Abstract
This chapter sets out the questions to be addressed in the book as a whole. It introduces the notion of women’s ‘different voice’ as both a linguistic and a sociopolitical construct, and reviews research dealing with gender as an influence on verbal behaviour in political and other public or institutional settings. It then outlines the context and main events of the 2015 General Election campaign in the UK, including the two televised leaders’ debates which are at the centre of this book’s case study of female political leaders’ speech. The chapter ends with a brief account of the case study approach, and summarizes the aims and methods of the present study.
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Notes
- 1.
For readers unfamiliar with British politics, it should be explained that UKIP opposes the UK’s membership of the European Union (EU), and has sought representation in European institutions in order to pursue its anti-EU agenda from the inside. In UK national politics it stands not only for opposition to the EU, but also for opposition to immigration—the cause which is most strongly associated with right-wing populism in Britain.
- 2.
Before the campaign the SNP held six seats in the House of Commons, Plaid Cymru three and the Greens one. In the 2015 election Plaid and the Greens maintained their position, while the SNP’s representation rose to fifty-six seats.
- 3.
It would be a different story if the UK abandoned the first-past-the-post system, which rewards parties whose support is geographically concentrated rather than dispersed. The SNP was able to win fifty-six seats with a 4.7 % share of all votes cast nationally, whereas UKIP only won one seat with a 12.6 % share. More individuals cast votes for UKIP than for the Liberal Democrats, who won eight seats; there was a significant increase in UKIP’s support, but it did not translate into an increase in Parliamentary representation because UKIP voters in almost all constituencies were outnumbered by supporters of some other party. (Figures sourced from the BBC News website, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2015/results, accessed 21 September 2015.)
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Cameron, D., Shaw, S. (2016). A Different Voice?. In: Gender, Power and Political Speech. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58752-7_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58752-7_1
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