It seems to be socially acceptable to suggest that America is ‘not ready’ to elect a woman, meanwhile electing an openly sexist man instead. With the anti-trans, pro-life Donald Trump reclaiming the top position in, arguably, the world, what drove 55% of men and 45% of women to vote for this? Let’s take a look at the issue of sexism in politics.
Social media has become a common source of news for many users across the world, and according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024, the recent US election increased the electorate’s interest in news. However, some of the coverage online appeared to focus on bizarre aspects of the candidates’ personal lives rather than policy.
For example, Vice President Kamala Harris, more commonly simplified to ‘Kamala’, was criticised for not having any biological children, and for coming across as ‘unserious’. Yet a convicted felon with pending criminal cases against them, former President Donald Trump, has now been granted the power to pardon himself of any federal convictions, having received huge amounts of support online.
Post-truth world of fake news
One of the platforms responsible for this type of coverage is X, the rebranded Twitter. This platform falls under the ’News’ category on app stores, despite being labelled one of the hardest social media platforms for users to be able to distinguish between trustworthy and fake news. It also happens to be operated by X Corp – the company owned by Elon Musk. Tasked with ‘dismantling government bureaucracy’, Musk is due to run the President Elect’s newly announced Department of Government Efficiency.
However, the fake news and lack of regulation on X has not gone unnoticed. It lost a record number of users following the election, including The Guardian, one of the most popular online newspapers in the UK. The Guardian posted a statement saying: “The US presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.”
British politics following suit
This influence and resulting perception that women cannot be trusted in the political system has also been seen closer to home. The chancellor Rachel Reeves’ budget delivery is another recent example. Reeves is rarely referred to by her title, particularly when compared to her male predecessor, and much of the print media failed to use the infographics and explainers they have done with previous budget announcements.
Jeremy Hunt’s final budget was well covered by The Daily Mail, including video overviews compiling footage taken from within the House of Commons, and household finance calculators. In a similar explainer video produced by the same news website for Reeves’ budget, only snippets of footage from the commons was used, with high levels of input from a journalist. Although a finance calculator has also been published by The Daily Mail, the headline was much more negative and simplistic, placing the focus on the chancellor, describing it as ‘Rachel Reeves’ tax bomb Budget’. This can all contribute to the view that Rachel Reeves is doing a ‘bad job’, held by 37% of the public, with a further 38% of the public ‘not knowing’ how she is doing as chancellor.
British Conservatism not leading the way
Critics of this view would argue that the Conservative membership recently voted for a fourth woman to lead the party, with Kemi Badenoch taking the role of leader of the opposition. While this might be seen as a step forward for women in politics, this is the same person who called maternity pay ‘excessive’ in the leadership contest she subsequently won. Looking back, it can be noted that the first woman to hold the position of prime minister of the UK, Margaret Thatcher, claimed that the fight for women’s rights had been “largely won” in 1982, almost a decade before marital rape became illegal.
Electoral patterns shifting among younger voters
So is the problem with the electorate, who seem to vote for candidates who have less progressive views on women? Electoral patterns are changing: previously, age was the biggest indicator in how someone would vote. Older people were typically more right-leaning, with younger generations favouring the left. But in the 2024 general election, the Green Party received over double the amount of votes from women as from men in the 18-24 age category. The Reform Party won double the amount from men as from women in the same age group.
It was revealed in the Reuters Digital News Report 2024 that TikTok has overtaken X for news consumption for the first time. TikTok’s main UK audience also falls into this 18–24 age group. However, unlike in the US, there has been a decline in interest in politics in the UK, while our interest in the news has almost halved over the last decade.
Anti-feminist feelings seem to be rising
These changing behaviour patterns have allowed for ‘influencers’ like Andrew Tate, another popular man accused of sexual assault, to sway public opinion towards sexist and misogynistic attitudes. Posting to his over 10 million followers on X, Tate told American women to “stop crying about abortion”. He also reposted a comment that said: “looks like America wasn’t ready for a side piece in office. better luck next time, sweet cheeks.”
Men posting in this manner are becoming more popular, as is toxic masculinity in a new, influential generation. In just 24 hours after the US election, there was a 4,600% increase in mentions of the terms “your body, my choice” and “get back in the kitchen” on X, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
2024 has been labelled the largest election year in history, with around half of the world’s population living in countries holding national elections. With far-right discourse making advances across the globe, many politicians who adopted a post-feminist stance have earnt the votes of millions. With the new digital age, this rhetoric is infiltrating younger generations at great speed.
Although as of 1 October this year, there are 29 countries in which 30 women are heads of state and/or government (excluding monarchy-based systems), the United Nations predict that at the current rate, gender equality in the highest positions of power will not be reached for another 130 years. With this younger demographic possessing more potential to vote in elections in the future, this harrowing time frame may be extended, and a lack of regard for women could be normalised further.
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