A Woman’s Place is in the House (of Commons)

Abstract

In 2015, Canadians elected the most gender-balanced House of Commons in national history, with just under 27% of the MPs elected in the 42nd Federal Election being women. In spite of this record number of woman parliamentarians, Canada has slipped in international rankings for gender parity in legislative bodies and remains below the United Nation’s target of 30% of legislatures being female. Given that women make up 51% of the Canadian population, and given that women win elections at similar rates to men, the question remains as to what is keeping Canadian women out of public office. By focusing on the nomination process as the chokepoint at which women’s political ambitions are most frequently stalled, this paper seeks to evaluate what is being done to help increase the number of women running for office, and the effectiveness of such initiatives at achieving this goal. Through a lens of the supply and demand sides of running for office, this paper uses existing academic literature and firsthand accounts of the experiences of women in politics to examine the benefits to having women in public office and the barriers women encounter in the political arena, to assess the current state of women in politics in Canada, and consider the initiatives currently at work in Canadian politics. This paper then explores responses to the author’s survey from women who ran in nominations in the 2015 federal election cycle exploring their backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives as women engaged in the political process. By considering these responses alongside the academic and popular theories of female engagement in politics, this paper identifies the most effect areas for initiatives to support women running for public office, potential disconnects between theory and the realities of the 2015 election, and recommends the use of external pressures to encourage political parties to take tangible action to support potential candidates at all stages of the electoral process.