After being defeated in a leadership ballot by Kevin Rudd on 26 June 2013, Julia Eileen Gillard resigned as Prime Minister. Before the ballot, she had declared she would retire from politics if she lost the leadership. She did not contest the seat of Lalor in Victoria in the September 2013 election.

In a speech she gave after losing the leadership, Gillard spoke about being the first female prime minister of Australia and the role her gender had played in her term as leader:

It doesn't explain everything, it doesn't explain nothing, it explains some things, and it is for the nation to think in a sophisticated way about those shades of grey. What I am absolutely confident of is it will be easier for the next woman and the woman after that and the woman after that and I'm proud of that.