Female support for the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition is heading downwards, with just 13% of all women saying in a recent poll that they feel the Tory party is the one closest to women. David Cameron used the opening day of the Conservative party conference to issue an apology to the nation's women for his ill-mannered remarks towards two female MPs – Labour's Angela Eagle and one of his own Tory backbenches, Nadine Dorries. He said his respective comments to them in the Commons "just came out wrong and caused the wrong impression". "Must do better," he said.
As David Cameron closed the annual party conference in Manchester with a keynote speech, what impression are women being left with about the Conservative party?
Anna Bird, acting chief executive of the Fawcett Society
The prime minister claims the most important worker's right of all is having a job in the first place – but the coalition's policies are forcing women out of the workplace. More than a million women are now out of work, the highest figure since 1988 while a record half a million are claiming jobseeker's allowance. As public sector budgets are further squeezed, these figures are only going to get worse - 65% of the public sector workforce is female.
David Cameron says those with the most money are bearing the biggest burden – but our own research, and that of organisations such as the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the House of Commons Library clearly shows this simply isn't the case. Looking just at changes to welfare, it is single mums who are going to lose the biggest proportion of their income – this group can expect to lose an average of an entire month's income by 2015."
June O'Sullivan, chief executive of the London Early Years Foundation
I loved the idea that David Cameron will help us unleash the kind of entrepreneurial leadership that will free us up for growth and give the country the kind of ambitious childcare and family support for those who need it the most and deserve the best. Nothing but the best for all children but even more so for poor children. He took the words out of my mouth. Roll on the freedom and support to make it happen!
I came to Manchester as a Conservative party conference virgin, unprepared for the sheer intensity of the networking, posturing and positioning among the very male audience. I was also surprised by the disconnect between the knowledge on the ground and the policy ambitions.
The education secretary Michael Gove needs to apply everything he is saying about schools to the early years, because we need to set the journey for ambition, success and societal wellbeing from birth. I'm interested in the idea of the Conservatives as party of the poor – it's something of a shift and we need them to weave their policies into a reality that shouts that loudly in how they intend to support people.
Amanda Lyne, founder and director of ACAL Energy, a green energy company based in Runcorn
David Cameron's speech was fairly professional and well presented, but I personally have an issue with him because I feel it is all about soundbites and is not said in earnest. For instance, on the fact that only 60 babies were adopted last year – we knew that last week. He should give us a clear idea of what he's going to do about it. He's had a week to work out what the problem is and how we can do it differently. On green technology, he did not say anything at all. The other areas where I have a lot of interest in is on technology and innovation and on both of these all the meaningful initiatives we have seen are the ones that Labour put in place. There is no policy coming from the government about how we can take advantage of the economic value of being more green. These days it is not about the sandal brigade but about creating green industry and jobs.
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