HOUSEHOLDS, WORK AND POLITICS: SOME IMPLICATIONS OF THE DIVISIONS OF LABOUR IN FORMAL AND INFORMAL PRODUCTION

Cross‐class affiliation and unpaid work in and around the home are important in affecting the propensity of an individual to vote Conservative, as are elements of patterns of domestic interaction. Regardless of whether occupational status is a relatively transitory phenomenon in a woman's life it seems to influence her voting behaviour and that of her husband. Political consciousness as evidenced by the propensity to vote Conservative in the 1979 election is explored as to how women's occupational class “makes a difference”. Elements for determining political consciousness include the production relation of both men and women in the household, the relations to the means of consumption of household members and the social interaction of men and women engaged in a variety of other forms of work in and around the house. A very complex set of data is required to study these three spheres. The Sheppey survey explores the relative significance of households' relationships to production and consumption as well as the interactions of men and women inside the dwelling. In 1981 a survey of 526 household couples on the island gave detailed information about their social and economic behaviour inside and outside the house. No previous study of voting behaviour, or the determinants of political consciousness has had access to such material: 403 respondents actually voted — 52 per cent Conservative and 48 per cent for the other parties. Factors associated with voting Conservative are explored. The island was representative of the situation for Great Britain as a whole.