With the gender gap in Scotland currently at around 12 percent, it is now labelled “persistent”, having first shown up in May at this level. Where women and men seem to differ is in their level of certainty about what independence would mean for Scotland. 27 percent of women, compared with 37 percent of men in current polling, are sure about the future implications of independence. Among those who expect the economy to benefit from independence and feel sure about what the consequences would be intend to vote YES. But support drops significantly among those who believe that independence will be economically beneficial but are less sure about what the consequences will be. Rachel Ormston, Senior Research Director at ScotCen Social Research says that the gender gap may be hard to close in the final weeks of the campaign given the wildly competing claims of the YES and NO cases with the result that those undecided cannot be sure about the precise consequences of their vote. Click on the link below for Rachel’s full analysis.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
