Women could hold keys to election win

Photo: Tracey Nearmy/ANU - Women could hold the keys to the Lodge and election victory this Saturday, with new  a nalysis  from The Australian National University (ANU) showing female voters are three times more likely than men to have not yet decided who they'll vote for. The April 2022 survey of more than 3,500 Australians found 8.4 per cent of female respondents were still to determine their final vote, compared to 2.8 per cent of men. Professor Michelle Ryan, Director of the Global Institute for Women's Leadership at ANU, says the findings suggest women's votes are still "up for grabs". "The data tells us women could hold the power to decide who is elected prime minister, meaning there is still time for candidates to convince female voters why they deserve their support," Professor Ryan, who was involved in the survey, said. According to study co-author Professor Matthew Gray, the results highlight differences in male and female voting intentions across the political parties. "We found men were more likely to say they would vote for the Coalition and also more likely to say they would vote for Labor," Professor Gray said. "But, when we look back at the past two years, apart from in January 2021 when there was a spike in the vote for Labor among women, these differences in voting intentions by gender for the two major parties have been reasonably consistent." The survey found 34.5 per cent of men were likely to vote for the Coalition, compared to 29.2 per cent of women.