Gender, ownership and engagement during the European Union referendum: gendered frames and the reproduction of binaries

Abstract

The European Union referendum was supposed to be a significant moment for political engagement and ownership in the UK. This article looks at how the two official European Union referendum campaigns (Vote Leave and Remain) framed discussions about the UK’s membership of the European Union, as well as the impact of the campaign on women’s political activation. Using data from a survey questionnaire conducted two weeks after the European Union referendum (in July 2016), we analyse women’s sense of political efficacy and engagement with European politics. We project those findings on a frame analysis, where we assess the footprint of each campaign in terms of issue coverage and the salience of gender as a campaign issue. Our findings shed light on the way in which issue framing and confidence affect the quality of political engagement among ‘weak publics’.

Political alienation and referendums: how political alienation was related to support for Brexit

“…There were few substantial differences in terms of gender or ethnicity, with around 15% of men and women not feeling alienated at all. This is actually against the expectations of previous literature, with numerous studies identifying women as more likely to be alienated by low internal efficacy than men, and Guerrina et al (2018) arguing that prior to the 2016 referendum women stood out for being less confident in their understanding of it. While there was some evidence of this, the differences were very small, with 8% of women alienated by lack of internal efficacy alone, and another 8% by lack of internal and external efficacy, compared with 5% and 4% of men, respectively.…”

Contesting Brexit Masculinities: Pro‐European Activists and Feminist EU Citizenship*

“…Activists also express discontent with the national pro‐EU campaigns which are criticised for not being ‘emotional enough’ or not adopting a pure ‘we love the EU’ message. Activists thus do not just contest the neoliberal, rational masculinity of ‘deal‐making’ in Leave campaigns but also the rational, economic frames of the elite pro‐EU movements (Guerrina et al ., 2018a).…”

“…The Leave campaigns utilized militaristic language that glorified war as well as ‘tough‐talking’ rhetoric of the ‘business man's world’ (Slootmaeckers, 2019, p. 23). Constructing Brexit around acceptable notions of the white ‘masculine’ citizen – rational, individualist, aggressive – the campaigns focused primarily on issues of ‘high politics’ – security, economy and immigration – that are traditionally associated with the public sphere (Guerrina et al ., 2018a, 2018b).…”

“…Rooted in justifications for European colonialism that rest upon the juxtaposition of ‘rational man/irrational woman’ (Connell, 1998, p. 14), these masculinities are, in the British context, associated with the upper‐class ‘English gentleman’ who was considered to possess a superior aptitude for self‐restraint and thus inherently suited to rule (Gopinath, 2013, p. 28). Despite EU policy‐making increasingly extending into the private sphere through, for example, gender equality, social and family policies (Walby, 2004), such issues – those that typically motivate women to participate in politics – were excluded from the public debate (Guerrina et al ., 2018a). Qualities typically associated with femininity – care, empathy, dialogue – were derided (Achilleos‐Sarll and Martill, 2019, p. 16), and the impact on the most marginalized – migrant and minority women – was overlooked (Hozic & True, 2017, p. 276; Solanke, 2020).…”

‘Dominance, defence and diminishing returns’? Theresa May’s Leadership Capital July 2016–July 2018

“…She was the 'Vicar's daughter', offering a moral, upright, middle class persona, imbued with the idea of 'public service', reminiscent of Gordon Brown's 'Son of the Manse' or Thatcher's 'Grocer's daughter' (Smith 2008;King 2002). In the aftermath of the EU referendum, she was also the most prominent sign of how women, 'excluded from referendum', were then made 'visible as actors in Brexit...to clean-up the mess left by their male counterparts' (Hozić and True 2017, 270;Guerrina et al 2018). Sitting, somewhat uneasily, with this outsider style May emphasised her competence, having run the Home Office for 6 years, where she had developed an 'authoritarian persona' (Allen 2018a).…”