Women in Politics
By Janet Buckmaster and Nancy Peckford
“At home and around the globe, these women are mak- ing their voices heard.” So reads the poster commissioned by Status of Women Canada in 2010 that features and celebrates the elected and appointed women of Canada’s fortieth Parliament. In recognition of Equal Voice’s recently launched cam-
paign, Be Her or Support Her, the Honourable Anne McLellan, former deputy Prime Minister and recipient of Equal Voice’s 2010 EVE Award, implored a packed audi- ence in Toronto this past April to make the retention and recruitment of women in political life one of the domi- nant issues of our time. As Equal Voice enters its tenth an- niversary year in 2011, it continues to be wholly commit- ted to fostering a political culture among all parties, and inspiring a dialogue with Canadians, that does just that. With Canada’s global rank at 51st
in terms of women’s
representation in national Parliaments, Equal Voice has an ambitious task. As a national, multi-partisan not for profit organization founded in 2001, Equal Voice has been ac- tively promoting the election of more women all levels of government in Canada for nearly a decade in its goal to fundamentally change the face of politics in Canada. Women are just over half of the population in Canada,
but are nowhere near half of the political decision-making structures that shape the daily lives of Canadians. In the 2008 federal election, Canada saw the highest number in its history of women seeking federal office – approximate- ly 28% - though just over twenty-two percent of Mem- bers of Parliament elected were women. Despite the fact that municipal politics is touted as be- ing a more accessible forum for female politicians, mu- nicipal statistics published by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities reveal that only twenty-three percent of municipal councillors are female. Further, only one premier of the current thirteen, Eva Aariak, is a woman.
where women’s representation is currently at eleven per- cent. Aariak has the distinction of being one of only five female premiers in Canada’s history, of whom only two have led their parties to victory in a general election.
36 Campaigns & Elections | Canadian Edition One of the questions that Equal Voice has posed is if
women do business differently, or participate in the com- munity differently than men, or have different household roles than many men, might more women in politics lead to changes in how things are done? The United Nations has concluded that a minimum of one third of any leg- islature should be comprised of women if it is to better capture the realities of women’s lives and the issues that affect them.
She is from Nunavut, a territory
In 2008, the Canada West Foundation undertook a study entitled What Women Want: Gender Differences in Public Opinion and Political Engagement in Western Canada. It indicated that as long as women were more reticent to seek public office or less successful in doing so, women’s stronger opinions about social and environmen- tal policy, for example, would not be reflected in public policy choices. Research from other parts of the country tells the same story. Though not universally the case, Equal Voice is aware that many women bring a different set of skills to the table, regardless of their political orientation. A plethora of research on women’s leadership has underscored that women tend to be thoughtful and responsive leaders who favour innovation. Many female leaders seek to be ac- countable for their actions by paying close attention to the needs of their clientele or constituents. They are comfort- able blending their independent thinking with a collab-
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