As a female voter, I’d rather be patronised than ignored by politicians

Labour's Women's Manifesto may seem unnecessary, but when you compare it to what the other parties are proposing it's astounding

Harriet Harman and Yvette Cooper spoke to parents - and babies - at Stockwell Gardens Nursery, where they launched Labour’s Women’s Manifesto (Getty Images)

The notion of a “women’s vote” existing this election should be as antiquated as it sounds. Yet all the political parties seem to think it’s okay to treat half the population as if we are one big monolith of bleeding, hormonal minds.

Lady voters are a thing now, exercising our little lady democracy with our little lady minds. And the four middle-aged men at the helm of the main parties want to make sure the “women’s vote” goes to them. But there's a slight catch. There are 33m women in the United Kingdom, and we’re not all alike.

Over the course of this election campaign, I’ve looked on with horror and bemusement as the parties treat women as if they're a niche interest group. Last week saw the broadcast of the LBC women’s debate, in which Conservative Nicky Morgan, Labour Harriet Harman, Lib Dem Lynne Featherstone and UKIP Dianne James battled over their parties’ promises.

Now, Labour have just launched their own Women’s Manifesto. During an event in Stockwell yesterday, Harriet Harman, Yvette Cooper and Gloria De Piero pushed their party's women-friendly policies. These include securing funding for rape crisis centres and domestic violence shelters, ending the detention of pregnant immigrants, and the introduction of a Violence Against Women and Girls Bill.

These are great policies, but were promoted while the women bounced babies on their laps at a playschool. And if this wasn't cringeworthy enough, all three women arrived on Labour's now infamous Pink Bus, which was met with outright derision (from myself included) when it debuted in February.

Harriet Harman, Gloria de Piero and Yvette Cooper launch Labour’s Women’s Manifesto (PA)

It's patronising, and makes me feel uncomfortable. But as the election draws closer, I've started to change my mind. I never thought I’d defend the pink bus, or the sight of female politicians unveiling policies while bouncing babies on their laps, but the utter vacuum of engagement from other parties shows that Labour’s gestures towards women’s rights might unfortunately be as good as it gets in this election.

While Tories led the mockery of the pink bus, it was easy to forget that Labour passed the Equality Act, established the role of Women’s Minister and introduced all women short lists. Meanwhile, there was a period of time in the coalition cabinet when there were more Old Etonians than women. And during his time as Prime Minister, David Cameron has looked on while access to legal aid was restricted for domestic violence victims.

Yes, the Tories and Lib Dems have never had a "pink bus moment". But this wasn’t because they have more respect or better policies for women. Rather, it's because they were never going to make any gesture towards the women’s rights. The closest the Lib Dems have come is sending out Nick Clegg to target female voters in key marginals, which only served to highlight how few women hold senior positions within his party.

It’s a sad reality than when it comes to women’s rights, the issue is too often either dealt with insultingly or ignored. It’s so frustrating that women are still faced with such limited options of how they engage in women’s rights.

But if debates about domestic violence funding making public debate requires for the issue to be trussed up in pink glitter or framed with a baby in a bonnet, I’ll accept it for now, and welcome Labour’s well-meaning but botched attempts above other parties’ indifference.

The choice shouldn’t have to be between being insulted or being ignored, and I look forward to a time when we have more than just those two options. But for the moment, I’m just about happy enough to take the lesser of two evils. Labour might have scored a few own goals when targeting the "women’s vote”, but when they're the only ones even bothering to play the game, who cares?