Gender and the Conservative Party

This research project provides a comprehensive gendered analysis of the contemporary UK Conservative party. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were carried out with conservative peers (19 male and 8 female) and conservative MPs (9 male and 10 female). Focus groups were also conducted with 7 groups of floating and non-partisan voters (n=63 individuals) and 6 groups of party members (n=83 individuals). A pre-post questionnaire was also conducted consisting of an internet panel of the membership of the Conservative Party. This gathered their opinions and is in an SPSS data set (n=83 individuals, with 65 variables.)<p>This three-year project provides for a comprehensive gendered analysis of the contemporary Conservative party in order to assess the extent to which it is incorporating women and their concerns. Drawing on mainstream political science accounts of parties and party systems, comparative party literature on centre-right parties and feminist accounts of women's political representation, the research examines legislative recruitment and identifies the attitudes, roles and influences of women and men within the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary party. It also explores changes in policy on 'women's issues' since 1990, how the party acts on women's legislation as it passes through Parliament, and considers policy developments under David Cameron's leadership. Further, it explores whether the party's efforts to increase the number of Conservative women MPs, along with its policies on women's issues, will be favourably received by voters. The research uses a range of methods: a postal survey, in-depth interviews, analysis of parliamentary behaviour, focus groups with voters, analysis of party manifestos and policy documents, as well as secondary analysis of existing data sets, including the British Representation Studies and the British Election Studies. Resulting data will be subject to both qualitative and quantitative analysis.</p>

本研究项目对当代英国保守党（UK Conservative Party）开展了全面的性别维度分析。研究采用面对面半结构化访谈（face-to-face semi-structured interviews），对象包括保守党参议员（Conservative peers）（男性19人、女性8人）及保守党下议院议员（MPs）（男性9人、女性10人）。此外，研究组织了焦点小组（focus groups）讨论：7组摇摆选民与无党派选民（共63人）、6组党员（共83人）参与其中。同时，通过保守党成员网络面板实施前后测问卷（pre-post questionnaire）调查，收集其意见并形成SPSS数据集（样本量83人，含65个变量）。<p>该三年期项目旨在全面剖析当代英国保守党的性别议题，评估其吸纳女性及回应女性关切的程度。研究借鉴主流政治学中政党与政党体系的相关论述、中右翼政党比较研究文献，以及女性政治代表性的女性主义视角，考察立法人员招募（legislative recruitment）情况，识别议会内外政党成员中男女群体的态度、角色与影响力。此外，研究探讨了1990年以来“女性议题”（women's issues）的政策演变、政党在议会审议女性相关立法时的行动，以及戴维·卡梅伦领导时期的政策发展。研究进一步分析了政党为增加女性下议院议员数量所做努力及相关政策是否获得选民认可。研究采用多元方法：邮寄调查（postal survey）、深度访谈（in-depth interviews）、议会行为分析（parliamentary behaviour analysis）、选民焦点小组讨论、党纲（party manifestos）与政策文件分析，以及对现有数据集（含英国代表研究（British Representation Studies）与英国选举研究（British Election Studies））的二次分析（secondary analysis）。研究结果将结合定性与定量分析（qualitative and quantitative analysis）方法进行处理。