Women ‘will hold the balance of power’

diagnosis missing millions, viagra sale women voters, medicine balance of power, May 2015″ width=”300″ height=”200″ /> Labour’s mission: to go ‘in search of these missing women’s voices’ to ensure that they are heard in May’s election.

New research commissioned by the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Harriet Harman is shaping Labour’s new ‘Missing Millions’ policy.

The research revealed that 9.1 million women did not vote in the 2010 general election, compared to 8 million men.

The gap between women and men voters has been growing since 1992, which was the last time the voter turnout for women was higher than the turnout for men.

And polls have shown time and time again that women are more likely than men to vote Labour.

This undoubtedly reflects the fact that just about all progress for women has occurred under Labour governments from abortion and divorce law changes to equal rights and equal pay laws.

In the Blair-Brown era alone we saw free nursery schools for 4 and 5 year-olds, better-paid and longer maternity leave, child tax credits, childcare credits, flexible working and 3,500 Sure Start children’s centres established.

The current Coalition government has said that it too has encouraged progress for women.

However, most of its gains have been double-edged – from the increase in available paternity leave which few men are taking up, to the predominantly female beneficiaries when the personal tax threshold was raised which still reflects that women are stuck in the lowest paying jobs.

For, as Polly Toynbee wrote  in the Guardian, “[L]ow-paid women have lost far more through benefit cuts than they have gained in tax cuts.”

Since the research has been published, Harriet Harman has made it Labour’s mission to go ‘in search of these missing women’s voices’ to ensure that they are heard in May’s election.

“There’s a growing trend for people not to vote. And this is worrying for our democracy,” Harman said.

“But it is striking that the fall in voting is even greater among women than among men…

“These are the missing millions of women who will be the focus of Labour’s ‘Missing Millions’ campaign in the run up to this year’s General Election.”

Some opinion polls have shown Labour with a bigger lead among women than men, so persuading female voters could be decisive for Labour in what is likely to be a close election.

Harman is right when she points out that there is a “general disaffection with politics” and that many women currently “see politics as a men-only zone” rather than a solution to their problems.

She has been quoted as saying Labour will “bring politics to the school gate and the shopping centre as well as offices and factories” to win back female votes –  but she may do well to expand her list of voter hotspots from the stereotypical if she really wants to persuade 9.1 million women a Labour government is their best option.

“We believe that this election will be a watershed for women in this country,” she said.

“Women had been making progress in their lives with the backing of a last Labour Government. But now, with this Tory-led government that progress is stalling and the clock is being turned back on equality.”

“There’s been a lot of talk about UKIP or the SNP holding the balance of power… [but the] reality is that the 9.1 million women who did not vote in the last General Election will hold the balance of power and decide who walks into No. 10.”

Engaging disaffected female voters is an admirable quest. However, as Toynbee pointed out, we women only hold the balance of power if we decide to vote.

And it strikes me that 9.1 million women will need to be convinced to vote by concrete, progressive policies, not politicians hovering around their local school gates.