A report in today’s Sydney Morning Herald discusses British research which suggests that parents of daughters tend to be more inclined to vote for left of centre parties than parents of sons.
The researchers suggest a couple of explanatory mechanisms for this phenomenon.
First, women are increasingly aware of pay discrimination in the workplace. Second, women “derive greater marginal utility from public goods like community safety”.
Women are “intrinsically more left-wing than men” because they prefer a larger supply of public goods and higher tax rates - they value health, education and creches, and rarely get paid so much that they worry about top tax rates.
The difficulty with this (aside from a tendency to gender essentialism) is that it suggests that the gender effect on parents’ voting behaviour would only kick in once their daughters reach adulthood. I personally suspect that a form of secondary socialisation of parents by their adult daughters sometimes does take place. One of Kim Beazley’s virtues is that over time he has abandoned the Moral Rearmament nonsense of his youth in favour of a more liberal position on issues of gender, family and sexuality under the influence of his two adult daughters. I could even credit that John Howard has been less gung-ho than expected in terms of attempting to roll back the gains of feminism as a result of being the father of a professional woman, and open to her influence.
What remains unexplained is the effect which being a parent of female, rather than male, children or adolescents might have on voting behaviour.
This is my last post before Christmas so here’s wishing you all a festive season full of temptations which you are not successful in resisting.
Another interesting observation is the shift to the right by parents of boys. In the narrow sense of being critical of feminist agendas in schooling, this is quite a strong effect.
Mothers with sons rapidly come to see the other side of programs intended to further the interests of girls, and become vocal critics of the effects of such programs in primary schools, and then enthusiastic advocates of boys-only schools.
Its cos they wear pink!
But seriosuly, as the father of a daughter, I can assure you left wing thoughts keep occurring to me. But thats only business as usual, here at Keating Towers.
But seriously - will the West suddenly having lost its post-WW2 fear of populist demagoguery, do you really need your a particualr gender of offspring to sway you leftward?
“Mothers with sons rapidly come to see the other side of programs intended to further the interests of girls, and become vocal critics of the effects of such programs in primary schools, and then enthusiastic advocates of boys-only schools. ”
I thought that it was usually believed that the effect of single sex schools was generally positive for girls education, but co-ed was generally positive for boys education.
Being a parent of both genders - it’s no wonder I’m confused.
I’d like to see the study. How did they allow for other factors: education, wealth, current employment, religion, geography, age, etc etc.
“Women are “intrinsically more left-wing than men” because they prefer a larger supply of public goods and higher tax rates - they value health, education and creches, and rarely get paid so much that they worry about top tax rates.”
The Guardian article linked to above.
Well well, who would have thought it? Lefties vote out of self-interest! I’d been led to believe the left was instrinsically altruistic with none of that individualistic selfishment so evident in the greedy right. Not so, it appears.
Nah, whyisitso. Girls are just nicer.
The UK research is consistent with recent Australian research suggesting girls are less likely than boys to have conservative politics, which - as Naomi implies, despite herself - is a recent break in the historic trend of women being more likely to vote conservative.
whyisitso, well, self-interest dictates that you would say that wouldn’t you?
And a Merry Bah! Humbug! to one and all, including all you crazy religious types. This pagan is looking forward to indulging the yule time honoured festival of raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, sun baking, surfing and gift-giving in honour of the great goddess of the seasons, and because I owe it to all my Irish ancestors for them having had to live in such a cold place. Have a long day!
Well then, with five daughters, (one son) and three grand daughters (three grandsons), it’s no wonder I’m a lefty!
Happily my children are all lefties and are breeding at an exponential rate, so all’s well there.
Happy [Bah Humbug/Christmas/Holidays] to all, this heretic will be weeding the veggie garden, drinking copious quantities of home brew and in respect of my German/English ancestors, I will be thinking along the lines of QE2’s possible Chrismas message:
”As Phillip and I sit here, eating our over-cooked Christmas dinner turkey, grown in some dreadful turkey farm in Texas and over stuffed with animal hormones; in the most appalling British weather conditions, and I think about all you wonderful chaps and lassies in my former colonies— can you give me asylum away from my wretched inbred family when I abdicate?”
Women are far more conservative than men. There should be no need for argument about that.
Arguments from whom? Women?
Steve, I think that’s right in terms of academic outcomes as a generalisation. But single-sex schools of either sort are perhaps not the best socially.
Some co-ed schools are adopting practices whereby they have different approaches in different subjects. For example if you have kids sharing computers the girls tend to get elbowed out. Also if you are trying to get reluctant readers to read boys and girls tend to respond to different fiction. So in a big school you might split the classes by gender for certain activities and bring them together for others.
Naomi, our youngest (male) is 18 and has just popped out the top end of the schooling system. But I recall that with emerging sexuality and cultural pressure in the pre-teen years a fair bit of what his principal (female) deemed ‘nonsense’ or ’silly behaviour’ started to manifest itself. From that time on there seemed to be a distinct front-of-mind gender consciousness.
Getting back to the topic of the post, I’m not sure it is helpful to go too readily down the path of gender essentialism. CS has indicated that the patterns may have changed over time. A study has found that certain patterns exist according to the the concepts and methodology on which it was based. To establish cause and effect would seem to require considerable teasing out, further investigation and study.
You may find that there is an underlying link between testosterone and competitve individualism on the one hand and estrogen and collaborative networking on the other and that such differences were reflected in voting behaviour. If you did it would not shock me, but I suspect it would be only at the margin. You would not have two distinct and separate sets.
I’m inclined to think that if you have a bunch of daughters you think a fair bit about the future you’d like them to have and inevitably your thinking is influenced by your perceptions of how females get along in our world. This scenario-building, imagining and hoping is likely to be different if you have a bunch of boys. But again only at the margin.