Sex on the hustings: Labor and the construction of the woman vote in two federal elections (1983, 1993)

Abstract

The basic aim of this thesis is to describe and analyse how �the woman voter� was constructed within Labor discourse during the Hawke/Keating years. My domain of investigation is electoral politics, in particular the federal election campaigns of 1983 and 1993. These elections flank the beginning and the end of the Labor decade, a period of great significance to both the development of Labor politics specifically and Australian politics in general. The elections of 1983 and 1993 were campaigns in which the Party made a concerted effort to attract women�s votes. Through a reading of the various texts associated with these two campaigns, I explore the construction of �the woman voter� as a �new� political subject position within Labor discourse. The dominant influences on the construction of �the woman voter� as a new subject position were Labor discourse and feminism, or more precisely Labor discourse affected by the incursion of feminism from the 1970s onwards. This thesis describes and analyses how this subject position has been produced and reproduced within Labor discourse. The gender gap research developed for the 1983 federal election constitutes one of the more important technologies that work to construct �the woman voter� within Labor discourse. A reading of the texts associated with the 1983 campaign reveals the character of �the woman voter� as a caring figure. However, as the Labor decade progressed, �the woman voter� is articulated in Labor discourse as a more complex figure, focused on her responsibilities both in the home and at paid work. A reading of various texts associated with the 1993 election campaign shows that �the woman voter� is constructed as a carer-worker; this subject position is broadly consonant with the objectives liberal, economic government. Certain modifications within this basic subject position can be observed in Labor�s anti-GST campaign materials, which made an appeal to the woman voter as consumer.