Gender 'shaping' federal election as Vote Compass finds gen Z women are deeply progressive

Australia Broadcast Center

29-04-2025

Emma Garvey is voting for the first time at this federal election and her political views are similar to many women her age.
She places herself on the left side of politics, drawn to progressive parties and policies.
New Vote Compass data shows the majority of women under the age of 29 identify with the political left, creating a gap between them and their male peers.
The 18-year-old, like many in her friendship circle, is still weighing up who to vote for, but she does know who she won't be supporting.
Emma Garvey from Penrith is preparing to vote in her first federal election.
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"I feel like a lot of [my friends] are more anti-Dutton than they are pro-Albanese, like they're more anti-Liberal than they are pro-Labor," she said.
"I feel like we've seen [Peter] Dutton trying to bring in that kind of [US President Donald] Trump politics, or the kind of Trump policies.
"We've seen what's been happening over there [in the US] … young women are really worried about the risks that can pose to us, especially around women's rights."
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According to Vote Compass data, 67 per cent of gen Z women identified as left or moderately left, this compared to 52 per cent of women from other generations.
While overseas there's been an observed trend of young men drifting to the right, Vote Compass data suggests gen Z men in Australia often consider themselves progressive.
Vote Compass found 50 per cent of males under 29 years old described themselves moderately left or left, compared to only 40 per cent of men from other generations.
The data comes from a demographically weighted sample of more than 350,000.
Gender 'shaping the election debate'
In the last two elections, only 26 per cent of gen Z, those born between 1996 and 2012, reported voting for the Coalition, according to the 2022 Australian Election Study.
"No other generation records such skewed preferences at similarly early stages of the life course," the study's authors wrote in the report.
Female support for the Coalition was at an historic low in 2022, the report found.
"The Coalition has never attracted such a low share of the vote overall, but from women in particular," the report said.
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Gen Z are more progressive than previous generations at the same age, with young women sitting furthest left on the political spectrum.
Michelle Arrow, a history professor from Macquarie University, said across the world women have been moving to the left, leaving behind their male counterparts.
"It's happening across the many western democracies, where women's vote is shifting from a more conservative base, which it was right up until the 1980s and 1990s," she said.
"It reflects those broader social shifts that we've seen, more young women are in higher education, women still remain dominant in kind of care professions."
The 2022 Australian election was defined by gender issues, but this campaign was different, Professor Arrow said.
"[The 2022 election] was defined by allegations around misconduct in Parliament House, the rise of Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins as very powerful young advocates for women, the march for justice," she said.
"I think gender is not being discussed as much of a frontline issue as it was in the 2022 campaign … but I think gender is still very much shaping the election debate."
Young women 'not recognised' in campaigns
Vote Compass data found gen Z women were more likely to be supportive of social and environmental causes when compared to other age groups.
Australians under the age of 45, gen Z, and millennial generations now outnumber baby boomers as the largest voting bloc in this election, according to the Australian Electoral Commission.
"Young women are not yet recognised as a central or a really important voting category," Professor Arrow said.
"We still see a lot of the offerings more broadly in the campaign have been around cost of living relief, rather than things that have been specifically targeted to young women."
Young Labor sought to attract new members alongside other parties at University of Wollongong's orientation week.
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Young voters can be uninformed or unengaged with the electoral process, a Grifith University study found earlier this year.
Almost half of gen Z who did vote in the 2022 federal election said their main reason for doing so was to avoid being fined, the report found.
Stella Giacon, 19, is frustrated by the lack of political action on the issues that matter to her, which she admits leads her to "disassociate" from politics.
Stella Giacon says she wants to be able to vote for someone who has the best interests of young people in mind.
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"I'm extremely concerned about what's going on with our climate … I want to live in a world where polar bears and tigers exist, and I can explain to my children they're real," she said.
The University of Wollongong student is frustrated by what she perceives to be a lack of understanding of the serious issues facing young people.
"Just look at the problem of student debt, the current living situation for lots of young people," she said.
"Rent is extremely high, wages aren't going up at the same rate of as rent, and I think it'd just be great if we could vote for someone who has our best interests in mind as the young people of this country."
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Professor Arrow believes Labor may have done a better job than the Coalition at appealing to young women this election.
"We've seen some male politicians going on to influence the podcasts and trying to engage with younger voters in that way," she said.
"We're seeing some kind of missteps from the Coalition's part, which perhaps reflects that they haven't learned the lessons of the 2022 election — most notably, you can see on the back flip around working from home."
Emma Garvey doesn't believe the major parties have policies aimed at helping young people.
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Ms Garvey believes the major parties can offer much more to young people.
"I feel like they're trying to appeal to young voters in general through their use of like TikTok and just jumping on trends randomly," she said.
"But I don't think they're doing a lot with policy wise to really connect with them."
Vote Compass is an educational tool designed to promote electoral literacy and civic engagement. While not a conventional public opinion poll, Vote Compass responses can be analysed using statistical methods similar to those used in polling to try to adjust for sampling bias.
Responses have been weighted by gender, age, education, language, religion, place of residence and past vote to account for the selection effects of the sample, enabling us to make statistical inferences about the Australian population.