Gender issues in Australia have been a key focal point of Parliament and the latest federal election campaign, with Australians of both genders likely to take into account, at least in part, the policy positions of parties when taking to the polls. The latest research highlights the differences in voting intentions by gender, with men particularly likely to vote for the Coalition and women more likely to vote for the Greens, or be undecided.
Men were more likely to say they would vote for the Coalition (34.5 per cent) then women (29.2 per cent).
Men were also more likely to say they would vote for Labor (36.5 per cent) than were women (33.4 per cent).
Women were much more likely to say that they would vote for Greens (19.8 per cent vs 12.2 per cent), while men were more likely to say they would vote for another party including independents (14.0 per cent vs 9.2 per cent).
Women were more than three times as likely to say that they did not know who they would vote for – 8.4 per cent compared to 2.8 per cent for men.
In the April 2022 ANUpoll respondents after answering a question about satisfaction with direction of the country were asked ‘If a federal election for the House of Representatives was held today, which one of the following parties would you vote for?’ As reported in Biddle and Gray (2022), the results from the April 2022 ANUpoll is that 31.2 per cent of Australians saying they would vote for the Coalition, 34.3 per cent for Labor, 16.2 per cent for the Greens, 11.4 per cent for another party (including an independent) and 5.6 per cent were undecided.
The figure shows voting intentions of men and women in April 2022, as well as the per cent of Australians who said they would have voted for another party (which includes an independent candidate) and the per cent who didn’t know who they would vote for. There are substantial differences between men and women in voting intentions. Men were more likely to say they would vote for the Coalition (34.5 per cent) then women (29.2 per cent) and men were also more likely to say they would vote for Labor (36.5 per cent) than were women (33.4 per cent). Women were much more likely to say that they would vote for Greens (19.8 per cent) than were men (12.2 per cent), whereas men were more likely to say they would vote for another party (which includes independents) (14.0 per cent) compared to women (9.2 per cent).
Women were more than three times as likely to say that they did not know who they would vote for – 8.4 per cent compared to 2.8 per cent for men. This suggests that how these undecided female voters end up voting may have a major impact on the 2022 Federal election result.