Why do fewer women tweet political party hashtags?
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Version 0 of 1. The upcoming general election is expected to be an exceptionally closely fought battle and right now, the polls suggest that more women than men are currently undecided. That means that the ability to reach out to female voters on social media could become an important political strategy. New research from BBC Trending has found a startling gender split among Twitter users tweeting political party hashtags. Over the past month, BBC Trending found that 75% of tweets containing such hashtags came from men, compared to just 25% by women. It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact gender split of Twitter’s 15 million UK users, as the company itself doesn’t release this information. But when social media monitoring platform Beevolve studied 36 million Twitter user profiles in 2012, it discovered there was a roughly even gender split worldwide, with 53% female to 47% male users. Of course, even if we assume that roughly half of the UK’s Twitter users are female, it is still possible that men use hashtags more frequently, so I asked Marcus Beard, a political analyst at social analytics company Brandwatch, about the gender split in UK Twitter conversations about politics, including those without hashtags. After analysing just over 2m Twitter mentions of general election topics over the past seven days, Brandwatch produced very similar data to the BBC Trending findings, with 73% of political tweets coming from men, and just 27% from women. Both BBC Trending and Brandwatch pointed out that there is some margin for error, as algorithms are used to determine gender from account usernames, but even taking this into account, the gap remains significant. As a final control test to check whether men are simply more prolific tweeters than women, I asked Beard to run a similar search on the gender breakdown of tweets about the most gender-neutral topic I could think of: the weather. Forty-eight per cent of the results were tweets from women and 52% from men. So while we should be cautious about the exact figures, it seems that there is definitely an unexplained gender disparity in political conversations on Twitter. The question is, why? Dr Heather Savigny, senior lecturer in Politics at Bournemouth University, suggests that the gap might reflect the wider problem of female disengagement with party politics. “Politics, in our media, is conducted in a very ‘male’ space,” she says. “So research shows that male politicians are much more likely to be reported about than female politicians, and where they are discussed it is much more likely to be about their clothes or appearance. If the mainstream media ‘normalises’ the idea that politics is something men do, then it becomes entirely consistent that female voters are less likely to engage than men, on and offline.” Fiona Mackay, professor of politics at the University of Edinburgh, agrees: “It is still the case that at headline level women are less politically engaged (by the conventional definition) than men. So it’s no surprise that follows through to social media.” Both Savigny and Mackay warn that online hostility and abuse may also be partly responsible for silencing women’s voices in the political debate. Mackay explains: “Anecdotal evidence suggests that online misogyny is amplified when women are seen to be speaking out of turn – expressing opinions in areas seen as the domain of men – whether about online gaming or politics. That some women hang on in there and refuse to be silenced is to be celebrated. But I can quite understand why others would decide not to put their heads above the virtual parapet.” Seyi Akiwowo, a Labour councillor for Newham and an active tweeter, says: “I think another explanation is our definition of ‘politics’. Women have so many views and great opinions on many societal issues (not just child care) and I think (and have seen) the majority of women on Twitter do express these views. These views many not ‘fit’ in our traditional understanding of politics, which I think is actually a synonym of party politics in the UK. “I also think the lack of female representation in politics, particularly women of colour, has a part to play in the degree of inclusivity of the political discussions on Twitter,” she says. While both general disengagement and social media abuse may play some part in explaining women’s absence from these conversations, Grazia political editor Gaby Hinsliff suggests there may also be other factors at play. “Political hashtagging isn’t a ‘normal’ activity; it is a rarefied circle of people who at mid-afternoon on a Wednesday can down tools at work and tweet about the budget,” she says. “Most people doing that are probably professionally involved in some capacity.” When you consider that men make up around four-fifths of MPs, two thirds of local government officials and the majority of political journalists, it all becomes clear. As Hinsliff points out: “it’s a male dominated circle”. Hinsliff also notes that there is a significant difference between tweeting in general and tweeting under a hashtag, which is, by definition, designed to attract attention to your opinions and to insert them into a wider conversation. Particularly when it comes to politics, she suggests there is a fear of not being qualified to contribute: “Joining a hashtag is like joining a conversation, often with quite a cliquey group of people, and you don’t join in unless you think you know enough about the topic – I think some women are quite hesitant about that.” It’s a phenomenon that she fears is carried over into voting habits: “I’m horrified by how many young women say they’re not voting because they don’t know enough. Not that they hate politicians or don’t think their vote counts – it’s the most common answer I’ve heard. You could take that as disengagement, but I don’t think it is; it’s the fear of not being an expert. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a man say that as a reason for not voting.” However the gender balance of the conversation can shift depending on the political figures being discussed, says Mackay: “Women’s levels of political interest tend to increase when they come into contact with women politicians – running as candidates, standing MPs in their locality, or high-profile female role models.” The Brandwatch data reflects precisely this phenomenon, with a higher proportion of women involved in Twitter conversations about female party leaders. For example, while just 29% of tweets discussing Nick Clegg and 33% of tweets about David Cameron came from women, the figure increased to 35% for tweets about Natalie Bennett and 39% for those about Nicola Sturgeon, suggesting that the presence of more high-profile women in politics may help to bring other women to the table. A Twitter spokesperson said the company does not comment on third-party studies, but added: “It’s worthwhile noting that 40% of Twitter users do not actively tweet, instead using the platform for information and discovery. So as well as tweeting, people come to Twitter to listen to conversations and opinions on political and social issues, and find out about how politics affects the things that matter to them.” Hinsliff agrees that it’s important to remember there is more than one way to engage online. “A lot of hashtagging is quite pointless and there’s an element of women being more practical about their politics. I can see the point in voting but can I see the point in staying up till two in the morning arguing ferociously with someone I’ve never met? No, not really.” Ultimately, regardless of the reason why, the fact that women’s voices are muted in political debates, on any platform, should matter to politicians. As Walthamstow Labour parliamentary candidate Stella Creasy points out: “Women are not a special interest group – between women there are differences, as well as between men and women. What is important is that we recognise that we miss out in the political debate unless we hear a range of voices and range of ideas – because that makes your policy-making and decision-making better. So for me the worry isn’t ‘oh dear, women aren’t having their say’, it’s ‘what are we missing out on?’” Do you think disengagement, online abuse, fear of getting it wrong or just good old common sense deter women from participating in political discussions online? Would you tweet using a political hashtag? Let us know in the comments below. |