With all due respect, there is no data that tells us about gender and vote choice in New Zealand prior to the late 1950s. Fine as speculation, but that's all it can be.
In terms of hard psephological data, you are, of course, correct, Jack. I would, however, refer you to Barry Gustafson's history of the National Party, which makes clear the extent to which its strategists courted the women's vote. Useful, too, is the major effort Labour made in 1957 to win the women's vote.
While hard data remains King, should he be absent, then reasonable speculation strikes me as a worthy regent.
“Most of all, however, it was women voters who, like their British sisters twenty years earlier, had voted for national unity, over trade union militancy and class war, in the snap-election called by National to validate its handling of the bitter 1951 Waterfront Lockout” … which looked through a lens of community more than a lens of class politics is interesting. Resonance with support for Ardern/Labour in 2020 perhaps?
With all due respect, there is no data that tells us about gender and vote choice in New Zealand prior to the late 1950s. Fine as speculation, but that's all it can be.
In terms of hard psephological data, you are, of course, correct, Jack. I would, however, refer you to Barry Gustafson's history of the National Party, which makes clear the extent to which its strategists courted the women's vote. Useful, too, is the major effort Labour made in 1957 to win the women's vote.
While hard data remains King, should he be absent, then reasonable speculation strikes me as a worthy regent.
“Most of all, however, it was women voters who, like their British sisters twenty years earlier, had voted for national unity, over trade union militancy and class war, in the snap-election called by National to validate its handling of the bitter 1951 Waterfront Lockout” … which looked through a lens of community more than a lens of class politics is interesting. Resonance with support for Ardern/Labour in 2020 perhaps?
Thank you for that clear historical perspective.
Is there a chapter 2?
Oh, yes, of course. ;-)