insideMAN

Are men less likely to be seduced by left-wing Corbyn-mania?

by 2 Comments

The left-wing contender for the leadership of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, is heading for a surprise victory according to the pollster YouGov, with 53% of those eligible to vote saying he’s the candidate they’ll back.

More interesting than that—for those of us who view the world through the filter of gender politics at least—is the fact that the same poll reveals that Corbyn is a hit with the ladies. So while 48% of the male selectorate back the Islington MP, a whopping 63% of females polled want the anti-monarchist, lefty to lead Her Majesty’s Most Loyal Opposition.

This left-right gender gap at the heart of Labour’s internecine succession contest seems to reflect a wider tendency in politics for women to be more left wing on average and men to be more right wing.

This has certainly been true in American politics where men and women have been voting for the “masculine” Republicans and the “feminine” Democrats along gender lines for 50 years now. Obama won the 2008 election by one percentage point amongst men and 12 points amongst women, while Clinton’s lead amongst women in 1996 was event bigger at 18 per cent.

And in the run up to the UK’s most recent general election, a stark gender divide in the nation’s political beliefs was revealed when a poll taken prior to the Heywood and Middleton by-election found that 20% more men would vote UKIP than Labour (41% v 21%) while 20% more women would vote Labour than UKIP (58% v 38%). As a result, the female electorate won the seat for the Labour Party.

This “right-wingers are from Mars and left-wingers are from Venus” divide which is found across the wider political spectrum is clearly being replicated in Labour’s narrow slice of the political salami.

Of the four leadership contenders, Liz Kendall is the most right-wing and is backed by nearly three times as many men than women (11% to 4%).

In the centre of the pack it’s a slightly different story. Both Burham and Cooper stand to the right of Corbyn and the left of Kendall, but Burnham is probably a bit more left wing than Cooper.

According to YouGov, 68% of Kendall’s right-wing backers make Cooper their second choice (compared to 24% preferring Cooper and 8% Corbyn)—suggesting Cooper is closer to the Blairite right of the party than Burham.

Similarly, 32% of Burnham’s backers make Corbyn their number two choice compared to 24% of Coopers backers, suggesting Burnham has a slightly more left-wing leaning than Cooper.

On this basis, we might expect to see more women backing Burham and more men backing Cooper, but the reverse is true. It could be that good old fashioned gender politics is playing a greater role here than standard left-right politics.

Burnham, who has been attacked for running a “very macho” and “very male” campaign has the backing of 24% of the men eligible to vote and just 17% of the women.

Meanwhile, Cooper, has played the gender card, attacking Burnham’s campaign for “suggesting that somehow women aren’t strong enough to do the top jobs” and calling on the party to “elect a Labour women leader of the party” to “shake up the old boys’ network at Westminster”.

https://youtu.be/jrNfhEfowlM?t=27m19s

This approach may have made her slightly more popular amongst women than Burham, with 19% of the female selectorate backing Cooper compared with 17% of the male vote.

What’s interesting here, is women’s greater tendency to put idealism over pragmatism. When asked which candidates they thought had the potential to win the next general election, 51% said Burnham would be likely to win; 44% said the same for Cooper and 46% said Corbyn was a winner in waiting. Yet, while women think Burnham has the best bet of becoming Prime Minister, they’d rather vote for Corbyn or Cooper.

Men also have an idealist tendency, particular left-wing men. When asked which candidates could win the next general election, 53% said Burnham would be likely to win; 46% said the same for Cooper and 39% said Corbyn.

So for men, the gap between those who think Corbyn can become PM (39%) and those who back him as the next party leader (48%), is 9 percent. For women, the gap between premiership potential (46%) and leadership support (61%) is two-thirds bigger at 15 percent.

Corbyn, it seems, is currently a runaway success with both the gents and the ladies, but is notably more successful at politically seducing women.

One final note of worth, the YouGov poll once again nails the myth (spread by the likes of BBC Woman’s Hour) that the reason there aren’t as many women leaders is because men won’t support them. In total, 28% of men who are eligible say they’ll vote for one of the two female candidates compared with 23% of women. On the other hand, 78% of the female voters back one of the two men who are running for office, compared with 72% of male voters.

All of which goes to prove that party politics—like gender politics—is a funny old game.

https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/14x8p1al7n/TimesResults150810LabourMembers.pdf

 

Official thinking on involving men in “gender equality” still getting it wrong

by 5 Comments

Last month insideMAN was approached by a representative of Dame Rosemary Butler AM, Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales, who launched a Women in Public Life campaign in 2012, writes Glen Poole, news editor.

The reason for the approach was that to mark International Women’s Day, Women in Public Life, is hosting its first all-male panel discussion on the need to involve men to achieving gender equality and they wanted us to promote the event to our readers.

We asked if one of the all-male panel would share his views with us and a senior figure from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) very kindly offered to write an article on why he thinks it’s important to involve men in gender equality in Wales.

I was personally quite excited by this prospect for two reasons:

Firstly, the ONS has access to the most comprehensive statistics on the lives of men and women in the UK and any objective person who spends time studying these statistics knows there are many, many areas of life when gender inequality impacts men more and boys more than women and girls.

I hoped he would be able to expand on the rough and ready list of 10 Key Equalities Facing Men and Boys in Wales that I produced 15 months ago and provide us with more detail on how men and boys in Wales experience gender inequality—and what we, as men, can do about it. As the Director General of ONS, Glen Watson says: “policy makers at a local and national level need a really good information base on which to base their decision to make sure they’re being fair to everyone in society”.

So the ONS has a major role to play in helping us tackle the issues that affect men and boys, by making sure policy makers up and down the land are aware of the many different gender inequalities men and boys face, and those in charge of addressing these issues know that they need to take action.

Championing diversity of thought

Secondly, the man who approached us, Dr Neil Wooding, is a champion of diversity and not just diversity in terms of the usual suspects of gender, race, sexuality and so on—but a champion of diversity in terms of thoughts, views and beliefs.

I cannot overstate how important this is to men and boys in the UK. We currently have a huge sector of people charged with tackling gender inequality in the UK in different ways and the overwhelming majority seem to think in the same say from top to bottom:

  • They think gender equality is about helping women and girls (but not men and boys)
  • They think that women HAVE problems and men ARE problems
  • They think that the feminist approach to gender issues is the only credible worldview

I wrote about this previously in 2011 when I said:

“The whole gender equality sector from the EHRC to people teaching and enrolled in gender studies courses, to equality officers all over the land, to the many excellent charities working with women is not diverse but dominated by women – and more importantly by a feminist, women’s rights perspective of gender equality. Which is why the Government Equalities Office’s opening remark on its website is “we lead on issues relating to women” and not “we lead on issues relating to gender equality” or “we lead on issues relating to women and men.

“If people – and particularly men – want to approach the issue from a non-feminist viewpoint, then why not encourage and support that? As a survey to mark the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day found 80% of young women aren’t feminist – then it would seem to make sense to engage more non-feminist men AND women in the sector if it is to be representative of the communities it serves”.

So when I discovered Dr Wooding’s views on the importance of diversity of thought, I was brimming with anticipation to hear what he would say about engaging men in gender equality. Here’s what he’s said previously about diversity at the ONS:

“We know that organisations thrive on the basis of their differences and not their similarities. We know that diverse cultures are vibrant cultures are places where people are valued for the difference they bring.

Diversity is about people thinking differently

“We’ve been fortunate in ONS that over the past ten years we’ve recognised the importance of diversity and we’ve worked hard to create a culture where everybody is accepted for their differences and valued for the very things that they bring to the work environment that’s different from each other

“Diversity for ONS means many things it’s about people who think differently, who have different views, faiths and beliefs. It’s about the broad complex mix of humanity that lives inside our communities.”

On that basis, I awaited his article on men’s role in tackling gender equality in Wales with great anticipation. I expected an article packed with a long list of the most up to date statistics on the inequalities that men and boys fact and a call for those working to tackle gender issues in Wales to open their arms and embrace those who think differently.

To say the resulting article from Dr Neil Wooding was a disappointment is an understatement. The thrust of his argument is that men must “lead a personal transformation in our own behaviour and take responsibility for the role we play in helping women to achieve their full potential”.

Don’t mention men!

Forgot the majority of homeless people; suicides; victims of violent crime; imprisoned; excluded from school; functionally illiterate; people who die at work; people who die prematurely; long-term unemployed; parents excluded from their children’s of lives; victims of domestic and sexual violence who don’t get help and lonely old people who are men and boys—they appear to be of no concern to Dr Wooding when it comes to gender equality, even though they have access to the detailed statistics that reveal the gendered nature of these problems.

No, the job of the many men and boys who experience inequality in Wales, it seems, is to transform their behaviour in order to benefit women.

I’d like to thank Dr Wooding for taking time to write for insideMAN, we pride ourselves on providing a platform for a diverse range of voices to promote conversations about men, masculinity and manhood. As he has previously said himself when promoting the vital importance of diversity of thought:

“We know that differences can create lots of dissention, but we also know that it creates lots of vibrancy and opportunity at the same time and what we want to do is be truly reflective of the wider society in which we live.”

In the spirit of encouraging a diversity of views on the topic of men and gender equality, we have decided to publish a range of articles on this topic as follows:

—Photo Credit: Flickr/Sharon & Nikki McCutcheon 

Dr Wooding will be speaking at the “Men on our Side” discussion in Wales hosted by Women Making a Difference on Thursday 12th March. For details see the Women Making a Difference website.