It’s not our hip pockets fuelling conversations in the final countdown to election day. It’s out hearts.
Forget jobs and growth. For women, it’s social issues, including immigration and asylum seekers, marriage equality, cultural issues, women’s safety and domestic violence that are dominating conversations online this week.
More than ever before, social media has been front and centre this election campaign and while it’s where we’ve been looking for news, it’s also where we’re going to give our two cents on the issues of the day, sharing articles, commentary and undoubtedly a quip or two.
In the last three months, more that 3.4 million people have either posted about or engaged with election-related content on Facebook and from week one to week eight of this drawn out campaign, engagement has quadrupled.
Women have been particularly vocal online, according to data provided Facebook, and “Social Issues” are top of the agenda.
With less than 24 hours before head to the polls, nearly half of all election chatter has been focused there this week, closely followed by “Benefits/Welfare”, which includes topics like Medicare, social security, the costs of living, housing, retirement, disability assistance, family benefits and education.
Social Issues are number one in the final week. Source: Supplied
Way back in week one — the week following the Budget — "Economy" unsurprisingly rated as the most talked about topic for both genders, but since then it's consistently played second fiddle to the social stuff.
That said, the Economy, Social Issues and Benefits/Welfare have consistently made up the top three talking points for women, shuffling around to reflect the shifting focus of the national debate over the last eight weeks.
Interestingly, the most women aged 35-44 were the biggest users of the platform followed by those aged 45-54.
Young women (25-34) were the third most engaged group, whereas men of the same age were the most likely to be tapping away at their keyboards.
Women aged 35-44 are the biggest users of Facebook when it comes to talking politics. Source: Supplied
Another interesting aspect of Facebook's analysis was that it showed the words most commonly associated with the the two leaders.
For women who mentioned the Prime Minister in the past week, the top two most commonly associated word pairs for Malcolm Turnbull have been "Question Answer" (perhaps tied to his recent Q&A appearance) and the topic of "Mental Health".
When engaging about Bill Shorten, the most commonly associated word pairs by women are: "People Smugglers" & "Permanent Residency" — both arguably terms associated with the debate surrounding refugees and people seeking asylum.
What women are saying about the two leaders. Source: Supplied
By contrast, for men, the top most commonly associated word pairs for the Prime Minister were "Weekend Penalty" and "Taxpayers Money", while when discussing the Opposition Leader the focus was still on immigration but the terms were "Protection Visas" and "Border Protection".