Rosie Campbell | Birkbeck College, University of London (original) (raw)
Papers by Rosie Campbell
At the outset, the 2015 British General Election campaign appeared to be less concerned with wome... more At the outset, the 2015 British General Election campaign appeared to be less concerned with women voters than was the case in 2010, when the Mumsnet Election newsframe played a prominent role in the long campaign (Campbell and Childs 2010a). The relative lack of interest in women in 2015 was punctured by first, the arrival of Labour’s pink/magenta battle bus that visited marginal constituencies targeting women voters. If in 2010 interest in women voters dropped off in the short campaign, particularly after the all-male leaders’ debates, a reverse trend was to some extent evident in 2015. Interest in women in politics grew after the main leaders’ debate included three women party leaders. This was the second difference from 2010: an all-male podium on the TV debates back then, was replaced by one of the most memorable images of 2015: the three women party leaders for the SNP, Plaid and the Greens, embracing at the conclusion of the opponents’ debate.
This chapter adopts a tripartite approach to gender and the general election providing an initial exploration of the extent to which the parties’ campaigns and manifestos targeted women voters both implicitly and explicitly. We also consider the representation of women within the parties as candidates and MPs and the reaction of women voters to the parties themselves. This paper is a first look at the 2015 General Election through a gendered lens; more detailed analyses of specific aspects of the election will follow. We find, that in 2015 there was (1) considerable consensus over women’s issues and a liberal feminist interpretation of women’s interests amongst all seven of the main parties; (2) suggestive evidence of the possibility of a modern gender gap, driven by higher support for the Labour party among women aged under 55; and (3) that the UK Parliament, has returned more women MPs, and greater diversity of candidates overall, than previously, even if the Commons remains far from a parity institution.
Whilst analysis of the relationship between the descriptive and substantive representation of wom... more Whilst analysis of the relationship between the descriptive and substantive representation of women has mainly focused on women politicians as critical actors in many contexts political parties provide the linkage between voters’ preferences and policy programmes. The manner in which political parties respond to women voters is shaped by both the information they receive about women voters’ preferences, from the news media, pollsters and other sources, and by gendered party type. Analysis of parties’ attempts to target women voters can help us understand whether parties perceive women as typical or average voters. I conduct two cases studies on the influence of gendered newsframes on party policy and inter-party competition in the United States and Great Britain to formulate a preliminary analytic framework designed to facilitate research to assess how parties’ responses to portrayals of women voters vary according to institutional and contextual factors across time and space.
British Journal of Political Science
Political Studies Review
The opposition between Flinders and John is largely a false one, and consequently the argument be... more The opposition between Flinders and John is largely a false one, and consequently the argument between them is rather ritualistic. On the major issue -that political science must engage in political and public debate -Flinders and John agree.Whether there was once a golden age of academic engagement or whether we are now at the high point, at one level does not really matter; what matters more is that political scientists should be engaging with, and responsive to, public debate. We set out an 'impact imperative' and its sister, the 'feminist imperative', arguing that feminist scholarship has always sought to engage with the real world of politics. We set out a series of recommendations to institutionalise and normalise impact, engagement and dissemination into work models and working practices, which if well managed should not detract from serious scholarship or require an aggressive campaign strategy for dissemination. Instead our approach is based on cooperation between academics, across disciplinary silos and the methodological divide.
Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties
At the outset, the 2015 British General Election campaign appeared to be less concerned with wome... more At the outset, the 2015 British General Election campaign appeared to be less concerned with women voters than was the case in 2010, when the Mumsnet Election newsframe played a prominent role in the long campaign (Campbell and Childs 2010a). The relative lack of interest in women in 2015 was punctured by first, the arrival of Labour’s pink/magenta battle bus that visited marginal constituencies targeting women voters. If in 2010 interest in women voters dropped off in the short campaign, particularly after the all-male leaders’ debates, a reverse trend was to some extent evident in 2015. Interest in women in politics grew after the main leaders’ debate included three women party leaders. This was the second difference from 2010: an all-male podium on the TV debates back then, was replaced by one of the most memorable images of 2015: the three women party leaders for the SNP, Plaid and the Greens, embracing at the conclusion of the opponents’ debate.
This chapter adopts a tripartite approach to gender and the general election providing an initial exploration of the extent to which the parties’ campaigns and manifestos targeted women voters both implicitly and explicitly. We also consider the representation of women within the parties as candidates and MPs and the reaction of women voters to the parties themselves. This paper is a first look at the 2015 General Election through a gendered lens; more detailed analyses of specific aspects of the election will follow. We find, that in 2015 there was (1) considerable consensus over women’s issues and a liberal feminist interpretation of women’s interests amongst all seven of the main parties; (2) suggestive evidence of the possibility of a modern gender gap, driven by higher support for the Labour party among women aged under 55; and (3) that the UK Parliament, has returned more women MPs, and greater diversity of candidates overall, than previously, even if the Commons remains far from a parity institution.
Whilst analysis of the relationship between the descriptive and substantive representation of wom... more Whilst analysis of the relationship between the descriptive and substantive representation of women has mainly focused on women politicians as critical actors in many contexts political parties provide the linkage between voters’ preferences and policy programmes. The manner in which political parties respond to women voters is shaped by both the information they receive about women voters’ preferences, from the news media, pollsters and other sources, and by gendered party type. Analysis of parties’ attempts to target women voters can help us understand whether parties perceive women as typical or average voters. I conduct two cases studies on the influence of gendered newsframes on party policy and inter-party competition in the United States and Great Britain to formulate a preliminary analytic framework designed to facilitate research to assess how parties’ responses to portrayals of women voters vary according to institutional and contextual factors across time and space.
British Journal of Political Science
Political Studies Review
The opposition between Flinders and John is largely a false one, and consequently the argument be... more The opposition between Flinders and John is largely a false one, and consequently the argument between them is rather ritualistic. On the major issue -that political science must engage in political and public debate -Flinders and John agree.Whether there was once a golden age of academic engagement or whether we are now at the high point, at one level does not really matter; what matters more is that political scientists should be engaging with, and responsive to, public debate. We set out an 'impact imperative' and its sister, the 'feminist imperative', arguing that feminist scholarship has always sought to engage with the real world of politics. We set out a series of recommendations to institutionalise and normalise impact, engagement and dissemination into work models and working practices, which if well managed should not detract from serious scholarship or require an aggressive campaign strategy for dissemination. Instead our approach is based on cooperation between academics, across disciplinary silos and the methodological divide.
Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties