Former Australian PM Julia Gillard: World still has a problem with female leaders

Julia Gillard, the first female Prime Minister of Australia Credit: ITV News Wales

Australia's former Prime Minister Julia Gillard has told ITV News Wales about how she challenged the sexism she faced as the country's first female leader.

Ms Gillard, who was born in the Vale of Glamorgan, emigrated to Australia in 1966. This week she returned to Wales to deliver a speech on barriers faced women in public life.

"I found that the longer I was prime minister and the more heated the political debates that a sort of gendered insult became the go-to weapon," she told ITV News Wales' Andrea Byrne.

"This isn't just Australia - round the world there are issues about women and leadership."

Watch: Andrea Byrne's interview with Australia's first female PM Julia Gillard:

Ms Gillard, 53, was born in Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan in 1961.

In 1966, her family took advantage of the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme established by the Government of Australia, which encouraged Britons to migrate cheaply - the so-called 'Ten Pound Poms'.

As a young child Julia Gillard lived here on this terraced street in Barry. Credit: ITV News

After moving to Australia, Ms Gillard grew up in Adelaide and became an Australian citizen in 1974, along with the rest of her family.

Despite this, her beloved father - who was from the small coal-mining village of Cwmgrach in South Wales - always instilled in her and her sister a strong sense of Welsh identity.

Ahead of the speech, Ms Gillard told ITV News Wales that she still feels a "strong sense of connection" with Wales, but joked: "I can't say any of the accent has remained!"

Julia Gillard (bottom right) picured with her beloved family - older sister Alison and parents John and Moira.

Watch: Julia Gillard talks movingly about her father's love of Wales:

Ms Gillard was sworn in as the 27th Prime Minister of Australia on 24 June 2010 and re-sworn in as Prime Minister on 14 September 2010 following the 2010 Federal Election.

She has often talked about the challenges of being a woman in a public role.

In October 2012, she delivered her now-famous misogyny speech in parliament in response to alleged sexism from opposition leader Tony Abbott.

Watch: "I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man"

This week, Ms Gillard gave a key note lecture at the Pierhead building in Cardiff Bay as part of Presiding Officer Dame Rosemary Butler's 'Women in Public Life' campaign.

The #POWiPL campaign was launched four years ago in a bid to get more Welsh women involved in public life.