Women In Canadian Democracy

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The fact that Canadian women are underrepresented in both federal and provincial parliaments demonstrates not only that Canada is behind globally, but also that Canadian democracy is being compromised because of their inequality. Women are underrepresented provincially and federally in Canadian politics. In 1921, out of 235 seats, only one women was included, Agnes McPhail. McPhail became the first women elected to the House of Commons. While the decades following her election saw a steady growth in women’s representation in Parliament, progress remained near the 20% level between 1997 and 2006. The 2011 election increased the percentage of seats held by women to 24.7%. After the current, 2015 election, the number of seats occupied by women …show more content…
Although Canadians elected 88 female MP’S, increasing the female representation to 26%, Canada is still short of the 30 per cent mark that the United Nations suggests leads to a shift in policy and practice in government. It also does not do much to improve Canada’s 50th-place ranking out of 190 countries on “proportion of national-level female politicians”, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organization of parliaments – mainly since other countries have made much larger strides on the issue of female representation. In the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, women occupy 30 seats out of 87, representing 34.8 per cent, while in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec, women occupy35 seats out of 125, representing only 28.2 per cent. Even after the 2015 election, not much has been done to increase the number of women represented provincially and federally, considering women representation only increased one …show more content…
In September 2008, Rwanda became the first country to have more female members of Parliament, roughly 56 per cent, than male. By May 2010, twenty-four countries had succeeded in meeting the 30 per cent critical mass target. One quarter of these are Nordic countries, which have made longstanding efforts to increase participation of women. Another quarter are African countries. In the October, 2014 election in Bolivia, women held 69 seats out of 130, representing 53 per cent. In Mexico’s June election, 2015, women gained 211 seats out of 498, representing 42 per cent. In Sweden, 45.3 per cent of the elected candidates were women in the 2002 election. Out of the 349 seats, women occupied 158 of them. In the cabinet, almost 50 per cent of ministers are female (10 out of 22). All parties acknowledge the importance of involving women in politics and have well defined goals for women’s participation in politics. Compared to other parliaments, it is clear that women are underrepresented in
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