Resumen de ‘Cameron's Problem with Women’: The Reporting and the Reality of Gender-Based Trends in Attitudes to the Conservatives, 2010–2011

Roger Mortimore, Gideon Skinner, Tomasz Mludzinski

• In the autumn of 2011, there was significant discussion in the British press about the level of support among women for the Conservatives and for Prime Minister David Cameron, arguing that he had a ‘problem with women’ and suggesting that this had arisen since the general election the previous year. We examine the opinion polls over the period, and find that they mostly point towards an opposite conclusion. Further, there seems little to suggest that attitudes to David Cameron personally were damaging Conservative standing among women, as much of the coverage implied. We consider how the reporting came to give a misleading impression, and why it matters.