The demotion would be performance based. He is out of date and behind the times when it comes to women and the modern family.

His appointment of himself as the Minister for Women was always seen as a cynical PR stunt, designed to compensate for the many gaffes he has made about women over the years, including the gobsmacking comment in 2010 that what "housewives of Australia need to understand as they do the ironing is that if they get it done commercially it's going to go up in price, and their own power bills when they switch the iron on are going to go up".

He has desperately tried to curb his old-fashioned views about women because pre-election polling showed it was hurting him. But a question on breakfast television on Monday morning shows his attitude hasn't changed at all.  Asked what his biggest achievement as Minister for Women was, he replied getting rid of the carbon tax because "as many of us know, women are particularly focused on the household budget".

Guess what Mr Abbott, not all women manage the household budget, do the shopping or even cook. In my case, I don't shop, manage the household budget or do the cooking. I share household chores with my husband, who works full time. It is based partly on ability; he reckons I can't cook. Gender doesn't come into it.

Monday's events follow ignorant comments made by Mr Abbott back in March, when he said Australia had "smashed just about every glass ceiling". He didn't leave it at that. He said "anyone who is in Australia has won the lottery of life, and if you look at our country and the deal that it gives to women, it is obviously pretty good".

The statistics show there is still a long way to go to bridge the gap between men and women on so many levels. For instance, one in three women experience physical violence, one in five women at some stage in their career experience sexual harassment, the gap between pay is still double digit and the number of women in senior executive positions or on boards is still too low.

In his cabinet reshuffle he doubled the number of women in the ministry to two. He could have easily made way for one more by giving the role of minister for women to someone better able to do the job. This would be a long list given his track record.

Yes things are improving in Australia, but it is no thanks to him. Companies have started to take action to lift the number of women on boards, but as Fairfax Media recently demonstrated in a survey of the ASX100 companies, there is a long way to go. It found companies "have steadily bolstered the number of female directors in the boardroom in recent years, there has been negligible progress when it comes to adding to the ranks of senior female executives."

Does Mr Abbott think many of these women are standing over iron boards praising the removal of the carbon tax?

Change comes from the top, and with a prime minister with such outdated attitudes it might be time to move him on.