‘Whitby Woman’, ‘Waitrose Woman’: Gender and Voting Behaviour at the 2024 UK General Election

Women were identified as key targets in the 2024 British general election. There was much speculation as to whether ‘Whitby’ or ‘Waitrose’ women would swing the result for Labour. This interest in women voters stemmed, at least partially, from the fact that the 2017 and 2019 British general elections were the first where a modern gender gap—a greater proportion of women voting Labour than men and a greater proportion of men voting Conservative than women—was evident in the UK. This article assesses whether the parties’ attempts to target women voters were successful and whether a modern gender gap was a feature of the 2024 general election. Moving beyond analysis of the traditional two largest parties and their associated gender gaps, it is discussed how the gender gap in the UK might be changing as the party system fragments, with a smaller Labour-Conservative gap, but a large left-right gap persisting.