Women voting with their feet: This One Nation shift shouldn’t shock us

June 7, 2026 — 5:00am

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She leads when she leaves. Women have been leaving the major parties and now, according to Resolve polling conducted for this masthead, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has more women supporters than men. The myth that women are more left-leaning than men has been exploded.

In a polling sense, it’s a very small earthquake. One Nation’s vote has been on the rise for the better part of a year. Believe it or not, men and women have been pretty much in lockstep the entire time, separated by a couple of percentage points at most. At the end of last year, women preferred One Nation slightly more than men – 14 to 12 per cent – but back then the rise of the party was less a surge and more a novelty.

Now it’s inexorable. After men drew level with women at 22 per cent support for One Nation at the start of this year, the latest release puts women another two points ahead.

There are different ways this story can be told. One story might be that women are drawn to a political party led by a woman. In that telling, this is a version of the year that professional women went teal. There is some evidence for the gender affinity story. Julia Gillard as prime minister had more support from women; some analyses suggest that the gender gap in her support derived from her lower popularity among men. That’s often attributed to sexism. But Pauline Hanson is also a woman. Her support has been low, if stable, for years. Men haven’t been put off by her........

© The Sydney Morning Herald