Targeting the Cereal Woman: Campaigns, Gender and Scottish Independence

Women voters were a key target group in the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum. Scottish data had long indicated a significant sex gap, with male voters more likely to support independence and female voters more likely to oppose it or remain undecided. This article examines how political campaigns influence voting behaviour, focusing on gendered power dynamics in opposing campaigns during the 2014 referendum. Using data from 23 elite interviews with campaign managers and politicians from Yes Scotland and Better Together, the study reveals that male-dominated leadership structures in both campaigns significantly influenced message framing. Campaign strategies often relied on gender stereotypes, with actors drawing on normative assumptions about gender to guide messaging priorities. The findings suggest that these gendered power structures can reinforce or challenge societal gender norms, offering a nuanced understanding of gender dynamics in political persuasion. This study contributes to broader political science discussions on the relationship between power and gender in campaign leadership, illustrating how campaigns shape and reinforce normative gendered social norms. This research also engages with the under-researched area of gender and constitutional change, particularly in Scotland. While gendered strategies in UK political campaigns have been studied, there has been limited exploration of how campaigns target gendered voter groups in referendums on constitutional change. The persistent sex gap in support for Scottish independence offers a unique context for examining how campaigns targeted gendered voter identities and how elite assumptions shaped campaign strategies. Employing a feminist political science framework, this study investigates how elite actors shaped perceptions of male and female voters, using thematic analysis to explore how gendered strategies were used to appeal to distinct voter groups. The Scottish case is significant in multi-level governance and territorial politics. As a multi-level state, Scotland’s constitutional debates intersect with broader questions of regional autonomy and power distribution within the UK. The referendum was about independence from the UK and reconfiguring Scotland’s relationship with the rest of the UK, and gendered campaign strategies reflected these multi-level governance dynamics. Campaigns framed constitutional questions to appeal to distinct gendered identities within a devolved political system. By exploring how gendered power dynamics shaped campaign strategies, this research enriches our understanding of how campaigns reinforce or challenge societal gender norms in multi-level governance contexts. It also highlights the role of gender in influencing voter attitudes towards constitutional change, offering valuable insights for future campaigns in multi-level states. This study underscores the importance of nuanced, inclusive campaign strategies that consider gendered divisions in voter behaviour, especially in territorial contexts where power and identity are central to political engagement and representation.