Sex, Gender and the Conservative Party: From Iron Lady to Kitten Heels

307 Pages·2012·0.921 MB·English

by  Sarah Childs, Paul Webb (auth.)

Gender and Politics series
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Titles include:
Gabriele Abels and Joyce Marie Mushaben (editors)
GENDERING THE EUROPEAN UNION
New Approaches to Old Democratic Deficits
Sarah Childs and Paul Webb
SEX, GENDER AND THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY
From Iron Lady to Kitten Heels
Jonathan Dean
RETHINKING CONTEMPORARY FEMINIST POLITICS
Mona Lena Krook and Fiona Mackay (editors)
GENDER, POLITICS AND INSTITUTIONS
Towards a Feminist Institutionalism
Gender and Political Series
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Sex, Gender and the
Conservative Party
From Iron Lady to Kitten Heels
Sarah Childs
Professor of Politics and Gender, School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies,
University of Bristol, UK
Paul Webb
Professor of Politics, Department of Politics and Contemporary European Studies,
University of Sussex, UK
© Sarah Childs and Paul Webb 2012
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-27900-1
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ISBN 978-1-349-32674-7 ISBN 978-0-230-35422-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230354227
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
Contents
List of Boxes, Figures and Tables vi
List of Abbreviations x
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
Section I Women’s Political Representation 17
Chapter 1 Conservatism, Representation and Feminization 19
Section II Women’s Descriptive Representation in the 37
Conservative Party
Chapter 2 Women Members and the Party’s Women’s Organizations 39
Chapter 3 Conservative Legislative Recruitment 62
Chapter 4 Reforming Parliamentary Selection: Party Change, 85
Parliamentarian and Party Member Attitudes
Section III Women’s Substantive Representation 111
Chapter 5 Party Member Attitudes and Women’s Policy 113
(by and for women?)
Chapter 6 Sex, Gender and Parliamentary Behaviour in the 138
2005 Parliament
Section IV Feminization and Party Strategy 163
Chapter 7 Feminization and Party Cohesion: Conservative 165
Ideological Tendencies and Gender Politics
Chapter 8 The Feminization Strategy and the Electorate 182
Conclusion 218
Methods Appendix 235
Notes 262
References 284
Index 297
v
List of Boxes, Figures and Tables
Boxes
1.1 Traditional and Liberal Conservatism 28
3.1 Systemic, Practical and Normative Institutions 72
3.2 Conservative Reforms to Parliamentary Selection 2005–2010 74
5.1 Manifesto Pledges for Families, by Party, 2010 121
Figures
5.1 The Gender Pay Gap and the Role of the State 118
7.1 Ideological Clusters of Conservative Party Members in 169
Two-Dimensional Ideological Space
Tables
0.1 Feminization and Party Types 7
2.1 CWO Annual Conferences 2005–2010 46
2.2 CWO AGMs 2006–2010 46
2.3 CWO Women’s Summits 2006–2010 47
2.4 CWO Women’s Forum Panels 2006–2010 48
2.5 CWO Muslim Women’s Group 2007–2010 49
2.6 Conservative Party Organization 61
3.1 MPs Elected to the House of Commons, 1983–2010, 64
by Sex and Party
3.2 Women Candidates and MPs by Type of Seat 2005 (men) 66
3.3 Women Candidates and MPs by Type of Seat 2010 (men) 67
3.4 Retirees and Replacements at the 2010 GE, by Main Parties 68
3.5 Women’s Descriptive Representation in Centre Right 69
Parties, in Select European and Parliamentary Systems
3.6 Priority List Selection Progress, by Sex 79
3.7 Priority List Selection, by Seat Safety and Sex 80
3.8 Conservative Primaries, by Marginality and Sex 81
4.1 Should Parliament have More or Fewer Women MPs? 96
4.2 ‘Conservative women members are more likely to 97
discriminate against women seeking selection as
parliamentary candidates than Conservative men members’
4.3 Split-sample Evidence of Latent Bias against Women 97
Candidates
vi
List of Boxes, Figures and Tables vii
4.4 Support for Individual Measures Designed to Enhance the 99
Descriptive Representation of Women in the Conservative
Party, by Sex
4.5 ‘Do you think that the leadership has too much, not 101
enough, or about the right amount of influence in the
candidate selection process?’
4.6 ‘The low number of Conservative female MPs deters women 102
from voting for the party – do you agree or disagree?’
4.7 Supply and Demand Side Explanations, by Parliamentarian 103
Type and Party
5.1 Self-placement of Respondents on Ideological Left-Right 124
Scale
5.2 Left-Right Attitudinal Scale Item Statistics 125
5.3 Libertarianism-Authoritarianism Attitudinal Scale Item 125
Statistics
5.4 Positions on Left-Right and Libertarian-Authoritarian Scales, 126
by Sex
5.5 Post-materialist Orientation, by Sex 127
5.6 Conservative Members’ Attitudes towards European 127
Integration, by Sex
5.7 General Feminism Scale Item Statistics 128
5.8 Positions on Feminism Scale, by Sex 128
5.9 Sex Differences on Current Gendered Political Issues 129
5.10 Sex Differences on Abortion Law, PDI Scores 132
5.11 OLS Regression Model of General Feminism Scale 133
(‘feminism’)
5.12 OLS Regression Model of Substantive Representation Scale 135
(‘genderscale’)
5.13 OLS Regression Model of Descriptive Representation Scale 136
(‘selectreform’)
6.1 Over-representation of Women Members in Parliamentary 147
Debates
6.2 Legislators’ Interests and APPG Memberships, by Sex 148
6.3 Participation in Parliamentary Debates, by Sex and Party 153
6.4 Peers’ Parliamentary ‘Interests’, Related to the Work and 153
Families Act, 2006, According to DOD’s Parliamentary
Companion
6.5 MPs’ Parliamentary ‘Interests’, Related to the Work and 154
Families Act, 2006, According to Vacher’s Parliamentary
Profiles
6.6 MPs and Peers Membership of Select All Party Parliamentary 156
Groups
6.7 Lords Contributions 2ndReading 156
6.8 Lords’ Interests, Associated with the EPFW Bill 157
viii List of Boxes, Figures and Tables
6.9 Lords’ All Party Parliamentary Groups, Associated with 157
EPFW Bill
6.10 MPs who Spoke on Abortion, by Sex and Party 157
6.11 Peers who Spoke on Abortion, by Sex and Party 158
6.12 Peers’ Parliamentary ‘Interests’, Related to the HFEA 2008, 158
According to DOD’s Parliamentary Companion 2007
6.13 MPs’ Parliamentary ‘Interests’, Related to the HFEA 2008, 159
According to DOD’s Parliamentary Profiles
6.14 MPs’ Membership of All Party Parliamentary Groups 160
Related to the HFEA 2008
6.15 Lords Membership of All Party Parliamentary Groups, 162
associated with the HFEA 2008
7.1 Three-Cluster Model of Ideological Tendencies within the 168
Conservative Party Membership, 2009
7.2 Positions of Tendencies on Gender-related Attitudinal 171
Scales
7.3 Attitudes towards Abortion, by Tendency 172
7.4 Attitudes toward Political Reform, by Ideological Tendency 174
7.5 Attitude to Tax and Spending, by Ideological Tendency 175
7.6 OLS Regression Model of General Feminism Scale 177
(‘feminism’)
7.7 OLS Regression Model of Substantive Representation Scale 178
(‘genderscale’)
7.8 OLS Regression Model of Descriptive Representation Scale 179
(‘selectreform’)
7.9 OLS Regression Model of Attitude towards Taxation and 180
Public Spending (‘taxspend’)
8.1 Gender by Party, 2010 184
8.2 The Conservative-Labour Gender Gap 184
8.3 Vote in 2005, by Vote in 2010 185
8.4 Voting by Sex and Age: The Shifting Gender-Generation 186
Gap, 2005–2010
8.5 Logistic Regression Model of Conservative Vote, May 2010 188
8.6 Most Important Election Issues for Men and Women, 2010 191
8.7 Attitude towards Taxation and Expenditure, 2010 193
8.8 Attitude towards Crime and the Rights of Defendants, 2010 194
8.9a–j Attitudes towards Key Issues in 2010 196
8.10 Attitude towards Main Party Leaders and Their Parties, 2010 199
8.11 Focus Group questionnaire responses to question ‘In your 202
opinion, what issues, if any, would be most important in
deciding who you would vote for if there was a General
Election tomorrow?’
8.12 Focus Groups Participants’ Attitudes towards Gender 205
Equality
List of Boxes, Figures and Tables ix
8.13 Focus Group Participants’ Views on the Descriptive 208
Representation of Women in Parliament
8.14 Focus Group Participants’ Views on Conservative 211
Initiatives regarding the Substantive Representation of
Women
8.15 Voters Positions on Key Themes and Policies, May 2010 215
8.16 The Three Most Important Reasons for Voting for the 217
Conservative Party
Methods Appendix
A.1 Demographic Profile of Conservative Party Members, 2009 236
A.2 London Constituencies 239
A.3 Bristol Constituencies 239
A.4 Target and Actual Quotas for London and Bristol Focus 240
Groups
A.5 Focus Group Breakdown, Pre- and Post-Questionnaire Data 241
A.6 Borough Voter Focus Groups 253
A.7 Harrow Voter Focus Groups 254