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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   36354 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 10, 2023

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To quote myself from the old place:

Should be remembered that historically, at least in major Western countries, once women's suffrage was actualized, women were more likely to vote for conservative parties than for left-wing parties for a long period - it only flipped the other way in the 70s or the 80s.

"As already indicated, the “history” of the gender voting gap in Western democracies can roughly be divided into three phases (Inglehart and Norris 2000, 2003). The first phase (the traditional gender gap) lasted until the late 1970s/1980s and is typically characterized by a more conservative vote from women in comparison to men (e.g., Campbell et al. 1960; Norris 1988; Randall 1987). This was predominantly explained with women's more pronounced religiosity (see Manow and Emmenegger 2012 for a detailed discussion) and their lower labor market participation (i.e., Baxter and Lansing 1983; Blankenburg 1967). The clear-cut party competition, with regard to religion, traditional family structures, and a woman's devotion to her family, worked in favor of a more conservative female vote (e.g., Norris 1988; Studlar et al. 1998). At the end of the 1970s, the gender differences in the ballot started to vanish, or at least substantially diminish, in several countries, especially in Canada, the United States, and the Netherlands. This phase of so-called female party de-alignment has partly been explained by modernization and secularization processes, as well as by the accompanying decomposition of cleavages in general (Inglehart and Norris 2000). Shortly thereafter, in the 1980s, surprisingly new gender-driven voting differences emerged in some advanced democracies, such as the United States, West Germany, and the Netherlands (Inglehart and Norris 2000). This time, however, the gender gap was reversed and exhibited a female preference for parties on the left. Ever since, a third phase defined by a modern gender voting gap has entered the electoral scene. However, these new emerging electoral gender differences are rather seen as a reflection of overall societal value changes leading to the de-alignment phase (e.g., Inglehart and Norris 2000)."

What has flipped once might very well flip again, given the conditions.

Isn't that adequately explained by conformism? Women held up the dominant religion back then and they do so now.

No, not really. For instance, one example I've seen used is that many French republicans (for decades past the last French monarch actually was on throne) were suspicious of women's suffrage because they thought women would return a king to the throne. One argument was even that it would create instability, since there would then be pressure from the republican army to coup the king to return to a republic. What were the women "conforming to" then? Who determines the target of conformity? Men? But men were to the left of the women - the women weren't following the instructions of the men in voting, at least in all cases.

one example I've seen used is that many French republicans (for decades past the last French monarch actually was on throne) were suspicious of women's suffrage because they thought women would return a king to the throne.

As an interesting historical note, this was also true in Spain in the early part of the 20th century. After the establishment of a Republic the left was deeply split on women's suffrage; some supported it on principle, others opposed it because they feared women would vote as a bloc for the right. Suffrage was in the end extended to women and in the next election in 1933 the right won in a landslide.

That’s not surprising to me, to be honest. Women tend to be more conservative than men outside the Anglosphere — and the relative unconservativeness of women inside the Anglosphere is only, what, half a century old?

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