The impact of gender on voting behaviour Flashcards
Which gender will parties often tailor policy to?
Women
Give some example of recent policies that the Labour party have tailored towards women
- Their 2017 pledge to conduct a gender impact assessment on all policies and legislation
- Their Woman to Woman pink minibus visiting 75 constituencies to encourage more women to vote (although this itself was criticised as sexist)
How did Tony Blair and David Cameron try to become appealing to women?
- They comitted to the creation of more female MPs
- Introduced the policy of all women short lists for local council elections, which helped to promote the visibility of women at all levels of politics
Why is there no identifiable ‘women’s vote’?
Because they tend to vote on issues other than their gender
How did women tend to vote in the 1970s and 80s?
They were more likely to vote conservative than men
How much did women favour the conservatives in the 1979 general election?
47% voted conservative, while only 35% voted Labour
How much did women favour the conservatives in the 1983 general election?
46% voted conservative, while just 26% voted Labour
How have women’s voting proclivites changes since 1997?
They are now marginally more likely to vote for Labour
Why were women more likely to favour the conservatives over Labour in the 1970s and 80s?
They were seen as the party of ‘housewives’ who would keep prices low in order to allow mothers to run an effective household. Labour was dominated by trade unions and workers from heavy industries that were largely male and focused on the rights of working men, rather than issues relating to the women
Why have women become more likely to support the Labour party since the 1980s?
Women have entered the workforce and become involved and issues and areas not traditionally associated with the ‘housewife’. Women therefore began to make up a higher proportion of the workforce in Labour dominated occupations
Why have the Labour party been forced to seek the support of women?
The collapse of Britian’s industrial base forced the Labour party of the 1990s forced them to consider a wider range of issues, many of which appealed to women
What issues do women generally tend to prioritise?
Health and education
What issues do men generally tend to prioritise?
Foreign intervention, nuclear power and nuclear weapons
When do gender differences become less stark?
As people get older
