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
With more and more women running for office, races between women candidates will become the norm — not a novelty. Shared Hurdles reveals how candidates’ race, political party, and gender interact to influence voter opinion when more than one woman is on the ballot.
Research on gender dynamics in politics has seldom studied races between two women candidates. This research helps to fill that gap — and give women the tools they need to resonate with voters in races against other women. Shared Hurdles shows that in an election between two women candidates, gender biases are still prevalent, and voters hold both women to a higher standard than they hold male candidates. Shared Hurdles is a timely update on how gender shapes politics, and it provides a framework for women candidates who are campaigning against other women.
Click here to access the report.
Despite repeated warnings, Australia’s two major political parties continue to make one big mistake – and one MP has issued a scathing rebuke.
The women chosen by Australia’s two major political parties to run in the upcoming federal election are predominantly chosen for seats they are unlikely to win.
Shocking statistics gathered by news.com.au reveal a huge disparity in the chances of women entering parliament compared to their male counterparts, with men more likely to be chosen to run for a seat already held by their party.
Click here to read the full article published by News.com.au on 23 March 2022.
In December 2020, a leading Kenyan political party official, Edwin Sifuna, made vulgar remarks against a woman member of parliament. While campaigning for their political allies in a by-election, Sifuna said the woman is “not attractive enough to rape”.
In January this year, controversial bishop David Gakuyo, who is seeking election as a member of parliament, made demeaning remarks about two women politicians. He accused them of seeking votes while “swinging bare behinds”.
Sifuna and Gakuyo later made half-hearted apologies through the police after complaints were lodged about the language they used. The National Cohesion and Integration Commission, a government agency tasked with taming the excesses of politicians, was largely silent.
Click here to read the full article published by Daily Maverick on 17 March 2022.
In this In brief, the authors consider lessons learned in the aftermath of women candidates’ defeat in the 18 November 2021 general election. They identify five intractable barriers to women’s election in Tonga: voters’ expectations of reciprocity in exchange for electoral support; deeply entrenched perceptions of men’s legitimacy as political leaders; untimely support for women candidates; an inhospitable political environment for electoral gender quotas; and a lack of accountability on gender equality commitments.
Click here to read the full article.
Electoral management bodies (EMBs) are responsible for ensuring a level playing field for political representation and meaningful participation across the entire electoral cycle. Yet, International IDEA data shows that only 22% of EMBs themselves are chaired by women.
When disaggregated by regions (Figure 1.), data from 242 EMBs in 208 countries and territories shows that the percentages indicating the number of women chairing EMBs are below the global average on three continents, with Asia recording the lowest numbers (10%), followed by Oceania (11%) and Africa (19%).
Click here to read the full article published by International IDEA on 7 November 2021.
Although the landscape for female candidates in U.S. politics has improved, research continues to find that many voters possess sexist attitudes. We rely on a standard political communication framework to help reconcile sexism in the electorate with increasingly favorable outcomes for women in primary elections. Based on two national survey experiments, we first demonstrate that in the absence of gendered campaign rhetoric, sexism is a weak predictor of support for female candidates on both sides of the political aisle. We then show, however, that when a male candidate attempts to activate sexism among voters by attacking a female opponent, gender attitudes become more salient—but not to the woman’s disadvantage. In a Democratic primary, gendered attacks backfire and lead to a significant boost in support for the female candidate. On the Republican side, a male candidate does not face the same backlash, but the attacks do very little to depress his female opponent’s support. While the persistence of hostile attitudes toward women has slowed the march toward gender equality in society, our experimental results suggest that sexism exerts only contingent effects in primary elections and not systematically to female candidates’ detriment.
Click here to download the paper published by Sage Journals on 23 September 2021.