Pandering to women won’t save conservative parties in Australia. By Bettina Arndt.
For the last month or two, Australians have been treated to unabashed celebration from our biased media about the ousting of the conservative government, and wild assertions that this was all due to angry women turning on the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. No mention, of course, of the fact that conservative parties everywhere are now struggling to attract women.
[Australian] women are turning left. Five years ago, I wrote about the growing power of left-wing women, making the point that women are becoming more left wing in their policy preferences — not only in Australia but across much of the Western World. …
By 2019, 45% of men and 35% of women voted Liberal, while the split for the Greens was 9% men to 15% women. …
One of the key factors [is] … leftist university education. “The hearts and minds being captured in our universities belong mainly to young women” … Women emerge from university education notably more left leaning than women without degrees, whereas male graduates aren’t very different from less educated men in their political views.
Women’s increasingly left-wing policy preferences have been showing up … on issue after issue: asylum-seekers; government spending on indigenous affairs; stiffer criminal penalties; positive discrimination for women, same sex marriage. …
Over 60% of graduates are now female, so women are disproportionately affected by the ideological indoctrination taking place in our universities, particularly as they are mainly the ones studying humanities subjects steeped in identity politics and neo-Marxist propaganda.
Unlike many men who become more conservative as they age, the work/life patterns in most women’s lives simply reinforce these beliefs. Women predominantly work in education, health care and welfare services or as public service professionals. They make up 58% of public service positions and are more likely than men to work in unionised jobs. All this means their working environment provides a culture which supports rather than challenges their political beliefs.
Then there’s the motherhood issue, with mothers particularly receptive to the left’s big spending promises — and scare campaigns — on health and education. The growing number of single mothers significantly dependent on government benefits is another key issue, with the left-wing parties playing up their support for such disadvantaged families. …
Pandering to the feminists backfired:
It wasn’t that the Morrison government didn’t listen to women. This pussy-whipped crew sniveled, and groveled, like a cuckolded man clutching desperately at the ankles of his departing wife. Remember the appalling apology to Brittany Higgins, when her rape allegation has not yet been heard in court? Or Morrison’s forced smile when Grace Tame insulted him with her infantile side-eye. Or the cowardly act of allowing Christian Porter and Alan Tudge to be pushed out of their ministerial roles over unproven sexual assault allegations. Or the cringing over the parliamentary harassment report, denying the very low incidence of actual harassment and high rates of female bullying.
We’ve seen successive Coalition governments cowering to the feminist lobby, throwing endless money trying to appease their insatiable appetite for an obscenely large slice of the cake. Malcolm Turnbull’s first act as Prime Minister was his plea for “respect for women” as he announced the first $100 million of the never ending bucketloads of funding poured into the domestic violence industry. Last year Scott Morrison topped up these rivers of gold with a 150% increase in funding, from $100 to $250 million per year, as a result of the feminist’s Covid scare campaign about women being locked up with dangerous men — money paid out even as official statistics showed decreased violence during lockdowns.
Recent Coalition governments have gone in for shameless promotion of women into every conceivable public role. We had Susan Kiefel appointed Chief Justice of the High Court. Ita Buttrose as Chair of the ABC. Lorraine Finlay for Human Rights Commissioner. Cathy Foley as Chief Scientist. Women, women, women. A constant stream of beaming female faces endlessly gracing our news.
Somehow, we need to convince conservative politicians that they have long been bleeding votes from ordinary folk who have had a gutful of seeing women endlessly privileged whilst the men they love, their fathers, sons, brothers, friends, are pushed to the back of the bus and at every point denied fair treatment.
Hints for conservative politicians: Don’t chase leftist votes, and don’t appease the left in order to get media coverage on the ABC etc.
