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Raylene Lang-Dion; Ann Wicks
Canada's international ranking on the Inter-Parliamentary Union, List
of Women in National Parliaments, has recently slipped to 47th in the
world. Despite enjoying economic prosperity and political stability, Canada
now has fewer women in parliament than many less developed countries such
as Mauritania, Uganda, Rwanda, Afghanistan and Iraq. How long will it take
for Canada to catch up thirty years, perhaps forty years? This article
aims to unravel the causes of Canada's under-representation of women in
politics and outlines Equal Voice's action plan to address this inequality.
The under-representation of women in the Canadian political system has
been well documented by academics, parliament and the media.1 Despite
a 2004 poll conducted by the Centre for Research and Information on Canada,
stating that 90 per cent of Canadians want more women elected,2
the representation
of women in the House of Commons has reached a plateau of 20.8 per cent
with only 64 women sitting as Members of Parliaments.3 Similarly, the glass
ceiling for women in municipal4 and provincial governments hovers around
21 per cent.5 Equal Voice is a non-profit organization which aims to change
the face of Canadian politics by facilitating the election of more women
at all levels of government.
Former journalist Rosemary Speirs and a small group of like-minded women,
such as pollster Donna Dasko and Canadian feminist icon Dorothy Anderson,
formed Equal Voice in 2001. The mission was to create a national, multi-partisan,
volunteer based organization with the goal of increasing awareness of the
under-representation of women in Canadian politics. It would be the first
multi-partisan action group to bring together women and men of all political
stripes to pressure political parties into electing more women. Equal Voice's
Advisory Board includes many women who have played a prominent role on
Canada's political scene such as: former Progressive Conservative Prime
Minister Kim Campbell, former Liberal Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps,
and former New Democratic Party leader Alexa McDonough.
Equal Voice continues its advocacy work today by interacting with the media,
political parties, Members of Parliament, and Senators to encourage the
nomination of more women candidates and to facilitate the participation
of women at all levels of political activity. With over 1100 members nation
wide, Equal Voice has grown from a small group of men and women in Ontario,
to a national, non-profit organization with chapters being developed in
every province and territory.
Why only Twenty Percent of Women?
In Canada, women comprise over 52 per cent of the population and yet, only
20.8 per cent of our Members of Parliament are women. Why is this fact
important and why must we elect more women in Canada? First, the lack of
significant numbers of women represented in positions of public authority
generates a democratic deficit6 violating basic principles of fairness
required for a truly representative democracy. Secondly, Canada's international
ranking in terms of women's representation, continues to slip. As a vast
number of countries surpass Canada and become more successful in electing
women, Canada risks falling further behind.
What we want to accomplish is so simple and so just. How can anything so
sensible take so long to accomplish?
Doris Anderson
Author, journalist, women's rights activist and
Equal Voice
founding member
The under-representation of women in Canada creates a democratic deficit
leaving over half of the population without an adequate voice in political
decision making processes. According to the United Nations, a threshold
of at least 30 per cent of female legislators is required to ensure that
public policy reflects the needs of women.7 The lack of women elected or
appointed to top political jobs also serves a visible indication of how
women are undervalued in Canadian society.8
Despite the low levels of women
holding elected office, Statistics Canada indicates that majority of students
graduating from post-secondary institutions are women.9 Given that there
is no shortage of talented and educated women, why are they not represented
in the House of Commons?
Canada has had two Royal Commissions over the past 4 decades which have
documented the barriers women encounter in seeking public office: the
1970 Royal Commission on the Status of Women and the 1992 Royal Commission
on Electoral Reform and Party Financing. In 1970, Royal Commission Chairperson
Florence Bird found:
a number of impediments to women seeking candidature; in particular prejudice
in the constituency associations, inadequate financial resources and limited
mobility
Women who have been successful at the polls confirm that winning
the nomination is a more formidable hurdle than winning the election.10
Many of the hurdles identified by Bird in 1970 were still apparent in the
recommendations of the 1992 Royal Commission report, suggesting that more
work remains to done to address the causes of under-representation. Academics
have identified the main causes of women's under-representation in politics
as a failure on the part of political parties to adequately bolster female
candidacies; the masculine political environment; media imbalances in the
treatment of women politicians; and the role conflict that can result from
juggling a political career with social and family commitments.11 Additionally,
the power of incumbency can also be a barrier to women. Incumbent Members
of Parliament have a better chance at seeking re-election and given that
few seats change hands in any given election, the power of incumbency can
serve to reinforce parliament's current composition.
Yet, here we are 37 years following the first Royal Commission on the Status
of Women and Canada is not even half way towards achieving equal representation;
let alone the 30 per cent threshold needed for women to have a voice in
the creation of public policy. In fact, during the past four elections
the representation of women has not experienced substantial growth and
in 2006 the number of women in the House of Commons even declined.12
A Call for Action
In order to achieve equal representation, more women need to run for public
office and "since parties are the gatekeepers to legislative office [they]
have the potential to address the problems of women's under representation."13
During the 2006 election, Equal Voice tracked the number of women candidates
nominated by each political party. As shown in the following table, the
numbers indicate that the percentage of women elected by each party in
the House of Commons closely reflects the number of women candidates nominated
by the political parties.
This suggests that when presented with the choice, Canadians are more than
willing to vote for women candidates. This combined with strong polling
numbers indicating that Canadians want more women to hold elected positions
and the large pool of educated women to draw from, provides the opportunity
for political parties to make a difference. All that is required is political
will on the part of the leaders and their political parties to nominate
more women candidates. The political parties need to be proactive in recruiting
and supporting women candidates to run in winnable ridings; all parties
need to make the decision on how to address this inequality; and all parties
have to identify processes that work for them.
Equal Voice offers a variety of programming and initiatives to support
women involved in politics including: our on-line campaign school called
Getting to the Gate; a developing national Speakers Bureau comprised of
past and present parliamentarians; our National Awareness Campaign entitled
Changing the Face of Politics, the Ontario Challenge: Getting More Women
to Queen's Park; our growing Youth Chapter and our efforts on electoral
reform.
Equal Voice launched a national public awareness campaign in January 2007,
funded by Status of Women Canada, with the goal of increasing the number
of women in elected office at all levels of government across Canada. The
national public awareness campaign aims to achieve the following four objectives
during an eighteen month period:
-
Meeting with key media outlets to increase the awareness of the lack of
women in politics and raise awareness of gender bias in the media.
-
Providing direct support to women interested in politics by encouraging
increased participation in Equal Voice's Getting to the Gate Online Campaign
School which is free of charge and bilingual.
-
Assessing and monitoring the level of female participation in Canadian
political parties and in political office through surveys at the federal
level and in two selected provinces.
-
Promoting the incorporation of gender sensitive courses in high school
social studies curriculums in at least two provinces.
While proceeding with the national public awareness campaign, Equal Voice
chapters across Canada will focus on their own initiatives to increase
women's representation in politics, including the encouragement of electoral
reform.
Equal Voice Past-Chair Rosemary Speirs issued the Ontario Challenge in
2006 in a letter to the leaders of the Ontario Liberal, Progressive Conservative
and New Democratic Parties, asking them to jointly commit to the goal of
nominating more women candidates. Equal Voice sought out assistance from
women Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) from all political parties
who were instrumental in getting their leaders to pledge support to the
Ontario Challenge. While Equal Voice did not ask the parties to meet specific
targets, the goal is to increase the numbers of women elected to Queen's
Park. The Ontario Legislature has just 24 women of its 103 MPPs. The three
leaders of Ontario's major political parties: John Tory, Dalton McGuinty
and Howard Hampton all agreed to take up the Ontario Challenge and committed
to nominating more women candidates. With their statements, the leaders
sent the message that they want more women in their elected ranks. Equal
Voice will be tracking the number of women candidates selected and will
be reporting to the media on the progress of all three political parties
prior to the 2007 Ontario provincial election.
The more female role models that people see, that young women see in politics
people who look like them and sound like them the better it is to try
and encourage more women to get involved.
Janet Ecker
Former Ontario Progressive Conservative cabinet minister
to the
Select Committee on Electoral Reform, September 1, 2005
Equal Voice has created a National Youth Chapter which encourages young
women to get involved in politics and raises awareness about the need for
young women to vote. We are looking to expand the number of Equal Voice
University and College campus clubs in order to provide a venue for young
women to get involved and stay involved in politics; as well as providing
mentorship opportunities for young women and other women who have been
successfully involved in all aspects of political life.
Equal Voice has made presentations to both the British Columbia and Ontario
Citizens' Assemblies on Electoral Reform. Rosemary Speirs, the Past-Chair,
has lead the initiative advocating for the adoption of electoral reform
models favourable to the election of more women. Typically, countries that
use some form of a list system of proportional representation (List PR)
elect the most female representatives.14 This system pressures political
parties to develop candidate lists that are more reflective of the population;
inclusive of women and visible minorities. Finland elects 38 per cent women
using the List PR method; likewise, Sweden has achieved 47.3 per cent
female representation.15 Similarly, mixed member proportional systems
(MMP), which combine single member plurality with a list system of proportional
representation, fair well in electing more women. New Zealand uses MMP
and elects 32.3 per cent women in their national parliament; Germany also
uses MMP and elects 31.6 per cent female representatives.16 Regardless
of the precise method, countries utilizing some form of proportional representation
deliver more women representatives than those employing first past the
post systems, such as Canada and the United States. While the benefits
of electoral reform are numerous, it alone is not enough to address the
inequality facing women. Political will still needs to be demonstrated
by all political parties and their leaders to select women for the candidate
lists and to ensure the success of electing women.
Candidates Nominated and Elected by Political Parties 2006 Election
|
Political Party
|
Total Candidates
|
Male Candidates
|
Female Candidates
|
% Female Candidates
|
|
Nominated
|
Elected
|
Nominated
|
Elected
|
Nominated
|
Elected
|
Nominated
|
Elected
|
Bloc Québécois
|
75
|
51
|
52
|
34
|
23
|
17
|
30.6%
|
33%
|
Conservatives
|
308
|
125
|
270
|
111
|
38
|
14
|
12.3%
|
11%
|
Liberals
|
308
|
101
|
229
|
80
|
79
|
21
|
25.6%
|
21%
|
NDP
|
308
|
29
|
200
|
17
|
108
|
12
|
35%
|
41%
|
Green Party
|
308
|
0
|
236
|
0
|
72
|
0
|
23%
|
0%
|
When we look around the world, we notice that those jurisdictions that
have proportional representation elect far more women.
Howard Hampton
Ontario New Democrat Leader
Ontario Legislature, June 14,
2006
Conclusion
According to Ann MacLean, Mayor of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia and Past President
of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Canada is a progressive
country and a world leader in many things. Unfortunately, women's participation
in political life is not one of them.17
With Equal Voice raising awareness with the key political decision makers,
party supporters, and the general public, and assisting women who want
to run for elected office, Canada has for the first time in history an
advocacy group solely focused on getting more women elected. This important
fact is the catalyst for making changes. Canada is falling behind on the
international stage and needs to address this democratic deficit. Political
parties need to undertake decisive action and demonstrate political will
to change this inequality. Equal Voice will be working with our committed
volunteers and supporters to tackle this important goal of changing the
face of Canadian politics.
Notes
1. Interparliamentary Union, Women in National Parliaments, available
at:
http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm
2. Canadian Research and Information Canada, New Release, Canadians Want
More Women in Elected Office, November 4, 2004. Available at:
http://www.cric.ca/pdf/cric_poll/portraits/portraits_2004/eng_dem_reform_2004.pdf
3. Julie Cool, Women in Parliament, Library of Parliament, February 20,
2006. Available at:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/prb0562-e.pdf
4. Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Getting to 30% by 2026, p.
1. Available at:
http://www.fcm.ca/english/policy/wreport.pdf
5. Linda Trimble and Jane Arscott, Still Counting, Broadview: 2003, p.
43.
6. Linda Trimble and Jane Arscott p. 4.
7. Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Getting to 30% by 2026, p.
2.
8. Linda Trimble and Jane Arscott, p. 161.
9. Statistics Canada, Education Matters: The gap in achievement between
boys and girls, Available at:
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/81-004-XIE/200410/mafe.htm#d
10. Royal Commission on the Status of Women 1970, p. 349.
11. Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant, Canadian Journal of Political Science (2004),
37: 1029-1030 Cambridge University Press.
12. University of Ottawa, Research Centre on Women and Politics.
13. Manon Tremblay and Linda Trimble. Women and Electoral Politics in Canada.
Oxford, 2003, p. 11.
14. Equal Voice, Submission to the Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral
Reform, p. 7. Available at:
http://www.equalvoice.ca/uploads/107_45c0b0a1cae1a.pdf
15. Equal Voice: Submission to the Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral
Reform, p. 16.
16. Ibid.
17. Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Getting to 30% by 2026, p.
2. Available at:
http://www.fcm.ca/english/policy/wreport.pdf
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