Feminization and Party Cohesion: Conservative Ideological Tendencies and Gender Politics

Abstract

If David Cameron’s strategy of decontamination is widely acknowledged, the importance of feminization to reconstructing the Conservatives as a modern and no longer ‘nasty’ party is less often noted. Yet, and as previous chapters have shown, efforts to deliver a more representative parliamentary party and to make the party more electorally competitive over women’s issues constituted a significant part of Cameron’s strategy. In moving the party on this terrain Cameron would be required, at times, to ‘lead’ his party, just as he had on issues like the environment, education and (whilst tax cuts were resisted) on the economy (Heffernan 2010). With sex differences apparent amongst both party members and party elites on women’s issues this would likely be harder to do so in respect of older and male party members and Parliamentarians. Younger party members and women in particular appear generally more comfortable with the party’s efforts to ‘act for’ women, and within the 2005 Parliament, it was Conservative women Parliamentarians rather than men, who, for the most part, acted for women in a more gender equality direction. Here, we seek to shed more light on the impact of feminization on intra-party cohesion, more precisely, to gauge the way in which feminization relates to broader patterns of ideological difference within the Conservative party. Drawing on our survey of party members, three main ideological tendencies are identified. These ideological groupings differ significantly in terms of party member attitudes towards gender politics. Thatcherites are hostile to gender-related reforms, and supportive of cuts in tax and spending that bear upon these reforms. Liberal Conservatives, the youngest and most male of these tendencies, are distinguished by being the least hostile to feminist values.