1st Edition
Women, Men, and Elections Policy Supply and Gendered Voting Behaviour in Western Democracies
Women, Men, and Elections sheds new light on gendered political behaviour by analysing the relationship between policy supply and gender gaps in vote choice across elections in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and multiple Western European countries.
Rosalind Shorrocks argues that the electoral context, and specifically policy supply, are associated with the ways in which vote choice at election time is gendered. Using data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems and the Comparative Manifesto Project, Shorrocks finds that the extent to which men and women differ in their vote choice is contingent on the policy choices that parties off er to voters. Women and men respond to party policy positions in ways that are linked to both their gender and their socioeconomic position, producing variation in gendered political behaviour across elections, across countries, and across subgroups in society.
Women, Men, and Elections offers a much- needed fresh perspective on our understanding of political behaviour, representation, and party competition. It serves as an excellent supplementary text for students and scholars of comparative politics, gender and politics, and political behaviour.
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Arguments: Gender, Vote Choice, and Political Supply
3. Data and Methodology
4. Fiscal Policy, Social Spending, and Redistribution
5. Moral Traditionalism
6. Environmentalism
7. Nationalism and Immigration
8. Foreign Policy
9. Conclusion
Biography
Rosalind Shorrocks is a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Manchester. She researches gender and politics in Britain and comparatively, focusing on electoral politics, political behaviour, and social attitudes, using quantitative data and methods.
"Rosalind Shorrocks has written the book on gender and voting behaviour that should transform the field and accelerate our understanding of when gender gaps in voting appear, and crucially disappear. She has brought the politics back into analyses of gendered political behaviour and shown the critical role parties play in recruiting or repelling women's votes crossnationally. Shorrocks foregrounds intersectionality and context and yet executes her comparative analysis parsimoniously. In my view her approach should be the model adopted by scholars of the gender gap across the globe."
Rosie Campbell, Director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership and Professor of Politics, King’s College London"A book long overdue to be written: Shorrocks’ book offers a compelling integration of the party competition and gender voting behavior literature. It shows convincingly how the positions parties take on issues help us explain the dynamics of the gender gap over time and across countries. A must-read for everybody interested in gender & voting as well as in party competition!"
Nathalie Giger, Associate Professor, Department for Political Science and International Relations, University of Geneva"A must-read for gender & politics scholars and practitioners alike. Shorrocks not only demonstrates the immense power women have at the ballot box, but also convincingly documents how parties’ position on selected issues - rather than ideology alone - shape women’s and men’s choices at the polls."
Mona Morgan-Collins, Assistant Professor in Quantitative Comparative Politics, Durham University"Shorrocks’ book offers an important and comprehensive study that brings nuance to what gender scholars generally describe as the modern gender gap. It moves beyond the traditional left-right dimension and investigates how parties’ positions on a wide variety of policy issues are linked to gender and party choice. In addition, it highlights the diversity in voting behaviour among female (and among male) voters, as such calling scholars – rightly – to move away from a basic gender gap and recognize the diversity among female (and male) voters. Covering an analysis of 70 elections, spread across 20 established democracies and 21 years, the book offers a broad comparative perspective and is thus highly valuable not only for gender scholars, but also for scholars in comparative and party politics."
Hilde Coffe, Professor of Politics, Bath University
