Can Labour win back women voters?

Claire Spencer (@thedancingflea) Posted by Claire Spencer (@thedancingflea)
Sunday, 7th February 2010

On Friday, I chaired an excellent meeting of the Birmingham Fabian Society – we had invited Seema Malhotra (pictured), director of the Fabian Women’s Network and former Chair of the Fabian Society, to talk to us about how Labour can win (or keep) the women’s vote. Her speech and the ensuing discussion were everything that I love about the Fabian Society – vibrant, insightful, illuminating – but with the added bonus of a highly diverse set of people.

Part of New Labour’s success was the way in which they captured the female vote – a vote which had, traditionally, belonged predominantly to the Conservatives. This was notable among younger women – in the last three General Elections, these women were far more likely to vote Labour than Tory, and more likely to vote Labour than men of a similar age. This was for a number of reasons – and not least because the number of female MPs doubled to 120 in 1997 – 101 of these being Labour. It wasn’t enough, but it was an important leap.

But since the early months of Gordon Brown’s leadership, there has been reason to believe that we may be at risk from losing that resonance with female voters, but to assume that Gordon Brown is less appealing to female voters than Tony Blair may be to oversimplify a trend which is as complex as women (i.e. people) are. It is worth asking whether there is really a golden issue, or set of issues, that will draw in the vote from the majority of women. Indeed, do women voters have drastically different priorities to male voters? Certainly, the gender gap has always been of electoral importance, and parties have been obsessive with regards to trying to capture that elusive, typical example of the gender profile that they must win over to win the election – recent examples include the hollow cardboard cut-outs Holby City Woman, and more recently, Motorway Man. If nothing else, the manner in which politicians have been falling over themselves to be grilled on Mumsnet is testament to that.

Research from the Fabian Society emphasises that public services are of particular concern to the female voter. For example, the YouGov polling highlighted above indicates that women are twice as likely as men to say they do not know which party cares the most about public services. But why? In a blog post last year, Seema noted that there has been “a failure to explain what has been delivered for the amount spent, which has become even more significant at a time of economic instability.” More generally, she highlighted in her speech that when Blair became leader of the Labour Party, he moved the party away from linking values to politics, and doing so became deeply unfashionable. Even the best of deeds become impersonal when you do not make the political case for them – so in spite of record investment in schools, health services, education and communities, women, who vote as much with their values as their pragmatism, seem to trust the Conservatives more. In Seema’s words, “Labour has failed to maintain a relationship with the public whereby they believe Labour does not just pay for care, but actually cares.” Without the values, without the heart, the policies aren’t connecting with women, people – even if they are helping them.

During their time in power, Labour have changed expectations of what is normal, standard, both in terms of equality and the quality of many areas of public services. This is a great achievement – but it’s harder to brag about achievements when they have become... normal. However, I wouldn’t change that better normal for the world, we need to build on those achievements, we need to honestly address our failures, we need to win over the women who feel that politicians don’t represent them and policies don’t speak to them. I think we’re actually getting there – quite aside from some promising recent polling figures, the Equality Bill and the pledge to provide one-to-one home care for cancer patients show that Labour cares about people and equality, and is putting that at the heart of its manifesto. 

More Posts by Claire Spencer (@thedancingflea)

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