‘Women are not interested in politics, and are therefore less likely to engage in it.’ Discuss.
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Course
(PAIR2048)
Institution
University Of Southampton (UOS)
This essay delves into the reasons why women are/aren't engaged in politics. looks into:
- the socialisation of woman
- female activists and politicians
- the underrepresentation of women in politics
- quotas
‘Women are not interested in politics and are therefore less likely to engage in it’
Discuss.
Female interest and engagement in politics is something that women have had to fight and
protest to achieve. This essay will delve into both arguments for and against the statement
that women are not interested in politics and are therefore less likely to engage in it. First, this
essay will explore the extent that the socialisation of women has conditioned women to draw
their interests and ambitions away from the political sphere; whilst drawing on arguments
presented by De Beauvoir to highlight the impact that men have on female interests.
However, this argument of socialisation can be disputed because of the impact that female
protestors are having around the world, ranging from historical protest groups such as the
suffragettes to contemporary activists such as Malala Youszaif and Greta Thunberg, this will
explore that women are actively interested and engaging in politics that are not exclusively
women’s rights. It will also explore the lack of female representation in the political sphere
and the lack of female engagement in this formal sense and the potential impact this will have
on women whilst also countering this argument with the use of quotas in politics around the
world and how this is increasing female interest and engagement in politics. Overall, this
essay will demonstrate that women are interested in politics and are on the path to increase
their engagement in it, however, aspects such as socialisation and the lack of representation
are hindering that process.
One way the statement above could be argued for is by looking at the socialisation of women
in regard to politics. De Beauvoir (1949) writes about how 'One is not born, but rather
becomes, a woman' to distinguish sex and gender and what this means in terms of
'womanhood'. When debating the above statement, De Beauvoir allows us to recognise that
, women have been socialised to 'be women' (Butler, 1986: 41). This highlights the idea that
cultural and societal expectations of womanhood have conditioned women to be considered
‘the Other’ (De Beauvoir, 1949); starting from childhood we divide masculine and feminine
traits, toys, colours, interests and many more. This socialisation has projected onto careers as
well as ‘Children infer that politics is for men and girls infer that political roles conflict with
their defined gender roles' (Bos et al., 2021: 484). There are various ways one can engage in
politics, for example, joining a political party, voting, attending protests, being politically
aware and studying politics to name a few. A British study showed that at 15 years old, men
are 20 per cent more likely to consider themselves ‘interested in politics’ which increases by
10 per cent by 25 years old (Fraile and Sánchez-Vítores, 2020). In the UK, party membership
is a way to show the interest of the electorate in specific parties to campaign and engage in
contemporary politics. However, to hone in on Party Membership, most notably in the UK,
there has been an all-time low in the British electorate becoming party members, with only
1.5% of the electorate being members of a political party (Burton and Tunnicliffe, 2023).
From the 1.5% of the electorate, all parties have less than 50 per cent female membership,
specifically only 29% of Conservative membership and 37% of Liberal Democrats are
women (Bale et al, 2018). While there may be multiple factors contributing to the gender
imbalance in party membership, we can propose that since party membership is so low in the
UK, the 1.5 per cent that does have a membership are arguably some of the most engaged in
politics in the UK. Therefore, we can argue that this correlation is due to women being
socialised in an environment making them less interested and in turn less engaged in politics.
On the other hand, the statement above could be seen as inaccurate, particularly with the rise
of female activists and protests. Throughout history we have seen women directly impact
politics and policy, reforming the world we see through protest. For example, the suffragette
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