Ms Gillard said that French President Francois Hollande and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt had congratulated her on the speech, as well as other leaders at the summit.

"The President of France congratulated me on the speech, as did the Prime Minister of Denmark and some other leaders just casually as I've moved around have also mentioned it to me. So some approval here from some leaders at the Asia Europe meeting," Ms Gillard told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

Ms Gillard's speech to Parliament last month in which she accused Opposition Leader Tony Abbott of misogyny and sexism made headlines around the world.

One US website, Jezebel, called her "one badass motherf---er".

In an interview with magazine Marie Claire this week, Ms Gillard said she could see the funny side.

"I'm taking it all with a bit of a wry smile. I'm certainly taking 'badass' as a compliment. I think that's how it was meant," Ms Gillard said.

The Prime Minister also said that the strong reaction to her speech, which went 'viral', took her by surprise.

"The parliamentary events of the day meant that I just gave the speech," she told Marie Claire.

"I had no notice I was going to give it. I scribbled out some handwritten notes as [Mr Abbott] was speaking. I did have access to quotes and various things that Tony Abbott has said, which I used in the speech. You think, 'That's been a pretty feisty kind of round in the Parliament,' but I didn't expect it to go viral and go around the world the way it has as I was delivering it, or indeed afterwards, until it started happening."

Follow the National Times on Twitter