Electing More Women in Canada
FAST FACTS
Women in Federal Politics
Federal Politics (click on a topic below)
House of Commons :Commons:
How many women are in the House of Commons?
What political parties do these women represent?
How many women were elected to parliament between 1984 & 2006?
How many women were nominated by political parties to run as candidates in the 2006 election?
Do Canadians vote for women candidates?
How do women get on the ballot?
Do Canadians want more women to hold elected office?
Are there barriers for women seeking public office?
Why is it important to have women hold elected office?
The Senate
How many women are in the Senate?
What political parties do women represent in the Senate?
The Cabinet
How many women are in the federal cabinet?
What is the history of women’s representation in the federal cabinet?
House of Commons:
How many women are in the House of Commons?
§ 20.7% or 64 women of 308 Members of Parliament were elected in 2006
What political parties do these women represent?
Political Party / Women Elected / Total MPs / % of Women MPsNDP / 12 / 29 / 41%
Bloc Québécois / 17 / 51 / 33%
Liberal / 21 / 101 / 21%
Conservative / 14 / 125 / 11%
Source: Parliament of Canada web site
How many women were elected to parliament between 1984 & 2006?
The numbers of women in the House of Commons has not dramatically increased since the 1993 election where when we saw an increase from women’s representation significantly increased from 13.3% to 18%. Since the 2000 election, the number of women elected to the House of Commons has hovered around 20% and even decreased following the 2006 election.
Year / Total Number of Seats / Seats Held by Women / Proportion of Seats Held by Women1984 / 282 / 27 / 9.6%
1988 / 295 / 39 / 13.3%
1993 / 295 / 53 / 18%
2000 / 301 / 62 / 20.6%
2004 / 308 / 65 / 21.1%
2006 / 308 / 64 / 20.8%
Source: Parliament of Canada web site.
How many women were nominated to run as candidates in the 2006 election?
Do Canadians vote for women candidates?
How do women get on the ballot?
§ During the 2006 federal election campaign, Equal Voice tracked the number of female candidates nominated by each political party. The percentage of women elected as Members of Parliament by each political party closely reflects the percentage of women candidates who ran for each political party.
§ For instance, the NDP ran 41% female candidates and 35% women were elected. The Liberals ran 25.6% of female candidates resulting in 21% female MPs. The Conservatives ran 12.3% female candidates ended up with 11% of female MPs.
§ The more women candidates that political parties ran run for office – the more women got elected.
§ These numbers also suggest that when given the choice, Canadians are more than willing to vote for women candidates. When women are on the ballot, Canadians do not appear to discriminate between female and male candidates. will vote for them.
§ Each political party has a nominations process to determine who represents the party on the ballot. Given that political parties are the gatekeepers to legislative office, they have the potential to address the under repunder-representationresentation of women. women by encouraging more women to seek public office.
Do Canadians want more women to hold elected office?
§ In a poll conducted by the Centre for Research and Information on Canada (CRIC), 90% of Canadians indicated that they want to see more women get elected.
§ When presented with the opportunity, Canadians are more than willing to vote for women candidates. One of the many challenges women encounter in seeking public office is at the political party level. It is often far more difficult for women to secure the nomination to represent a political party than it is to run a win a campaign in a general election. Women are less likely to win nomination meetings because of “financial constraints, limited networks, of contacts within the parties, and a large number of opponents for the nomination than faced by their male counterparts.”[i]
Are there barriers for women seeking public office?
§ Canada has had two Royal Commissions documenting the barriers women face in seeking public office: 1970 Royal Commission on the Status of Women and the 1992 Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing. Interestingly enough, many of the barriers identified in 1970 report were still apparent in 1992.
§ In 1970 Royal Commission Chair, on page 349 of her report, 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.”
Academic research has identified the main causes of the under repunder-representation oresentation of women 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.”[ii]
Statistics Canada has also documented that women continue to hold a disproportionate share of household and family responsibilities which can serve to limit their ability to participate in public affairs and reinforces the social roles assigned to each sex.
§ The power of incumbency can also be a barrier to women seeking public office. Given that incumbent Members of Parliament have a better chance at seeking re-election and that few ridings will elect a new MP in any given election, the power of incumbency can serve to reinforce parliament’s current composition. In the past four elections, the numbers of women in parliament has not increased and following the 2006 election, the numbers of women in the House of Commons even declined.
§ According to Statistics Canada, Women make .72 cents for every dollar that a man that men makes. Given that women are not paid as much as men, they start out in a less favourable financial position than their male colleagues. This can meansuggests that that they women have less financial independence and a smaller amount of disposable income to make political donations or finance an election campaign.
§ The Statistics Canada indicates that the majority of university graduates are women. There There is nois no shortage of talented and educated and educated women qualified to run for office. Given that there are over 16 million women in Canada, how is it possible for political parties to claim that they cannot identify a mere 154 women to run for office to ensure equal representation?
Are there barriers for women seeking public office?
The lack of women elected or appointed to top political jobs also serves as a visible indication of how women are undervalued in society.
Women have also been socialized to see politics as an unsuitable career option and are often encouraged to concern themselves with matters outside the political realm.
Academic studies have indicated that women participate in politics to a lesser degree than men.[iii] Research has also indicated that Canadian men were more likely than Canadian women to discuss politics, help a political party, and to watch a leader’s debate during an election.[iv] .
Why is it important to have women hold elected office?
§ 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.
§ Women are 52% of the population and yet only 20.8% of our MPs are women. This creates a democratic deficit violating basic principles of fairness required for a representative democracy.
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.
§ Canada is falling behind on the international scene and risks jeopardizing our international reputation. Once a leader, Canada is now ranks 47th in the world in terms of women’s representation in national parliaments. Despite our economic prosperity and political stability, Canada now has few women in parliament than Mauritania, Uganda, Rwanda, Afghanistan and Iraq.
§
The World Bank released a study indicating that women are effective in promoting honest government and that national parliaments with the largest numbers of women have the lowest levels of corruption.[v]
§
The Senate:
How many women are members of the Senate?
35% of Canada’s Senators are women (33/94)
What political parties do women represent in the Senate?
Political Party / WomenSenators / Total Senators / % of Women
Senators
Conservative: / 8 / 23 / 34.7%
Liberal / 21 / 63 / 33%
NDP / 0 / 1 / 0
Progressive Conservative / 1 / 3 / 33%
Independents / 0 / 4 / 0
Source: Parliament of Canada Web Site
The Cabinet
How many women are in the federal cabinet?
§ In 2007, 21.8% of the federal cabinet consists of women (7 women out of 32 Ministers).
What is the history of women’s representation in the federal cabinet?
Source: Parliament of Canada web site
Harper (2007)Prime Minister: / Number of Women in Cabinet7Harper (2007) / 7
Harper (2006) / 6
Martin / 12
Chrétien / 16
Campbell / 5
Mulroney / 11
Turner / 2
Trudeau / 3
Clark / 1
Trudeau / 3
Pearson / 1
Diefenbaker / 1
Source: Parliament of Canada web site
References:
7
[i] Manon Tremblay and Linda Trimble. Women in Electoral Politics in Canada, Oxford: New York, 2003, 11.
[ii] Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant, Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique (2004), 37: 1029-1030 Cambridge University Press.
[iii] Manon Tremblay and Linda /Trimble, . Women in Electoral Politics in Canada, Oxford: New York, 2003, 5.
[iv] Tremblay/Trimble, 7.
[v] The report is available on our web site under international reports at: http://www.equalvoice.ca/idx.php?rl=265