The former prime minister knows not everyone who purchases a copy of her book, My Story, will agree with her policy stances - maybe very few, if any.

She knows many didn't vote for her Labor government.

But for the many Australians curiously reading the book, which traces her tumultuous years as Australia's first female prime minister, breaking that leadership barrier might be enough to peruse its pages.

In conversation in front of a mostly female audience for her book launch, hosted by YWCA Canberra at the National Portrait Gallery on Monday night, inevitably, gender equality and feminism played greatly into the discussion.

Ms Gillard described herself as an optimist, longing for nights of trivia where teams would eventually mull over questions like, 'how many women have served as Prime Minister?".

In the meantime, the feminism conversation needs to be re-geared to one more like racism in sport.

"People don't go around saying, '[indigenous AFL player Adam Goodes] Goodesy is playing the race card'," she said.

"I just don't know why we can't have the same reception when a woman legitimately raises her voice about sexist treatment. Women who respond are not playing the gender card ... they are simply standing up for decent treatment."

Faced with gender slurs on the political stage during her prime ministership, Ms Gillard is the first to admit she and many influential people around her were a little too late to the show when it came to stamping out sexism.

"I didn't really feel, as a woman, that gender was holding me back in my life until I was actually at the upper echelons of politics," she said.

"I felt like I myself, personally, and everyone with my value set were a little late to the show."

If Hillary Clinton entered the US presidency race, she wouldn't be shy of offering some advice.

"It would be really good reach out to some men ... and ask them at the right time to weigh into the debate," she said.

"When it got to the madness of 'ditch the witch' it would have been fantastic if a male business leader came out [who didn't necessarily support the labor government or carbon pricing and said], 'we don't have our democratic conversation like this'."

Not surprisingly, Ms Gillard's misogyny speech still strikes the biggest chord on the world stage.

"I can be in Tokyo or Seoul or London or New York and women will run across the street to say, 'great speech'," she said.

"Most people don't focus on Australian politics. I'm quite proud that's the bit they saw."

Quite fittingly, the Canberra launch didn't shy away from a discussion of the public service - a service she had "been very well served by" - and the sector's bigger picture shift from the professional to the political.

Ms Gillard said she felt the needle was shifting closer to the latter, and raised concerns for a day when an ambassador might change alongside a changing government to suit a political flavour.

But so soon after former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam's funeral, the conversation closed on reflection. Would she do it all again, warts and all?

"I was really conscious [my leadership] was something that inspired women and gave a sense of opening doors," she said.

"If I had to do it all again tomorrow ... I'd do it again in a heart beat."