particular look around and see their quality of life shrinking.
The failing NHS weighs heavily. The pressure of financial insecurity and a brief brush with serious illness has left me hyperaware of the importance of accessible, affordable healthcare.
As Elsa says, we have ‘a healthcare system that is crumbling’ and women seem to be feeling the effects more than men. I know I want children, but I’m terrified of having them. According to University of Oxford research published recently by Mbrrace-uk, in the past 15 years, the UK maternal death rate has shot up 20 per cent, and deaths from treatable conditions in pregnancy and post-partum are up 52 per cent.
Anna Stenning, a 26-year-old working in events marketing, says she’s had to wait months to get consultant appointments for women-specific issues.
And for those who want to work in the NHS? Hannah Rahman, 18, an aspiring medical student from London, also feels let down by the Government and fears being unable to find a job when she makes it through medical school. ‘There’s such a bottleneck,’ she says. ‘You’ve got all these doctors and they’re just not getting jobs because there aren’t enough speciality places.’
Hannah tells me that she has friends at school who are working not for extra money to spend on clothes, but to help keep food on the table.
Women, it seems, are aware of economic inequality in a way that men are not.
In 2024, 40.7 per cent of women aged 18 to 34 ranked cost of living as their top concern while only 29 per cent of men did the same.
As Elsa said ‘We’re seeing the rich get richer, at the same time as more and more people can’t afford anything.’
For all the young women I spoke to, immigration was not a concern, nor were they fearful of trans rights: the political gender divide is not a culture war, it’s an economic one.
Unfortunately no political party is perfect. I have an issue with Polanski’s undoubtedly thoughtless and offensive reaction to the police handling of the Golders Green stabbings last week and believe anti-semitism has no place anywhere, let alone in politics.
Like any voter for any party, I don’t agree with all Green Party policies either. Both Hannah and Elsa mentioned that they are unsure about the Greens’ policies on disarmament and the party’s negativity towards nuclear power, which also weighs on my mind as it can be a great way to transition to clean power sources.
Cicely feels that some of their policies are ‘too impulsive’ or implausible at the moment.
ANNA says: ‘I don’t actually want the Greens in charge of the country, but I do want to see the area I live in become greener and more sustainable. Better recycling would be great. I can hear my dad’s voice at the back of my brain saying he thinks it is a wasted vote.’
Regardless, she would vote for them in the local elections, if not in a General Election.
Young women aren’t clueless – they read manifestos, they listen to political broadcasts – and the alternatives fill us with gloom.
The Tories feel toothless and pointless, few of us have it in us to defend Labour any more, and I couldn’t tell you what the Lib Dems stand for.
As for Reform, well, they want to scrap the Equality Act ‘on day one’. Why on earth would a well-educated, ambitious young woman vote for that? At a time when the manosphere and its pantomime villains seem intent on rolling back women’s rights, we’re hardly going to cede the protections we have in law.
And there is another point here. A rising tide of misogyny, of online hate especially directed against women and girls, makes us long for politicians who offer a different vision of society, for a party that isn’t going to tinker around the edges or cosy up to the billionaire tech bros, but deliver changes to make women safer and less vulnerable. It is, after all, their job.
The people I interviewed for this piece all independently raised the same reason for voting Green.
‘It is the politics of hope,’ says Cicely. Elsa says the Greens focus on ‘how we can make the world a better place’.
There is something about this optimistic, trust-building, locally rooted politics that presents a potent combination to young women.
‘I don’t know anyone who’s not voting Green. The important conversation is about how to make people’s lives better,’ says Hannah. ‘They’re like a light at the end of the tunnel. I’m very excited to be voting. It’s such a big thing to be able to have a say.’
So, today I too will be voting Green. Sorry, Dad, I hope you can forgive me.