Just 22 per cent of Canadian MPs are women, according to Julie Cool in her document entitled “Women in Parliament.” At all levels of government in Canada, women are greatly underrepresented.
Cool says for approximately the last 20 years, this number has remained relatively stagnant.
At their launch Nov. 17, the Carleton chapter of EqualVoice brought together some prominent members of the political community to discuss some of the issues women face when entering politics, including Canada’s youngest female MP ever elected to the House of Commons.
“Women don’t need to be equal, they need to be better,” says EqualVoice Carleton vice-president Kaisha Thompson.
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a union which looks at international parliaments, as of Sept. 30, 2010, Canada ranks 51 out of 186 countries polled.
“We’re ranked under Afghanistan and Rwanda,” Thompson says.
Thompson works for Larry Bagnall, MP for the Yukon and Kimberly Love, the federal Liberal candidate for Bruce-Grey Owen Sound.
Thompson says her interest in politics was sparked in high school when her and her friends joined student council. “It has always been important to represent myself and my views,” she says.
The EqualVoice chapter at Carleton is one way women are working to promote a stronger female voice in government.
Another way Canadians are being educated on women in politics was the “Paths to Parliament” conference held at the Government Conference Centre downtown Ottawa on Nov. 19. The conference was held by the Canadian Study of Parliament Group.
Panelists included Sylvia Bashevkin, author of “Women, Power and Politics” and principal of the University College at the University of Toronto and a professor of political science.
The conference addressed the underrepresentation of women and minority groups in Canadian politics.
It consisted of three panels each with three participants and each panel addressed the challenges and solutions to following a career in politics.
Dr. Hedy Fry, the MP for Vancouver Centre, was a discussant for the first panel, “Women and Visible Minorities: Negotiating the Roadblocks.” This panel included Jerome Black, Mona Lena Krook and Bashevkin as participants.
“Change does not occur on its own,” Krook says as she discusses electoral gender quotas and their effectiveness.
She emphasizes that often the reason for governments not reaching gender quotas is pure political will. Political parties spend a lot of time avoiding quotas rather than encouraging women to participate, and supporting them.
A clear theme and undertone of the conference was that the path is definitely not an easy one to take.
David Docherty, a political science professor from Wilfred Laurier University, used The Wizard of Oz’s “yellow brick road” as a sort of anti-metaphor in his PowerPoint presentation of paths to and from parliament.
He described parliament as being dysfunctional with power too concentrated.
Although the path to parliament may not be paved in yellow bricks, there is most definitely a hope for women in politics.
“I absolutely see myself in politics one day,” Thompson says.