Labour Wants Women Onboard

In 1928 Britain at last had a truly

democratic system. Women, after years of campaigning, finally obtained the right to vote. In the 2010 general election however, there was a 64% turnout amongst female voters, compared with 66% of males. Furthermore, in a poll carried out by women's hour last week, it was found that a "third of women have yet to decide how to vote and that young women are serially uncertain (theguardian.com).

However, it is debatable as to whether the Labour Party has tackled this issue in the right way.

The launch of their campaign to appeal to women voters, which involves bussing female politicians around the country, has been subject to much criticism. This is largely due to the colour of said 'bus'.

The choice of bright, 'barbie' pink for this bus risks undermining the whole campaign. Many women find this colour patronising, and this is unsurprising, as it seems only to enforce the stereotypes which currently restrain women. Labour's Harriet Harman insisted that the bus was more "magenta than pink"(The Week), yet I fear that the damage has been done.

Clearly more needs to be done to engage women in politics, but Labour appear to have missed the point. Women voters aren't concerned with different issues to men, in fact the guardian found that men and women voters are most troubled by the same issues, namely the "future of health and education". This shows that labour need not target women voters by focusing on issues faced by women, instead, women need to feel represented. This is rather a different point, but with such a lacking in women politicians, it is unsurprising that many women feel uninspired to vote.

Moreover, this is not a problem by any means exclusive to women. In fact, the largest gap in voting turnout is between the social classes, and even more striking is the low turnout of racial minorities. "Barely half the ethnic minority population votes, against two-thirds of white Britons"(theguardian.com). This begs the question: where are the campaigns to encourage the poorest among us to vote?

Lili

The Guardian reference: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/11/labour-patronising-barbie-bus-female-voters

The Week reference: Labour: all aboard the "Barbie bus", The Week, Newspaper, 21st February 2015

Image Credit: Ellen