GENERAL ELECTION 2024: A GIRL’S GUIDE TO VOTING IN THE GENERAL ELECTION 2024
By Phoebe Ann Brooks
Photo credit: Red Dot // Unsplash
The General Election is drawing close and on Thursday 4 July Britons will vote for their next prime minister.
As nations around the world are grappling with climate change impacts, geopolitical tensions, economic fluctuations, technological advancements, and social justice movements, this election feels more crucial than ever.
According to the Fawcett Society, polling shows that almost a quarter of women are undecided about which party they intend to vote for.
Currently, women make up 51% of the population but only 35% of MPs are female in the current government.
One in four women has experienced rape or sexual assault as an adult.
In 2023, women earned £574 less than men per month on average. But so far, we’ve heard startlingly little about some of the issues that are most important to women and to the stability of our economy.
As women, our voices are indispensable in this election, and it is an opportunity for us to champion the changes we want to see in our society.
Take a look at our guide which lists every party's promise to women and girls, from gender equality in the workplace to tackling violence against women, the manifestos reveal a spectrum of commitments.
Here is a breakdown of what the major political parties are promising for women in their 2024 manifestos.
Some promises are one-liners with no available additional context.
CONSERVATIVE
Renewed focus on women’s health, including maternity care.
Aim to prioritise programs led by female and disabled entrepreneurs to receive investment.
Expansion of international reproductive health campaigns, Pharmacy First services, address sex education, and improve maternity care.
Twenty-five-year prison terms for domestic murders to “punish predators”.
Continue to toughen up laws on stalking, harassment, and revenge porn.
Plan to create new offences for spiking, the creation of sexualised deep fake images, and taking intimate images without consent.
LABOUR
Aim to halve violence against women and girls by introducing specialist rape and sexual offences teams in police forces.
Fast-track rape cases in court to retain cases through the judicial process.
Educate children on misogyny and consent.
Claim equality is at “the heart” of their missions as is the plan to “make work pay” - this could be in reference to addressing the gender pay gap.
Stronger equal pay rights.
Employ more midwives to address Black and Asian maternal mortality figures.
Plan to increase visible neighbourhood policing, and ensure there are rape teams in all forces, and domestic abuse experts for victims.
Stronger Stalking Protection Orders, which include revealing online stalkers, and addressing misogyny in enhanced Online Safety Act measures.
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
Change Statutory Sick Pay to make it available to workers earning less than £123 per week - most of whom are women.
Reduce “disproportionately high maternal mortality rates for Black women”.
Create a Women’s Justice Board to provide training for all professionals “in contact with women in the criminal justice system”.
End of the gender price gap - items which are near identical are often more expensive for women, this is termed the ‘pink tax’.
Protect reproductive health choices and enforce safe access zones around clinics. Safe access zones are parameters surrounding a health site where it is illegal for members of the public to protest.
Address economic barriers like gender-based pricing and period poverty.
Increase support for female survivors of violence and mandatory trauma training for police and prosecutors.
Introduce a Digital Bill of Rights to protect online rights and mandate reports from the social media companies on protecting women and girls online.
GREEN
Change Statutory Sick Pay to make it available to workers earning less than £123 per week - most of whom are women.
Reduce “disproportionately high maternal mortality rates for Black women”.
Create a Women’s Justice Board to provide training for all professionals “in contact with women in the criminal justice system”.
End of the gender price gap - items which are near identical are often more expensive for women, this is termed the ‘pink tax’.
Protect reproductive health choices and enforce safe access zones around clinics. Safe access zones are parameters surrounding a health site where it is illegal for members of the public to protest.
Address economic barriers like gender-based pricing and period poverty.
Increase support for female survivors of violence and mandatory trauma training for police and prosecutors.
Introduce a Digital Bill of Rights to protect online rights and mandate reports from the social media companies on protecting women and girls online.
REFORM UK
Reform UK did not publish a manifesto, instead they published what they term a “contract”
“Women” is written three times in this contract and only in reference to servicemen and women in the Defence chapter of the text. There are no specific promises to women within the contract.
PLAID CYMRU WALES
Tackle violence against women and girls and women’s health.
Prevention of violence against women - recognises that there are challenges in women being believed in the criminal justice system.
Create a Domestic Abuse Register to prevent death and injury in order to enable early identification of abusive men.
Strengthen restraining orders and sanctions for breaching them.
Implement specialist stalking training for all professionals dealing with stalking and a new unified recording system to follow a victim's journey through the criminal justice system.
Fairness for women in justice, particularly addressed women whose sentences are served outside of Wales, thus disconnecting support systems and communities with little to show for reducing crime.
Four new Women's Centres which will become pillars of community.
In May 2023, former party leader Adam Price resigned after a report published found a culture of sexual harassment, bullying and misogyny within the party. The report said the party needed to “detoxify a culture of harassment, bullying and misogyny”.
Current leader of Plaid Cymru, Rhun ap Iorwerth, said: “[2023] was a very difficult time for us as a party”. They have now implemented all eighty-two recommendations following the report.
SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY
Scrap the two child benefit cap and associated rape clause - the rape clause requires anyone claiming a benefit for a child after experiencing rape to complete an eight-page form as evidence of the experience.
Protect the right to abortion saying all women should have access to abortion services in a timely and safe manner.
While many of the manifestos address issues facing girls and women today, the parties give little or no context as to what their promises might look like in practice, and many omit issues like the gender pay gap, systemic misogyny or sexism in public bodies such as the Metropolitan police.
Women can let their voices be heard on Thursday 4 July.
For more information on how and where to vote, see the Government website for more details.