Will the strikes exacerbate Cameron's women problem?
Jonathan Jones 3:29pm
We've already heard a lot about Dave's problem with female voters. Melanie McDonagh
wrote our cover piece on it in June, and in September there was that memo detailing Number 10's efforts to respond. But, judging by the polls, we may well be hearing even more
about it after today's strikes.
It seems that, while the government has men broadly on its side in the battle against the unions, women are far less supportive. 51 per cent of men told ComRes that public sector workers are wrong to strike today, but only 42 per cent of women agreed:
TNS BMRB asked people whether they thought that the government was right to press ahead
with the reforms, or that public sector workers were right to strike against them. Men sided with the government 45-37, while women took the strikers' side 43-28:
And on the government's proposed changes to public sector pensions, 49 per cent of men support them, compared to just 32 per cent of women, according to YouGov:
Of course, the reasons for all this may lie in the fact that two-thirds of public sector workers are women. But whether this is just about self-interest or something deeper, it's not good news for
Cameron's attempts to woo women.
Previous
MArk
November 30th, 2011 4:02pm Report this commentYou mean that women are 33% over-represented in the public sector?
I look forward to the indignation, outrage and solution to this terrible descrimination to eminate from the Opposition benches...
DavidDP
November 30th, 2011 4:02pm Report this comment"Of course, the reasons for all this may lie in the fact that two-thirds of public sector workers are women"
Gee, you think? In other words, this isn't a woman problem, but a public sector worker problem.
Sean Haffey
November 30th, 2011 4:06pm Report this commentVirtually everyone commenting on the BBC report about the strikes is vehemently against them. (Scroll down to the comments at the bottom of the article). That's not the SPeccie web site but a broader range of political opinion. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15953806
Cynic
November 30th, 2011 4:17pm Report this comment"51 per cent of men told ComRes that public sector workers are wrong to strike today, but only 42 per cent of women agreed" Once upon a time you could rely on women to run the household efficiently and to keep to a budget. It seems that after feminism that is no longer the case.
Maggie
November 30th, 2011 4:20pm Report this commentBut......in the latest YouGov Poll more women support/intend to vote for the Conservatives than support/intend to vote for Labour. And I notice you've used data from two different dates. Its always the same with statistics and polls you can choose whichever one best suits your purpose.
Paul
November 30th, 2011 4:21pm Report this commentAm I the only person getting fed up with this "Cameron is sexist because his policies go against women" line? What's he supposed to do when public spending is so vast, and a large part of it is down to public sector pay and benefits? He's unlikely to find a policy where men and women are affected to an exact 50-50.
On a side issue, watching Miliband and Balls doing their "calm down dear" gesture during PMQs - move aside Mr Gladstone, Mr Pitt and Sir Winston - two new Parliamentary giants have arrived!
Man in a Shed
November 30th, 2011 5:06pm Report this commentThe government should point out that its everyone's children that will be forced to pay for public sector pensions that they will never ever be able to enjoy themselves.
The economy must be rebalanced and put on a sound footing to compete with the rest of the world or else there will be no future for our children.
The Unions ( and their Labour party wholly owned puppet ) offer temporary tax slavery followed by eternal poverty and destitution for our kids.
Once the socialist plan to hurt everyone's children is fully understood the women support will follow.
Danielle
November 30th, 2011 5:19pm Report this commentThe fact is all the cuts are falling on women. 73% of the public sector are women and child benefit gets paid to women. There are going to be 700,000 job losses and cuts to child benefit. Men may not be bothered but when you get sick, your children need educating, you need disabled or elderly care etc it's mostly women doing these jobs. Also when things really start to bite men will soon change their minds because believe it or not men working in the private sector do marry women who work in the public sector and when their wives and families are suffering from this Government's policies they might not be cheering for more cuts, cuts, cuts.
I am a woman 29 years old and of all the women I know (friends, work colleagues) some my age some older, some with families and some not, NOT A SINGLE ONE is going to vote Tory again. A few have said they did last time but now they say they regret it. This is obviously a very very small group of people though.
I think Cameron and Osborne have made a massive misjudgement. It's not like Thatcher taking on miners in the 80's. The overwhelming majority of people then had no connection with miners but most people are married to or related to someone working in the public sector and everyone uses at least one of the services these people provide.
If Labour actually elected a credible leader, they would win the next election easily. As it is they will probably win with a tiny tiny majority, something like single digit number. I would bet my house on the Tories not winning even with Ed Milliband leading Labour.
ButcombeMan
November 30th, 2011 8:37pm Report this commentDanielle says:
"The overwhelming majority of people then had no connection with miners but most people are married to or related to someone working in the public sector"
EXACTLY, Brown's unaffordable, inefficient client state that he expected to get him re-elected. THAT, is (partly) how we got where we are.
Woody
November 30th, 2011 10:19pm Report this commentAs a woman who works in the public sector, I can tell you ladies out there that I have never worked with such a bunch of useless, self-centred women in all my life.The few men I work with are totally dominated by the women and must be sick to death of seeing them promoted just because of the simple reason that they are women.
The sickness levels are a disgrace and all they ever talk about are their pensions, their next foreign holiday and X-Factor.They wouldn't survive five minutes in the private sector.
They want equality but only when it suits them. David Cameron should not pander to them.
TomTom
December 1st, 2011 10:28am Report this commentNot much mention of this huge re-grading exercise in the public sector for Equality, where areas which are predominantly female are now re-graded with male trades/professions outside their own area just to create comparability and budgets are now strained as men resist pay cuts.
How did they solve the Leeds strike of dustbin men, and how are electricians and joiners now compared in the NHs to cooks and cleaners ?
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