Political scientist Louise Carbert wanted to know why women are largely missing from Canadian politics. While others theorized, she went to talk directly to the kind of women you would expect to run—women in the rural regions of Atlantic Canada where the female politician is a rare species.
The dearth of elected women is a conundrum with which the women’s movement struggles. Why is it that our city councils, provincial legislatures and even our House of Commons are dominated by a pinstriped sea of men—an almost 80 percent male political majority? Or, in the four Atlantic provinces, an 85 percent male majority?
Some of us view it as simply a power struggle: we see an overload of male incumbents who perpetuate the old boys’ club in power and hold the doors against too many women getting in. Others, including many party recruiters, suggest women themselves are opting out of a game they perceive as too rough. “We seem to eat our own women alive in this...
Rosemary Speirs is a former political commentator who wrote about national and provincial politics for The Toronto Star. She is also the founding chair of Equal Voice, an influential volunteer organization promoting the election of more women.
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