{"id":267233,"date":"2019-05-14T10:31:39","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T14:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/issues\/getting-women-canadas-parliament\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T22:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T02:32:16","slug":"getting-women-canadas-parliament","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2019\/05\/getting-women-canadas-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting women into Canada\u2019s Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeanette Ashe:<\/strong><\/span> You\u2019re one of few women ever elected to Canada\u2019s House of Commons, and you were also the first openly lesbian MP \u2014 where today LGBTQ MPs make up approximately 2 percent of the House. When you were first elected in 1997, there were only 62 women MPs, and when you left in 2015, there were 77 women MPs. This isn\u2019t a terrific increase. Today, even with a prime minister who calls himself feminist at the helm, women make up only 27 percent of all MPs. While this is a record high, in real numbers it is only 90 women \u2014 less than one third of all MPs. And compared with other similarly situated countries, Canada\u2019s international ranking of 62nd out of 193<\/a> is embarrassingly low, with most established democracies and many nondemocracies ahead of us.<\/p>\n

We know women\u2019s experience during the \u201cpathway to Parliament\u201d is different than men\u2019s: they\u2019re less likely to get recruited, to put their names forward, to get supported, to win the nomination, to sit in the House, and once there, they\u2019re less likely to stay and get promoted to the front benches. But you shattered these odds.<\/p>\n

Libby Davies:<\/strong><\/span> It never entered my mind that I shouldn\u2019t run because I was a woman, but along the way I\u2019ve reflected on the barriers. I don\u2019t recall the party encouraging me the time I first ran \u2014 if anything, it was \u201chands off.\u201d I\u2019d been a parks commissioner and city councillor prior to running \u2014 and I had also run for mayor \u2014 so I had the experience behind me. I was encouraged by people in the community to run, and I wanted to run because I was so frustrated that the government had cut social housing as part of its austerity program in 1995. Before I put my name forward, though, I thought about who else was running, in particular a well-known male activist in the community. I was concerned about having two well-known activists run against each other, and I tried to speak to him about it. He didn\u2019t divulge what he was planning. I realize now that my approach to running was gendered. In the end, I went ahead and ran. I discuss this in more length in my book.<\/p>\n

Winning the nomination<\/strong><\/p>\n

JA: Many frame the \u201cwhy are so few women in politics\u201d question as a party issue: to get elected, you first need to get selected as a party\u2019s candidate in a coveted \u201csafe seat.\u201d Party members are often inclined to choose candidates who look like politicians who\u2019ve come before. Among other things, \u201cstandard-model candidates\u201d tend to be white straight men. Many believe voters prefer such candidates, although research fails to support this claim. Still, in some parties, members are much more likely \u2014 with my own work suggesting up to five times as likely \u2014 to choose men over women.<\/p>\n

LD: In that first nomination I ran against four men and it was a tough race \u2014 I won by a handful of votes. Over the years I\u2019ve talked to many women who\u2019ve sought nominations, some successful, some not. They all said the same thing: it wasn\u2019t what they expected. It was combative, stressful and hard to raise money, and they often felt like they were up against an invisible set of controls that didn\u2019t include them. I made it through because I had people on my side who knew how it worked \u2014 inside the party, and that was critical. These were people who knew how to sign up members and work a campaign. The nomination speech was crucial, and I worked hard with my team to hit the key issues, and to practise, practise, practise. I had a base from my previous electoral and activist experience and a reputation as a progressive fighter, having been a city councillor for five terms. Without that experience and support I think I would have been lost and would have lost the nomination too!<\/p>\n

Getting elected<\/strong><\/p>\n

JA: The masculine culture in society transfers to parties and legislatures. The historical exclusion of women from public life permits masculine practices and gendered outcomes: for example, once elected, women are less likely to be promoted at the same rates as men. It\u2019s also well documented that there\u2019s a problem with retention when it comes to women MPs \u2014 once elected, they don\u2019t stick around for as long as men. Not only were you promoted to front bench positions, including House leader and deputy leader, but you were elected six times.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Libby Davies (left) with former NDP Leader Alexa McDonough (middle) at a rally on Parliament Hill, October 29, 2002. Photo by Kim Elliott.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LD: It\u2019s much harder for women to stick around, especially if they have a young family. I was lucky that my son was already a young adult, but I talked with many women MPs who struggled with the conflicting messages from their party: on the one hand being told they supported women in office, but then facing the challenging hours of work, and the expectation that the party\u2019s needs were top of the list of demands on your life. It seems like a never-ending struggle. Over 18 years I had the opportunity to work with several leaders \u2014 Alexa McDonough, Jack Layton, Nycole Turmel and Thomas Mulcair \u2014 as well as several PMs, including Jean Chr\u00e9tien, Paul Martin, Stephen Harper. Women \u2014 especially the female leaders \u2014 faced a tough time in these years. What finally started to make a difference was the number of women and young people elected in the Orange Wave of 2011 \u2014 this is when issues like harassment, sexual harassment and family accommodation began to be seriously discussed.<\/p>\n

Parliament Hill is like a sports game \u2014 it has winners and losers, and as a player you\u2019re expected to take one for the team no matter the cost to your integrity. There\u2019s an expectation that MPs will always play the game even when the rules aren\u2019t written down but are shared through an inherited culture of rewards and punishments, and are reinforced by the media who are quick to report on the play-by-play. These unwritten rules were applied differently to women, and the punishments were harsher for women. For example, I remember when Belinda Stronach crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals, giving them a critical budget-passing vote, in 2005. The gendered, derogatory language was unbelievable and appalling \u2014 both what was permitted in Parliament and especially how it appeared in the media. In contrast, when a male MP crossed the floor to another party, it was generally seen as a matter of principle!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Former NDP MP Olivia Chow (left), the late NDP Leader Jack Layton (middle), and Libby Davies (right), at the 2004 Pride parade in Vancouver. Photo by Kim Elliott.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was astounded to learn there had only ever been one other woman House leader in the history of Parliament, and then only for a few weeks. I managed to last eight and a half years. It was here again that polite persistence and not playing games of one-upmanship helped me navigate the turmoil and unpredictability of minority Parliaments as NDP House leader.<\/p>\n

Reflections<\/strong><\/p>\n

JA: Women are still underrepresented, not just in the House but as committee members, chairs and Speakers. The calendar, night sittings and inadequate child care make it difficult for many MPs to fully participate in the work of Parliament, especially those who are in the later stages of pregnancy, breastfeeding or caring for dependants. And #MeToo has arrived on the Hill. It\u2019s no secret that women MPs and staff are subject to sexual harassment and are much more likely to experience gender-based heckling. Even beyond the Hill, women MPs are subject to much more sexual harassment on social media. But policies, where there are any, fail to address the deep masculinized power structures of Parliament. We\u2019ve just seen two women senior cabinet ministers kicked out of the Liberal caucus \u2014 one of whom was the first Indigenous woman minister of justice and attorney general. The intersectional implications of this were not lost on the dozens of young diverse women participating in Daughters of the Vote, who turned their backs on the PM.<\/p>\n

Your story as told in Outside In<\/em> gets at the guts of Parliament\u2019s masculine culture and offers insight into making it a more gender- and diversity-sensitive place, so that everyone working there \u2014 from MPs to staff \u2014 can fully participate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

LD: Changing the sexist and patriarchal history of a place like Canada\u2019s Parliament is no easy task! The biggest challenge is getting more women and underrepresented groups elected. Talk isn\u2019t good enough anymore \u2014 it\u2019s the actions that count. This change is happening \u2014 the growing presence and power of younger voices, as in #MeToo or the Indigenous rights movement, is inspirational.<\/p>\n

Parties must not only seek out candidates from underrepresented groups \u2014 they must demonstrate they\u2019ll change the political culture so that when we\u2019re elected, we can be successful and not made invisible. We must demonstrate that those powerful unwritten rules that are so crushing if you don\u2019t play the game can be thrown out in favour of transparency and building good will, not hyperpartisanship.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The late NDP Leader Jack Layton (centre), then MP Thomas Mulcair (right), along with then NDP House Leader Libby Davies (left) make their way to a news conference in Ottawa on September 27, 2007. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Fred Chartrand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The media can be sexist and homophobic in its reporting \u2014 from how we dress (when a man can just wear the same suit every day!) to how women are characterized as \u201caggressive\u201d or demeaned as \u201chysterical\u201d when they try to be heard. I\u2019ve had my own experiences of homophobia in media and federal politics, which I describe in my book, from how the media relayed my experience of coming out, to how opponents from other parties have tried to use homophobia to their political advantage.<\/p>\n

Progressive women leaders approach politics differently. Look at PM Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand and what a difference she has made. Look at younger women who are African American and Latina who are taking elected office in the toxic environment in US politics. We have a duty to speak out. Rights are never handed out. We fight for them and then must make sure they are not eroded and undermined.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lifetime of work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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