To be surprised that the Daily Mail has a majority female readership?

[netsybetsy]

My husband and I were discussing newspapers yesterday and I have been reading a bit about the demographic of different newspapers.

I was surprised to read that the Daily Mail is unusual in that the majority of its readers are women!

The reason I am surprised is that they really are quite insulting towards women with many of the articles.

@netsybetsy

Yes, for most of the years after they got the vote and many of the post war years women voted conservative in greater numbers than men. Traditional roles in the home and with children, and also that people tended to get more right wing as they age and there were larger numbers of older women, all contributed. (Education, and the higher the level attained, also tends to make people more ‘liberal’ in attitude and women were less educated than men until the 1980s and 90s). Conservatives would make direct appeals to women voters - see the depiction of Thatcher as a housewife In her early campaigns! She’d never been one - she was a career woman, married to a wealthy man and had nannies for her twins. But they showed her shopping and things!

As the Thatcher years progressed you start to see women voting conservative less and starting to have equal numbers of men voting Conservative. It wasn’t particular Thatcher but feminism, entering post 16/18 education in higher numbers and entering the workplace in higher numbers that see the shift. By the Blair years young women predominantly voted labour and in much higher numbers than men. These women are older now and have retained these centre to left wing tendencies and young women remain very left wing and are coming up behind them (older women and older people more generally still vote conservative more). So it’s shifted a lot.

@Tellmetruth4

Many women have internalised misogyny and delight in dragging other women down. Many women are also racist and spiteful in general.

The irony of that! You are not a fan of women yourself are you? (You may of course be a man)

AgeLikeWine that is a clever quote

@AgeLikeWine

This has always been the case. From Yes Minister in the 1970s :

Hacker: “I know exactly who reads the papers. The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country; The Times is read by the people who actually do run the country; the Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country; the Financial Times is read by people who own the country; the Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country, and the Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.“

Sir Humphrey: ‘Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?“

Bernard: “Sun readers don't care who runs the country, as long as she's got big tits.“

Brilliant

It also surprises people that Trades Unions have a majority female membership, and this has been the case for quite a few years now. The TUC General Secretary is female, but the bosses of all the largest affiliated unions are male except for the NEU which has joint leaders - one male, one female.

[quote Gwynfluff]@netsybetsy

Yes, for most of the years after they got the vote and many of the post war years women voted conservative in greater numbers than men. Traditional roles in the home and with children, and also that people tended to get more right wing as they age and there were larger numbers of older women, all contributed. (Education, and the higher the level attained, also tends to make people more ‘liberal’ in attitude and women were less educated than men until the 1980s and 90s). Conservatives would make direct appeals to women voters - see the depiction of Thatcher as a housewife In her early campaigns! She’d never been one - she was a career woman, married to a wealthy man and had nannies for her twins. But they showed her shopping and things!

As the Thatcher years progressed you start to see women voting conservative less and starting to have equal numbers of men voting Conservative. It wasn’t particular Thatcher but feminism, entering post 16/18 education in higher numbers and entering the workplace in higher numbers that see the shift. By the Blair years young women predominantly voted labour and in much higher numbers than men. These women are older now and have retained these centre to left wing tendencies and young women remain very left wing and are coming up behind them (older women and older people more generally still vote conservative more). So it’s shifted a lot.[/quote]
Thank you so much for your post explaining all this - now it starts to make sense to me!

I suppose I had this idea that women would be more likely to see the needy and poor children and want equality for them. Like social work and other "caring" jobs are often held by women.

@jcyclops

It also surprises people that Trades Unions have a majority female membership, and this has been the case for quite a few years now. The TUC General Secretary is female, but the bosses of all the largest affiliated unions are male except for the NEU which has joint leaders - one male, one female.

This also turns all my misconceptions upside down! Well, I have some reading to do.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to reply to me.