"Women, according to researchers, are more interested in people than things." Photo: Stocksy

Women are faster learners than men. Now we have proof.

It doesn't make us better people but it does make us more responsible voters – and the sooner political parties recognise that, the sooner they will get precious female votes.

Women, according to researchers, are more interested in people than things. We value health and education over infrastructure and business. We plan to vote for parties that similarly prize people over things.

Is that your party, Prime Minister? Leader of the Opposition, is that your party? The political leader who answers affirmatively first and fastest will win the votes of women.


JWS Research, an independent and privately owned research firm, conducted an online survey of more than 1000 voters at the end of November. And women, overwhelmingly, rate the federal government poorly. Not only do women rate the government poorly on running the country but all the measures of life satisfaction are in decline, particularly among women, according to the JWS research. And it's when we feel sad and concerned about our lives and the lives of our families and our connected communities, that's when governments run into serious ballot box trouble.

No matter how many times the Prime Minister says we are at risk of a heightened terrorist attack, no matter how many times he says that security agencies are detecting chatter, Australian women are focusing on the issues that impact us all. And, Mr Abbott, that's not the carbon tax repeal (in fact, you did us all a disservice when you did that). Australian women know this country is under serious attack from a government that wants to 'reform' (read, change to make it cheaper for governments and more profitable for business) healthcare, education and environment.

In the JWS research, only one in five women think the government's performance is good, compared to one in three men – and men have an utterly different view of what is important in Australia.

For them it's all infrastructure and business. For women, according to the research, it's all about people – health and hospitals, environment, community, social issues.

There have always been gaps between the way women vote and the way men vote, and what they value – spend a few hours on Google Scholar and entertain yourself. But the recent JWS research shows a huge difference between the genders.

Overall, 84 per cent of Australians say hospitals and healthcare are the most important issue facing this country – but only 16 per cent think the government has performed well in this area. It's the biggest what you might describe as 'importance versus performance' gap, although education and training are not far behind – 66 per cent of us think this is important and only 15 per cent of us think the government has done well (and exactly what are those people thinking?).

The government is focusing on what men consider to be important, according to the JWS research. The report says the federal government concentrates on issues comparatively more important to men: the economy, business and industry, infrastructure; and 'quality of government issues'; while when it talks about two issues comparatively more important to women – immigration and border security, and defence – women don't like what they're hearing. Performance ratings for the federal government on these issues are far lower among women.

Nearly two years ago, women voters dumped Labor. Galaxy ran its first female-only poll, which showed that just one in three women would vote Labor. The Galaxy poll found 44 per cent of women did not think Abbott was a misogynist, although they remained concerned about his negativity and his position on abortion. But neither of those factors is a vote killer.

What will destroy Abbott at the ballot box – if he gets that far – is his government's inability to reach women, to talk to the issues that women think matter in running our country.

Here are some numbers that might be helpful. Let's look at the number of women voters in six marginal seats: Banks, Barton, Reid, Deakin, Latrobe and Corangamite. As at September 2014, when the Australian Electoral Commission published its most recent elector count including age and gender, Banks, for instance, had nearly 4000 more female voters than male voters. Barton had 3000 more, Reid nearly 3000 more. Deakin has 5000 more women; La Trobe another 3000; Corangamite another 5000.

John Scales, managing director of research at JWS, says there has never been a strong enough focus by political parties on the issues that women consider important. He says all parties continue to ignore women's lived experience and that will cost them at the ballot box. He says pitching to women must be a key part of what political parties do if they want to win power.

This government has also lost the plot with male voters – a Newspoll analysis reported in The Australian on Monday showed the government had also lost its way with blokes but there are fewer of them enrolled to vote.

In the last few weeks, Scott Morrison has been appointed as the Minister for Social Services. Funding has been scrapped for groups that advocate for financial counselling and for the homeless. There's been a 50 per cent cut to a range of programs that support our most vulnerable – and 2500 jobs lost as a result. The Abbott government promised to address the problem of childcare affordability but there is about to be a 30 per cent hike in fees for parents. So many broken promises (hello and goodbye paid parental leave!). So many women and men affected by them. So many more women than men voting.

So hard to imagine how this government could pretend it was interested in people.

Follow me on Twitter @jennaprice or email jenna_p@bigpond.net.au