Austerity = pain, and more for women

Women are now to the left of men. It's a historic shift | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian: "Labour's lead over the Conservatives among women has now hit 26% (51% to 25%), according to the most recent ICM/Guardian poll, compared with a 7% lead among men. No wonder Tory strategists are panicking. Some pundits have played down the ICM figure as a rogue result based on small samples.

But women have been backing Labour over the Tories by margins well into double figures since last autumn. And it's not just in party support that there's a glaring gender gap. On a wide range of issues – from cuts in pensions, benefits, health and education to tax increases on the rich – women in Britain are not only strongly opposed to coalition policies – they're often significantly more hostile to them than men.

While both men and women back a mansion tax, for example, two-thirds of women support it, compared with 57% of men. And it is not hard to see why. Women are bearing the brunt of the coalition's austerity onslaught. In the week of International Women's Day, which was set up to campaign for women's rights and freedoms, these are being undermined and reversed by Cameron's coalition."

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