'Wags', 'Wives' and 'Mothers' ... but what about women politicians?

Parliamentary Affairs

Volumn 63, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 760-777

  Campbell, Rosie ^a   Childs, Sarah ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 77957148786     PISSN: 00312290     EISSN: 14602482     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/pa/gsq022     Document Type: Article

References (36)

1. See Janet Street Porter, Independent on Sunday, 9 May 2010;
2. Catherine Bennett Observer, 9 May 2010; Guardian, 6 April 2010.
3. Mumsnetters are deemed well-educated, middle-class mothers (Mumsnet cofounder, Justine Roberts).
4. Mumsnet cofounder, Carrie Longton.
5. S. Childs, P. Webb and S. Marthaler, 'Constituting and Substantively Representing Women', forthcoming, Politics and Gender.
6. The Fawcett Society sought the parties' positions on: the economy; work/family life; crime and justice; democracy and political reform; attitudes; media and culture; equality and human rights.
7. The Liberal Democrats spoke of women's gender equality; Labour supported the UN Women's Agency.
8. Stated in terms of the impact on neighborhoods not women.
9. NB, Conservative MPs are less pro-choice (P. Cowley and Stuart, 'Party Rules Ok', Parliamentary Affairs, 63, 2010, 173-181
10. Labour and Liberal Democrats agree that childcare provision should be expanded;
11. Labour specifically targets lone parents with policies to support them back into work.
12. S. Childs and P. Webb, Gender and the Conservative Party, Palgrave, forthcoming. The Conservatives' 'women's' webpage, at only half a page long belies detailed policy work.
13. S. Childs, 'Feminizing British Politics' in A. Geddes and J. Tonge, Britain Decides: The UK General Election 2005, Manchester University Press, 2005, pp. 150-167
14. P. Norris, 'Gender: A Gender-Generation Gap?', in P. Norris and G. Evans, Critical Elections, Sage, 1999, pp. 148-163.
15. R. Campbell, Gender and the Vote in Britain, 2006, ECPR Press.
16. The British Election Study 2010, funded by the ESRC, is run by Harold Clarke, David Sanders, Marianne Stewart and Paul Whiteley (http://www.bes2009- 10.org/). The CMS is an innovative monthly electronic poll, conducted by YouGov, of approximately 1000 respondents. The pooled data set (July 2008 to March 2010) contains some 24 655 respondents (weighted data).
17. Women's greater representation in the 'don't know' category is common in political surveys and is usually partially related to their relatively lower levels of interest in party politics (R. Campbell and K. Winters, 'Understanding Men and Women's Political Interest', JEPOP, 2008, 18, pp. 53-74.
18. R. Campbell, Gender and Vote in Great Britain, ECPR, 2006.
19. J. Ashe et al., 'A Missed Opportunity: Women and the 2010 General Election', British Politics, forthcoming.
20. The narrowing of the political class to graduate, professional politicians has been widely noted.
21. J. Lovenduski, Feminizing Politics, 2005, Polity.
22. Op cit, with emphasis added.
23. D. Cutts, E. Fieldhouse and S. Childs, 'This is What Happens When You Don't Listen', Party Politics, 14, 2008, 575-595
24. Baird lost on a swing of 25% reflecting the closure of a steel works in her constituency; Smith was embroiled in the expenses scandal.
25. Gaby Hinsliff, Grazia April 2010.
26. Andrew Rawnsley, admittedly, does not gender his comment that no party will elect a leader without considering how well they will fare in such a contest.
27. R. Campbell, J. Lovenduski, and S. Childs, 'Do Women Need Women MPs?', The British Journal of Political Science, 40, 2010, pp. 171-94;
28. S. Childs, Women and British Party Politics, 2008, Routledge.
29. HM Government, The Coalition: Our Programme for Government, 2010.
30. Winnable seats are where the party came second in 2001 and the majority was less than 5 and 10%.
31. This excludes ex-Conservative Andrew Pelling MP who re-stood as an Independent. Labour's Clare Short and Bob Wareing are included; Conservatives Quentin Davies, Derek Conway and Bob Spink are included.
32. Four labour seats were abolished.
33. E. Evans, 'Supply or Demand?', BJPIR, 10, 2008, 590-606;
34. L. Harrison, 'Selecting Women Candidates', Journal of Liberal History, 2009, 62, 36-52.
35. House of Commons, Speaker's Conference (on Parliamentary Representation), HC239-1, 2010, TSO.
36. R. Campbell, S. Childs and J. Lovenduski, 'Equality Guarantees and the Conservative party', Political Quarterly, 2006, 7, 18-26.