Elections
Gender remains a significant indicator for political preference. While the 'gender vote gap' isn't new, recent polling data on the US election indicates the gap in voting preference between men and women seems to be widening. But why? And how significant is it?
Has there always been a gender vote gap?
Gender has long been a powerful indicator for voting choice. Not since Bush Snr in 1988 have more women voted for a Republican candidate than for a Democrat. In the last two elections, polling company Edison found that women were 15% more likely to vote for Joe Biden and 13% more likely to vote for Hillary Clinton than for Donald Trump. Only twice since 1988 have men turned out more for a Democrat than a Republican - Bill Clinton in 1992 and Barack Obama in 2008. Men were 8% and 11% more likely to vote for Trump in 2020 and 2016 respectively. Unsurprisingly, considering electoral history, a recent study found that men are 18% more likely to vote for Trump, whilst women are 7% more likely to support Kamala Harris.
This 25% cumulative gender gap is the largest since 1984 and worryingly seems to show a growing disconnect. Over the past 25 years the partisan gap between young men and women has risen dramatically - Gen Z women are the most progressive group in American history, but Gen Z men are increasingly conservative. Polling of swing states by the New York Times found that whilst young men preferred Trump by 13 points, young women favoured Harris by 38 points - a staggering 51% gender gap amongst young Americans, by far the largest of any age group.
Read here the full article published by Best For Britain on 22 October 2024.
Image by Best For Britain
A record number of women are running in Japan’s general election this month, although they still account for less than a quarter of candidates, local media said Wednesday.
New Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is seeking to shore up his mandate in the October 27 vote by retaining a majority for the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Japan has never had a woman prime minister and Ishiba narrowly beat one of its few prominent female politicians, nationalist Sanae Takaichi, to the top job in a party leadership vote.
The 1,344 lower house candidates who kicked off their campaigns on Tuesday for all 465 seats include a record 314 women, Japanese media including the Yomiuri and Asahi dailies said.
The ratio of women candidates – around 23 percent – is also a record high, according to the Yomiuri.
Read here the full article published by the First Post on 16 October 2024.
Image by First Post
What are the issues?
On October 11, Mongolians head to the polls for nationwide local elections. This latest round of elections, which follows the country’s June parliamentary elections, features more than 17,000 candidates competing for more than 8,000 seats across a vast expanse of territory roughly the size of western Europe. Available seats include sub-national, provincial, and soum (county) Citizen Representative Khural (local governing councils).
The two-week campaign period kicked off on September 26, and 15 political parties and one coalition are competing vigorously. Despite the wide variety of political parties competing, most of the political parties are only competing in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar, while Mongolia’s two major political parties, the center-left Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) and center-right Democratic Party (DP), which have dominated local and rural politics over the last three decades, are running in constituencies across the country. Ulaanbaatar is home to half the country’s population, making the political parties’ agendas for addressing pressing issues in the city particularly impactful. The Democratic Party (DP), led by mayoral candidate T. Battsogt, is running under the slogan “City for Children” and is focusing on child-friendly urban development, addressing the housing crisis, improving employment, and promoting transparency in city governance. The DP is criticizing the Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) for what it describes as the party’s mismanagement of the past eight years in the capital. In the eight local elections held since 1992, the DP has won only once, in 2012.
Read here the full article published by the International Republican Institute on 10 October 2024.
Image credits: International Republican Institute
Indian wrestling star Vinesh Phogat believes that to bring about real change, she must engage in politics with the same energy and determination as she displayed on the wrestling mat.
"Politics is in every sphere of life," the 30-year-old athlete told DW, adding that it was important for her to enter the political arena.
Fighting for women's safety
Phogat, a triple Commonwealth Games gold medalist, has been a leading figure in protests demanding action against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a powerful politician and former head of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).
Phogat and other top wrestlers, including Olympic bronze medalist Sakshi Malik, staged monthslong demonstrations in the Indian capital New Delhi, accusing Singh of sexual harassment and intimidation of female athletes.
"I see this opportunity as a time to give back to society, especially for those who continue to suffer exploitation and abuse," Phogat said.
"Women and athletes who agonize and continue to do so because of harassment, see me as one who can give them a voice. They have expectations and it is this desire which keeps me going. It was a necessity," the Indian Olympic wrestling star said.
In May, a Delhi court charged Singh, a member of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with sexual harassment and criminal intimidation. Singh denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty.
Read here the full article published by DW News on 7 October 2024.
Imabe by DW News
As we gear up for one of the most pivotal elections in history, it’s clear that women are more politically inspired than ever. Following the announcement of Vice President Kamala Harris' candidacy, the percentage of women feeling politically inspired soared from 12 percent to 59 percent, according to a recent survey.
Yet, despite this surge in inspiration, the survey — conducted in June and September by She Should Run and CREDO Mobile — found that an astonishing 78 percent of women are still not considering running for office. This gap between inspiration and action is exactly what She Should Run’s latest initiative aims to address.
The “Vote, And” campaign responds to the recent decline in women candidates and aims to boost women’s political engagement beyond the ballot box. While women are tuning out of toxic political news, we know they continue to show up for their communities and themselves. She Should Run’s goal is to bridge the gap between the two and bring the political to the everyday. The campaign aims to inspire 10,000 women to take the first steps toward political leadership and connect the dots between their everyday actions and political ambitions in the future.
Read here the full article published by The Fulcrum on 9 October 2024.
Image by The Fulcrum
In a historic turn of events for Jammu and Kashmir's political landscape, three women, including former minister Sakeena Masood, have emerged victorious in the latest Assembly elections, reaffirming the growing influence of female leaders in a traditionally male-dominated arena.
Sakeena Masood secured a decisive win in the D H Pora Assembly seat, Kulgam district, outpacing her opponent Gulzar Ahmed Dar by 17,449 votes. Meanwhile, the BJP's Shagun Parihar claimed a tight victory in the Kishtwar Assembly seat, unseating experienced National Conference leader Sajad Ahmed Kitchloo by a mere 521 votes.
National Conference's Shamim Firdous continued her success from previous elections, defeating BJP rival Ashok Kumar Bhat in the Habbakadal seat of Srinagar district. Although some female candidates such as Iltija Mufti faced defeats, the elections symbolize an encouraging shift towards increased female participation in regional politics.
Read here the full article published by DevDiscourse on 8 October 2024.
Image by DevDiscourse
NDI collaborated with the Federation of Women Lawyers - Kenya (FIDA-K) to review the performance of women in the 2017 general elections in A Gender Analysis of the 2017 Kenya General Elections. Through an examination of the legal and social environment within which the elections took place, and in comparison to the 2013 elections, the report provides data and analysis on women as candidates during the 2017 elections, and draws conclusions on the barriers to their success. These conclusions form the basis of recommendations for increasing meaningful women’s representation in Kenya’s elective bodies in the future.
Click here to read the report published by NDI on 28 February 2018.
Pakistani women face unique and frequently more severe challenges to their political participation than men do. In particular, the violence faced by Pakistani female political candidates, and voters is a serious barrier to their full participation in civic life. These challenges are especially difficult to address because they often go unrecorded and unreported. Security actors and public bodies such as Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) may struggle to respond to protect and promote women’s public participation because of the absence of documentation and understanding of the nature and magnitude of the problem, as well as lack of specific programming responses that may be appropriate to the context.
The present study seeks to fill this knowledge gap by documenting the distinct challenges to women’s political participation in Pakistan, specifically examining the issue of violence against women in politics (VAWP) during electoral processes. The aim of the study is to produce an evidence base and identify the types of VAWP in Pakistan to encourage appropriate policy measures through legislative reforms by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), and other key stakeholders. Specifically, the aim of this baseline study is to identify the forms of VAWP and to document its prevalence and magnitude in the country.
Based on this analysis, the study offers a number of policy options to address the issue of VAWP as well as providing recommendations to develop effective measures for eliminating VAWP in consultation with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), media, political parties, women candidates and voters, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and ECP. The study concludes with recommendations for the development of mechanisms to monitor incidents of VAWP ahead of elections.
Click here to read the report.
Abstract
Proportional electoral systems tend to be more beneficial for women's descriptive representation than majority systems. However, within proportional systems the gender equality of election outcomes differs, highlighting the importance of studying the actual use of electoral provisions in proportional representation (PR) systems. Therefore, we investigate the determinants of voting for female candidates in Belgium's local elections. This case is particularly interesting given the equal number of men and women on the candidate lists due to quota regulations, the possibility to cast multiple preference votes (lowering competition), and the high visibility of these local elections and its candidates. At the individual level, we find that women are more likely than men to vote for several women, yet same-sex voting is more common among men. Politically sophisticated respondents vote more often for candidates of both sexes. Against our expectations, a left-wing orientation does not increase the likelihood of voting for women. At the electoral district level, a larger supply of women at the top list position increases the chance to vote for this top woman, but there is no spillover effect to women lower on the list. District magnitude affects the number of preference votes but, against expectations, not the likelihood of voting for women.
Click here to access the paper.
The National Conference on “Gender and Electoral Reform: Making A Difference” in Malaysia was envisioned to look at current debates and obstacles as well as innovative strategies and alternative models in women’s representation in the Malaysian electoral process. This Conference introduced a panel of scholars and specialists to share their experiences and expertise, leading the discourse into the Malaysian context in hope of facilitating electoral reform together for a higher representation of women in politics.
This report covers the conference background and then explores the following areas: current debates, alternative models, the Malaysian context, experiences of politicians, barriers and strategies, and finally the conference recommendations.
Click here to access the report.
The research presented in this paper provides useful insights into how increasing women’s descriptive representation within a legislature affects citizens’ interest and engagement in the political process, or their symbolic representation. Uruguay’s first quota law was implemented in the 2014 elections, resulting in significant increases in the number of women serving in both houses of Uruguay’s Parliament. Surveying citizens before and after the elections, the research team found strong evidence that increases in women’s descriptive representation had a positive effect on citizens’ symbolic representation, and that this effect was stronger for women than for men. Before election day, women were significantly less likely than men to say they were interested in politics, less likely to state that they understood political issues in Uruguay, and less likely to report having trust in elections; after election day, these differences disappeared and women were as likely as men to be interested in politics, understand current political issues, and trust the electoral process.
This publication was produced by USAID in partnership with Arizona State University and the Institute of International Education as part of the Research and Innovation Grants Working Papers Series.
Click here to read to read the study.
The Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) has cited violence as a leading factor discouraging young women from actively participating in politics.
Zimbabwe will hold general elections next year, and women participation is pivotal as they constitute 52% of the population.
In a recent report titled “Do middle class women defend democracy?” RAU noted that young women shied away from politics mainly because of violence, polarization, corruption and nepotism.
“The general consensus was that political participation is risky and violence is too frequently a part of the contest; and politics are strongly associated with corruption and nepotism,” read part of the report.
Other reasons given for poor participation of young women in politics were difficulties encountered in registering to vote.
“The young women want to participate but are failing to find spaces they are comfortable in to express themselves politically, and it is important for them to see that sitting out is also a political statement.
Click here to read the report.