Changes in the Female Vote
Discussion
An interesting development in recent years has been the change in the female vote.
If women had not been on the electoral roll it is almost certain that Labour would have won every post war election up to the 1979 election.
The Tory lead among Women in the 1964 election was 4%, in 1966 in balance, in 1970 9%, in 1974 2%, in 1979 10%, in 1983 a massive 21%, in 1987 11%, in 1992 10% and then finally to the elections of 1997 and 2001 when the Tories did as poorly among women as they did among men.
Opinion polls since the 2001 election show the same trend. Conservative support among both men and women is identical. Longer term it may switch the other way, because the group of voters the Conservatives have the least support from is young women. Among 18-34 year old women Tory support is a mere 25%, behind the Libs Dems who have 31% support from this Demographic group.
The question is why?
Why did the Tories historically have more support from Women, and why have they lost it?.
My own personal theory is that women have been and are attracted to the least ideological party and the party that projects the best administrative competence.
During the post war period up into the late eighties it was Labour that failed on both those tests. In recent times the Tories have been ridden by factional disputes about such subjects as Europe and the role of the private sector in providing state services, while Labour have jettisoned much of their ideological baggage and have strived to look the natural party of government.
If any PH’s (and in particular Lady Ph’s) have any thoughts on the matter I would be happy to hear them.
If women had not been on the electoral roll it is almost certain that Labour would have won every post war election up to the 1979 election.
The Tory lead among Women in the 1964 election was 4%, in 1966 in balance, in 1970 9%, in 1974 2%, in 1979 10%, in 1983 a massive 21%, in 1987 11%, in 1992 10% and then finally to the elections of 1997 and 2001 when the Tories did as poorly among women as they did among men.
Opinion polls since the 2001 election show the same trend. Conservative support among both men and women is identical. Longer term it may switch the other way, because the group of voters the Conservatives have the least support from is young women. Among 18-34 year old women Tory support is a mere 25%, behind the Libs Dems who have 31% support from this Demographic group.
The question is why?
Why did the Tories historically have more support from Women, and why have they lost it?.
My own personal theory is that women have been and are attracted to the least ideological party and the party that projects the best administrative competence.
During the post war period up into the late eighties it was Labour that failed on both those tests. In recent times the Tories have been ridden by factional disputes about such subjects as Europe and the role of the private sector in providing state services, while Labour have jettisoned much of their ideological baggage and have strived to look the natural party of government.
If any PH’s (and in particular Lady Ph’s) have any thoughts on the matter I would be happy to hear them.
It is probably due to the notion that women now have careers and most of these are in the public sector. Over the timescale the thread addresses, the public sector has expanded greatly and its leadership has changed from largely bullied public schoolboys to mostly feminist out of contol neurotics(of both the male and female variety). As a consequence the politics of the public sector have changed from slightly right of Hitler control freaks to slightly left of Stalin control freaks with a hint of sandalism. It is probably of more importance to analyse the destination of male votes which may well lie in the "did not vote" category. It is largely up to us to prevent the advance of this dangerous green matriarchy.
nonegreen said:
It is probably due to the notion that women now have careers and most of these are in the public sector. Over the timescale the thread addresses, the public sector has expanded greatly and its leadership has changed from largely bullied public schoolboys to mostly feminist out of contol neurotics(of both the male and female variety). As a consequence the politics of the public sector have changed from slightly right of Hitler control freaks to slightly left of Stalin control freaks with a hint of sandalism. It is probably of more importance to analyse the destination of male votes which may well lie in the "did not vote" category. It is largely up to us to prevent the advance of this dangerous green matriarchy.
Yes I can see your point there.
It would be interesting to track increasing female employment in the public sector against changes in female voting patterns.
As for male voters-they switched decisively to the Tories for the 1979, 1983 and 1987 elections, just not to the same degree as women.
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