The most important voters? Women

Part of a LabourList series on International Women’s Day 2018.

This year’s International Women’s Day falls immediately after the centenary of the first women exercising their right to vote in Britain. Today presents an opportune moment to consider how British women have shaped British politics – and the dramatic ways in which they will do so in the future.

Though social movements such as #MeToo have raised neglected issues in our public life, in our economic and electoral lives, gender is a historically overlooked dividing line. It has been particularly overlooked in a populist age, when far more attractive narratives on generic but usually angry white male political revolutionaries running the system to ruin provide easier headlines and even easier strawmen.

When a team of us started Women in Political Data, aiming to increase female participation in the polling industry, we did so with the hypothesis that the Angry White Male narrative was driven largely by a bias towards the loudest men in a focus group.

This bias, in political research and the commentary that follows, adds to a historical bias in our wider conversations on social class. To be ‘working class’ in this country is often associated with generally male indicators – private sector, manual workers – at the expense of historically female indicators – public sector, non-manual workers who are too often today derided as a liberal, urban elite, out of touch with the white van man.

Parties have in recent years responded so swiftly to this imagery– and Labour in particular has been increasingly urged to move beyond these apparent heartlands – that we have ignored an economic reality that has formed the basis for a quiet political revolution: austerity-stricken women have moved increasingly towards a radical economic message.

At the end of last year, Labour’s lead amongst women soared to 16 per cent. This seems to have been reinforced by BES studies on the 2017 election, which show the swing from the Tories to Labour can be explained entirely by a swing amongst women. These movements have gone largely unnoticed, despite their dramatic character.

If a lead or swing of this magnitude were registered with another demographic – especially one that easier fit into the liberal elite versus manual worker narrative – it would have been far more likely to earn a headline in a major tabloid. That it was not vindicates WPD’s assumption about the male bias in our modern politics.

This bias can be ignored by commentators, but it should not be ignored by a political party aspiring to government. The last near decade of austerity and sky-high economic inequality may have formed the backdrop for incredible scenes in our newly populist politics, Brexit standing above all others, yet it affected no one more than it did women. 70 per cent of cuts landed on women, and wage stagnation has affected more female-dominated jobs and sectors than men.

With this economic inequality between men and women growing ever larger with austerity, the political ramifications should be a focus. And it would seem the ramifications are that women are more inclined to respond to messages for economic reformation, as offered by Corbyn’s Labour, than their male counterparts. And indeed, of any demographic.

As the parties’ have level-pegged with traditional measures of occupational class, and with the ‘youthquake’ in doubt, it should be female voters who are given due consideration both by psephologists and by politicians thinking ahead to a (possibly near) future election. If the latter want to win, they will need to think more deeply about what women want when they cast their ballot – because, it would seem, they hold the keys to number 10.

For the Conservatives, this will require soul-searching that would be immensely difficult and probably too late. After cutting so deeply and relying so firmly on Daily Mail-esque yelling about liberal traitors, giving in to hardliners, they may have moved past the point where a legitimate offer can be made to seriously tackle gender inequality.

For Labour, it now requires two things: addressing the systemic gender inequalities within itself; and a manifesto that pays heed to this growing divide.

Labour must, if it is ever to be a legitimate advocate for women, address its own problems. It needs to confront harassment, misconduct, structural sexism and its stubborn lack of female leaders before all else.

As well as building a truly feminist party, Labour must promise to build a feminist country. That means a focus on gender pay gaps when we consider regional disparities, addressing pay disparities across sectors, considering the gender-oriented impact of Brexit, and addressing how public service cuts have impacted women so profoundly.

Labour MP Stella Creasy’s recent push for this via the Ladydata campaign provides a solid foundation – the party must demand independent assessments of the impact of budget cuts on different groups including women, then act to address them.

This includes remaining committed against austerity and cuts, but also being explicit when we consider the intersections of housing, wages, public services, devolution, and most importantly, Brexit. Areas that impact most dramatically on women, particularly women of colour, LGBTQ women, and low-income women. Intersections as they relate to women are far too neglected and have been for far too long.

Women are beginning to voice our discontent in all spheres of life. When it comes to our economic lives, we continue to be overlooked. Our political reactions to this, too, remain overlooked. But there is a quiet revolution brewing for British politics, and it is women from our most vulnerable sections of society, 100 years on from that first and limited suffrage, choosing our next government.

Jade Azim is the co-editor of Open Labour.

@JadeFrancesAzim