2024/08/10 by Anna Sanders, Francesca Gains · 1 voice · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Gender Politics and Representation #Social Policy and Reform Studies #Electoral Systems and Political Participation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/pa/gsae021
openalex publication_date 2024/08/10 · openalex created_date 2024/08/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Abstract Whilst there are significant electoral advantages for political parties to target women’s votes, scholarship on recent electoral appeals questions the quality of gendered policy promises to address deep structural gender inequalities existing within the British state. This article examines British Election Study data to identify women voters’ concerns and explores how the two largest Westminster parties developed appeals to women voters in the build up to the 2024 UK 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 gender inequalities and party attempts to ‘weaponize’ the woman question around status issues. We conclude by pointing to the enduring nature of gendered inequalities despite the election of a Labour government, which targeted appeals more closely to the class-based concerns of women voters.