Parties use new tactics to reach women ahead of poll

Ed Balls appears outside the Chalk & Linen coffee shop in Coleshill brandishing an enormous Tupperware box filled with a batch of fairy cakes he baked that morning. "If you come on the pink bus, you've got to bring cakes."

"He's getting in touch with his feminine side," jokes an aide as the Tiggerish shadow chancellor joins the Labour party's bus tour to target women voters. First up is a visit with deputy party leader Harriet Harman to car parts manufacturer Sertec in the ultra marginal North Warwickshire constituency - the Conservatives won this seat by just 54 votes in 2010.

Labour's bus tour has not been without controversy. When Ms Harman unveiled the hot pink 16-seater earlier this year, political opponents renamed it the "Barbie bus" and said it was a "divisive gimmick" that was "patronising to women".

But the underlying motive is politically astute. Women are less likely to vote - 9m female voters did not turn out in 2010 against 8m men - and tend to be undecided for longer.

It makes women prime targets for politicians in the run up to polling day with both parties making a pitch for the female vote.

While women and men do not vote in dramatically different ways, pollsters observe that the two sexes do care about different issues.

"From the focus groups we do, women do tend to be more concerned about public services and cost of living issues; men by macroeconomic issues and international politics. It's not a uniform split, but it is noticeable," said Laurence Stellings, associate director at Populus.

Women put NHS, the cost of living and the cost of caring for the family at the top of their concerns in a poll earlier this year by TNS on behalf of BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour. Male respondents had the same top-two concerns - but cared more about the economy, immigration and pensions than women.

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The Conservatives trumped that offer when it launched its manifesto, promising to give working parents of 3 and 4-year-olds 30 hours a week of free childcare.

In the 2010 election, David Cameron enjoyed a five-point lead with women voters but the relationship has been tested during the past five years as the effects of government spending cuts fell disproportionately on women.

Welfare cuts dominate the conversation at a coffee morning Ms Harman hosts in Leamington Spa's Mashed Swedes cafe. Hannah Fletcher, a 24-year-old single mother and youth club worker, talks of the public opprobrium she has felt for being partly dependent on state support.

"I am working and bringing up my daughter, but people target young parents because they see us as irresponsible - kids having kids. You shouldn't have a child so young. It is not what I wanted at all."

She shifts in her chair and looks close to tears. "People joke with me 'you're a chav because you live in a council house'. It's not nice but I can't afford anything else."

Labour has tried to take advantage of Mr Cameron's so-called "women problem" in the past few years, but in the run-up to Thursday's general election the gap between the two parties has closed up.

A recent YouGov poll gave Mr Miliband just a two-point lead among women voters, while the last two polls conducted by TNS gave the Conservatives a slight edge.

But the longer term trend is less encouraging for the Tories. Women born after the mid-1960s are more likely to vote Labour - and they do not appear to be switching to the Conservatives as they get older.

"In the US, women are substantially more inclined to vote Democrat compared to men and I think the underlying drivers of that gender divide - men opting for a party of economic risk, women supporting a party of social support and security - may now be helping Labour in the UK," says Peter Kellner, president of YouGov. "Labour as the male, worker, union party is being replaced as the party of social support."

With both parties seemingly level pegging, Ms Harman is clear on one thing: the pink bus tour has boosted morale among activists. It has also got the message out, touring 75 constituencies - 10 of them twice - over eight weeks

"I wanted a women's campaign since the 1980s," says Ms Harman. "John Prescott had the battle bus and that worked well for him because it was the deputy leader's tour. And I think this has worked better for me to throw my energy into a women's tour."

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