Weaponising Women and Gender: UK Election Party Appeals to Women Voters

• In Event: Instability and Inequality in British Democracy

Abstract

Whilst there are significant electoral advantages for political parties to target womens’ votes, recent literature on recent electoral appeals questions the quality of these gendered promises. This paper reviews the latest BES data on the heterogeneity of women’s political policy concerns and examines how the two main UK parties are developing appeals to women voters ahead of the 2024/5 general election through an analysis of leadership speeches to the 2023 party conferences. We find a disconnect between women’s electoral demands to address class-based issues like childcare and party attempts to ‘weaponise’ the women question around status issues. We conclude by highlighting the issues parties face in winning womens’ votes particularly in a constrained fiscal period and where the national picture encompasses devolved policy making.

Authors

• Anna Sanders

• Francesca Gains, University of Manchester