The York Politics Review

Image Credit: Sarahmirk, CC.4.0

By Evie Enever

Green Party membership is currently soaring, hitting 170,000 members, a number which has more than doubled since Zack Polanski took over as leader. Recently, much of the media coverage surrounding party politics is concerned with the far-right and Nigel Farage, but it doesn’t feel as though we are talking about who’s driving the populist left. We know the narrative that it’s working-class men who are fuelling the far-right but, in this piece, I want to discuss women’s voting. What is causing women to vote for left-wing parties? For example, consider Finland, where women make up two-thirds of the voting base for both the Green League and the Left Alliance. I will argue that women’s shift to the left is a product of long-term societal changes culminating in a feminist consciousness, an awareness of the political and social problems and the oppression women face.

Women are not simply the “woker sex”; historically, women in Western democracies have leaned towards the right. Since the 1980s, a shift has occurred in the “gender vote gap” with women moving to the left of men. Examinations of gender and voting behaviour have concluded that women in post-industrial democracies have gone through three phases in terms of gendered voting: 1) The traditional gender gap in the 1950s – 1960s (women were more likely to lean to the right), 2) The dealignment phase through 1980s – 1990s (women and men had no significant differences in their voting behaviour), 3) The realignment phase since the 1990s (women voting more frequently for left leaning parties compared to men). 

The link between the development of a feminist consciousness and the realignment phase is clear. Women’s greater likelihood of holding feminist views significantly contributes to their left-wing vote preferences, especially on social issues. This is true even for those women who do not identify as feminists; they are still often aware of injustices despite not identifying with the feminist movement. Women are more likely to support policies that advance gender equality, reproductive rights, and social justice – all priorities often associated with left-wing politics. As such, it is clear that the preference for left-wing parties today among women is driven by their having a feminist consciousness. 

But what led to the development of the feminist consciousness? In this article, I draw upon the modernisation theory to answer this. This theory holds that the development of society around us leads to shifting cultural attitudes, especially towards gender equality, the post-industrial shift saw the further development of gender equality, with women gaining more powerful jobs and increasing political influence. As such, women’s leftward shift lies in societal contexts within countries – as well as broader international contexts – contributing to them coming to hold more progressive, left-wing, values. Changes in employment, marriage, and education have contributed to the exposure of women to the inequalities they face. These culminated in an evolution of feminist consciousness, which has created the gender vote gap that we see today. 

Women’s Employment

The introduction of women into the paid labour force has contributed to the feminist consciousness. However, this has not been uniform across all countries, nor has it followed a set pace. Ruth Dassonnville argued that women’s shift to the left began in the late 1970s, correlating with the growth of women’s employment rate in Western countries. For example, at the beginning of the twentieth century in America, fewer than 20% of women had entered the labour force. Yet, by 1983, more than 60% of women were participating in paid labour. Similar increases can be found across the UK. Recalling the three phases of gendered voting, we can see a clear correlation between women’s employment status and their left-wing voting. 

The way that employment contributes to the feminist consciousness is that employed women are more frequently exposed to, thus gaining awareness of issues of, gender equality, regardless of income, than their non-working counterparts. This exposure has been linked by academics like Pamela Aronson, with women becoming more critical and more aware of gender-based issues. Involvement in a wider societal institution like the paid labour force exposes many women to more of the tribulations of gender inequality than before. Not only this, but being involved and surrounded by other women in a professional setting can contribute to these conversations, boosting awareness. This recognition of gender-based issues is likely to make employed women vote for the left, who are often seen to prioritise these issues more than right-wing parties.

The context of employment also aids the explanation of why women’s political shift is not uniform. Stay-at-home mothers, due to their lack of exposure, may be less likely to prioritise women’s rights when voting, as they have not seen the wider problems of structural inequality and power dynamics in the workplace. Exposure in employment and the workplace has been key to the evolution and further development of women’s feminist consciousness. This exposure in the workplace helps explain the change of pace. Post-1980s, women’s employment began shifting away from pink-collar jobs. These are jobs that were historically female-dominated and preserved the image of women as domestic entities. For example, cleaners and carers both require skills typically associated with being a stay-at-home mother. As they were female-dominated occupations, they didn’t allow for a great amount of exposure, whereas now, young women are more than ever entering professional settings, historically dominated by men which in turn contributes more to the feminist consciousness.

Women’s Education

When women enter educational settings they are exposed to gender inequality, contributing to their feminist consciousness and shifting their political alignment to the left of men just as it has in employment. As discussed by Mathilde M. van Ditmars and Rosalind Shorrocks, two leading scholars on women’s voting, women with higher levels of education are far more likely to support progressive causes, which are commonly aligned with left-wing parties. Their data suggests educational attainment is closely tied with more left-leaning values.  Although there is a clear correlation, it does not necessarily mean that education is a causal factor, with van Ditmars and Shorrocks arguing that it is a case of self-selection. The evidence provided that it is not the education which makes women left-leaning; rather, left-leaning women self-select into higher education. However, when we view this through the lens of feminist consciousness, we can infer that it is still a contextual factor that feeds into the development of feminist consciousness, thus indirectly affecting a woman’s left vote.

Marriage and Divorce

The economics of marriage has an interesting effect on the feminist consciousness. When looking at marital status, there is a voting divide between married and unmarried women. Stay-at-home wives have complete economic dependency on their partner, meaning increased levels of economic vulnerability. However, those who have remained unmarried or divorced have a reduced shared economic interest with men. This means they are without economic dependency on men, which means also having a potentially increased economic vulnerability. In many Western democracies with welfare states, unmarried women are the most likely group to rely on the state for economic aid, as due to their marital status, they are often clustered at the bottom of the socio-economic structure of society. Some academics, Box-Steffensmeier, De Boef, and Lin, have argued that this further contributes to awareness of women’s wider vulnerability, and thus feeds into the feminist consciousness. Unmarried women in America fall at the bottom of the socio-economic structure, and have the lowest level of financial dependency on men, and, importantly, are the group with the strongest support for the democrats. Exposure to gender inequality can, of course, occur within marriages as well, especially since the feminist push of the slogan, “the personal is political” – which further coincides with the growth of women’s increasing left vote.

Regarding marriage and divorce, feminist consciousness and thus the gender gap is a product of the economic vulnerability women have historically been exposed to from the institution of marriage and divorce. The economic vulnerability within these institutions has presented a potential preference for the economic left; countries with more accepting attitudes towards divorce generally have higher levels of “feminist consciousness” due to more awareness of the difficulties of leaving marriages. This points to institutional involvement of women in society, whether this be within the institution of marriage, education, or the paid labour force, leading to awareness of economic vulnerability, feeding into an evolving feminist consciousness.

Conclusion 

All of these factors point to a social and cultural development that has occurred in the last forty years, which is continuing to manifest in young women today. Shifts in employment, marriage, and education have contributed to the exposure of women to the inequalities they face. This exposure to inequality develops into feminist consciousness, which causes women’s shift to the left in voting, rather than simply being the “woker sex”. With this in mind, the populist left would be right to mobilise women voters as they are accelerating to the left, away from men, in a way that we haven’t seen before. 

References and Further Reading

Data on left-right self-placement: Dassonneville, R. (2020). Change and continuity in the ideological gender gap a longitudinal analysis of left‐right self‐placement in OECD countries. European Journal of Political Research, 60(1), 225–238. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12384.

Historical account of women’s voting: Inglehart, R. and Norris, P. (2003). Rising tide : gender equality and cultural change around the world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Analysis of Employment, Education and Marriage: van Ditmars, M.M. and Shorrocks, R. (2024). Social Change and Women’s Left Vote. The Role of Employment, Education, and Marriage in the Gender Vote Gap. Comparative Political Studies. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140241271123. 

Understanding feminist consciousness: Aronson, P. (2017). The Dynamics and Causes of Gender and Feminist Consciousness and Feminist Identities. In: H.J. McCammon, V. Taylor, J. Reger and R.L. Einwohner, eds., The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Women’s Social Movement Activism. [Online] Oxford University Press, 2017, 335–354. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190204204.001.0001