, legislative change and re-engaging with the public service in Canberra. The report noted that she managed a complex minority government but still achieved substantial legislative changes in the 18 months that she has headed the country. However, it pointed out that Ms Gillard continues to struggle with voters over the mining and carbon taxes.

Executive Director of Executive Education at AGSM, Rosemary Howard, said that her peers are judging Ms Gillard more harshly than her male counterparts.

""There is definitely clear evidence that we judge women against male criteria in terms of leadership attributes and so that misjudgment, often about superficial things, gets in the way of us consciously and unconsciously recognizing what she'd done really well," ABC quoted Ms Howard.

Ms Gillard's leadership was recently challenged by her predecessor and former Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd. However, she survived the challenge with a lopsided victory.

Her victory over Mr Rudd, however, could not hide the fact that women leaders still are few in Australia. Female MPs make up less than 25 per cent in the House of Parliament and less than 14 per cent of the ASX 200 board members.

On Wednesday, the Australian Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimated the number of women-owned businesses in the country to have risen to 900,000 from 700,000 in 2007. The rise in number came after the 2008 global financial crisis.

In comparison, Australia's neighbour - New Zealand - registered better performance when it comes to female leader. New Zealand had two women prime ministers, two women governors general and 43 per cent of its NZSX top 100 companies have female directors. Across the nation, women comprise 13 per cent of national leaders and 9.3 per cent of all directors in 2010.

Globally, female leaders hold 19.5 per cent of elected political posts.

Vitrolic and personal criticisms have been hurled against them.

Ms Gillard has been labeled by some talk show host as a menopausal monster and criticised for being childless. Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez is considered too beautiful and described as shrill. New Zealand's Helen Clark has received personal attacks and the ouster of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has led some people to conclude that her style of leadership is an indicator why men are better leaders.

Authors Michelle Ryan and Alex Haslam held the view that women are given leadership positions in business and politics during times of crisis. What these female leaders breach is not a glass ceiling but reach a glass cliff because of the higher risk of failure during their tenure.

An examination of the ascent of some female politicians appears to validate the theory. Ms Gillard was elected ALP leader when it was clear from opinion polls that Labor would not win with Mr Rudd on helm. Similar situations were present when Australian State Premiers Carmen Lawrence and Joan Kirner and Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell were voted to power in the 1990s.

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