Who will woo her on 14 April?: targeting the female electorate

Abstract

Currently, women constitute the majority of registered voters. What significance does this hold for political parties scrambling for votes? Can parties profile and mobilize the electorate around this identity, as they do around that of race? Not at National and Provincial levels argues Bentley, as women's identity is subsumed by others which are prioritized. However, "closer to home", at local government level, where issues which are not exclusive to women, but which are starkly gendered, the identity of women might come into its own as a political draw card. The 2005 local government elections will tell!