Today is the 120th anniversary of women's suffrage. After a long campaign women were granted full citizenship rights and New Zealand gained the honour of being the first country in the world to do so. Unlike Australia, the campaign did not result in women also winning the right to stand
Jennifer Curtin: Winning women's votes - 120 years on
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Leading suffragette Kate Sheppard worked tirelessly for women's equality with men in New Zealand. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library
New Zealand women voters became increasingly more likely to support parties on the left than the right, and often more so than their male counterparts. Women's participation in the labour market had increased substantially, the women's movement had politicised women's issues in ways that challenged traditional ideas about women's roles, and women began seeking election as MPs.
In many ways, women as voters were beginning to look more like men and initially Labour appeared more successful than National at adapting to these structural and cultural changes. Indeed in the 1990s, women were significantly more likely than men to support Labour (a gender gap of 8 points in 1993). This gap was reduced to 5 points in 2002, but reopened at the 2005 and 2008 elections. However, in 2011 the differences between men and women were minimal suggesting Key's National Government has begun clawing back the women's vote from Labour.
So what made Labour more attractive to women voters in the past? Part of the story lies in the differences between women and men in how they perceive economic and social issues. Research suggests women are more likely to be interested in the national economic situation, while men focus more on their personal economic position; women are thought to be more sympathetic toward state expenditure while men are expected to show more interest in issues such as tax and crime. According to the New Zealand Election Survey in 2011, 60 per cent of respondents, both men and women, believed they were worse off economically, but more women than men thought that education and health expenditure and, to a lesser degree, welfare expenditure should be increased.
The second part of the story is about leadership. The New Zealand Election Study data shows that women were more likely than men to 'like' Helen Clark and this gap continued over her time as Prime Minister. And while Labour did not win in 2008, Clark's likeability rating among respondents of both sexes actually increased on her 2005 rating. Interestingly, with the exception of 2005, Key has yet to gain the same level of support from women respondents that Clark did in all her elections as leader. So having women representatives, in Parliament and Cabinet, matters to women voters, as do policies that involve support for women as workers and heads of families. This is not so different to what the suffragists fought for in the lead-up to 1893. Labour might want to ponder this, assuming they want to win back women voters in 2014.