Why would a feminist vote conservative?

[Littlelamp456]

Pondering this today with the upcoming election. Many of my friends who consider themselves feminists but very openly supporting conservatives...
With the current levels of austerity, rape clauses in tax credits and universal credit falling directly on women’s shoulders, police cuts are undoubtedly bad for women, the women left in terrible situations because of the state pension age rises, scrapping nursing bursaries, the benefit cap, legal aid!...
I know Corbyn has many issues but poor women are literally dying and forced into sex work under a Tory government, children are going hungry, women can’t get sufficient police or medical support and legal aid. I feel Poor women are being hung out to dry.

I know there’s the current ‘trans debate’ but I still don’t understand how women could think a conservative government could be better for women overall?

I really want to understand this. So if you’re a feminist and vote/planning to vote Tory, can you tell me why?

@TheInebriati

Under a labour government the economy would be destroyed and the most vulnerable will be hit. There will be no money left to support them once the economy is crippled. The rich will flee and everyone else will suffer. Our health service will not function with employees working just four days per week, schools will not be able to support all the pupils once private schools are shut down, the squeezed middle classes will default on mortgages after labour raises taxes, small businesses won’t be able to afford the extra burdens placed on them. Jobs will be lost. Unions will strike to get more of the coffers. Our children’s futures will be bleak after the mess of a Corbyn government. I will not be voting for labour, thank you.

www.heraldscotland.com/business_hq/17410852.test-case-aims-to-show-gender-inequalities-faced-by-homeless-women/

You could equally ask how any feminist could vote for Labour given Corbyn’s support for the state of Iran!! He doesn’t seem to show much concern for oppression of women over there and seems rather fond of patriarchal dictatorships...

HelenaDove

There have been three threads I've seen at different times on that report, that might explain the lack of response. At least one, the first I think, had a long discussion.

Tulips there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that would be the case and this propaganda that labour would ruin the economy is what paralyzes people into accepting that maybe the devil you know Is better.
We do live in a democracy remember so if there were a change of government who did make things worse we simply kick them out again in 4 years time.. to harp back to "this is as good as it gets" is like staying with an abusive partner because there are worse people out there!
My question is how bad do things have to get before we take a chance on change?
Perhaps when we start getting charged to see our GPs or schools start closing due to lack of funding ?

Because the modern left are batshit insane.

Zebra and Koshkat, agree on the shouting and intolerance.

Don't know if anyone gets Ian Leslie's Ruffians email newsletter (would recommend if not!). He recently wrote this on the psychology of extremists (which I would count the shouty intolerant types of all hues):

"When I encounter people with extreme or radical political views I'm struck by how they have different ways of processing information and reaching conclusions to me. We're not just disagreeing on policy, we have a completely different mindset. This interesting paper explores the "cognitive style" of extremists, whether left or right (it chimes with the theme of my New Statesman piece on simplism). The authors find that extremists take a much more black-and-white view of the world, drawing very firm lines between different categories of people, and that this habit derives from "psychological distress" (it sounds more like unease, or insecurity). Adopting a more extreme ideology, the researchers suggest, is a way of finding meaning in a frighteningly meaningless world. They find that extremists tend to be massively over-confident in their political opinions. That rings true. For extremists, moderates must seem infuriatingly wishy-washy and complacent. To moderates like me, extremists come across as strident and overbearing and maddeningly incapable of considering whether or not they're wrong. But - not to be patronising or anything - we moderates should have sympathy with extremists: they are staving off the howling void inside."

This thread is deeply depressing. Boils down to 'I think x are less shit for women than y because z'.

It's fucking awful. Women make up roughly 51% of the population and we are reduced to scrabbling around to try and work out the least shit option.

There is no good option for women. Should be a national scandal. But it's not.

Toot have you seen Robert Altemeyer's book, The Authoritarians ?

www.theauthoritarians.org/

Very similar ideas, I think (particular focus on what makes people happy to follow authoritarian leaders). Altmeyer's focus is on right wing authoritarians but he does point out that many of the same traits pop up on the left as well.

I just don’t see how any women who cares about other women could vote in a way that has and will continue to openly and hugely negatively impact the most vulnerable women in our society

I think a trashed economy will hurt even more though

Because the conservatives are the only ones upholding democracy.

I cannot stand Jeremy Corbyn, or most of the shitshow currently running the Labour Party, and think they are woman-hating, antisemitic fuckwits, but I will vote Labour in December. My local Labour MP is no fan of Corbyn, either, and although he's a bit centrist for my taste, he's a decent bloke who I have talked to about gender ideology, and he gets it. (Not enough to go public on it, but still. Cowardice in politics is hardly new.)

I absolutely hate that I have to vote for the least worst, but I have personal experience of how the "hostile environment" the Tories have created and fostered destroys lives and creates immense hardship for both individuals and communities. I can admire individual Tories but I could not vote for them.

Corbyn as PM would be a disaster, but so is Boris already.

We deserve a choice, and we are not getting one.

Feminists can vote for whoever they want. Women having that freedom is kind of the point of feminism! Although I admit I look at the videos and photos of that violent attack on a peaceful women's meeting and I read things like Rosena Allin-Khan's response, calling the women a hate group and blaming them for the violence done to them, and I do wonder why ant feminist would vote Labour.

@Barracker fully agree with your post from Monday

I live in a safe SNP area so tactical voting doesn't work here. I have been a floating voter over the years between the 3 biggest parties. I feel fear and disgust that a major political, party in the democratic west is actively rejecting women so will never forgive ref Lib Dem's. This has been the hardest decision for me as a voter I only hope I don't feel as fearful for women's rights at the next GE

Thanks @BarbaraStrozzi - will take a look!

I am in a London borough where they weigh Labour votes, so my vote is largely academic. I was going to vote Lib Dem to add to the remain numbers, but their position on self ID is just awful. So I guess I will spoil my ballot. It is utterly galling to have no one to vote for - not even the WE party!

I live in hope that some day the UK will implement a proportional voting system and we can finally have political parties that are actually voted in based on their policies rather than having to hold our noses and vote for the least bad of an awful bunch.

Well, there was a PR referendum in 2011 and the country voted against it. I get why people would like it but given the choice the UK said no.

Having grown up in a country where the second house is PR, the downside is while there is more diverse representation this also translates to a lot more extremists, so while the greens would have more seats so would possibly the BNP or NF.

I voted against PR (it was actually AV not PR) because of the risk of extremists getting seats. I was very close to a council who had a BNP person in and it wasn't good.

@theflushedzebra ah my mistake - I had thought AV was a type of PR, but you're right, it isn't. Obviously I had a really clear idea of what I was voting for!

I do agree with you OP. And that’s not to say I don’t recognise the threat of self-ID to our rights, I think it’s pretty fucking scary that we could lose the means to define what a woman is. But rightly or wrongly I do think that’s something we have more chance of successfully fighting against (especially if Maya wins her case which would give us a legal precedent to point to).

Meanwhile my DH is slowly, literally dying in front of my eyes because of austerity. Treatments that were available on the NHS are no longer available for him due to the swingeing cuts. Therapies that he could access privately are denied to him because upon the enforced move from DLA to PIP, his disability benefits were halved so we can no longer afford to pay for them. That is the reality of life under the Tories if you are not independently wealthy or if you are fortunate enough to not have encountered redundancy, disability, repossession or similar and think it could never happen to you.

I don’t know who I will be voting for because at the moment they are all just various shades of shit on the political colour chart, but I know for certain it won’t be Tory.

titoftheiceberg

Just looked up my local candidates in the local paper and the first BTL comment is "where's the monster raving loony party when you need them?"

The Tories exist to keep the wealth of the country in the hands of the few. Why anyone outside that demographic would vote for them is baffling - if you're on the bones of your arse why would you vote for trust funders to keep all their unearned privilege, opportunity, tax breaks and wealth?

poor women are literally dying and forced into sex work under a Tory government

The problem is that the dominant group in the Labour Party has strangely capitalist views on sex work.

If they had the same opinions about child labour they would be saying things like "Some children enjoy working up chimneys, how dare you deprive children of the chance to express themselves by making carpets, if children can't work in mills, how else will they eat?".

Anyone but Comrade Corbyn, today will be another ‘free’ offer unicorns for all. He is unpleasant as are his cronies and will improve life for no one