Women and Political Representation in Canada


Book Description

This collection of essays explores the often antagonistic relationship between women and political life in Canada. While women make up little over half of the total population in Canada, they are in many ways conspicuous by their absence from the Canadian political scene. Published in English.




Women, Power, and Political Representation


Book Description

Delving into the pressing topic of gender and politics, this volume provides fresh comparative perspectives on "what works" to promote women in politics today. Inspiring and informative, Women, Power, and Political Representation offers a comprehensive overview of the role women play in contemporary politics, and pinpoints the reasons behind their underrepresentation. Discussing the challenges and opportunities women face when running for office, as well as their experiences as political leaders, this book offers a broad and thoughtful overview of the pitfalls encountered by women, from gender biases to sexual harassment, in the notoriously male dominated political arena. Featuring a range of voices that articulate a path towards women’s political advancement and equality, Women, Power, and Political Representation is an important and timely resource for scholars, students, and women working professionally in Canadian and international politics.




Gendered News


Book Description

In the last fifty years, many of the institutional and societal barriers keeping Canadian women from public office have disappeared. Yet today, women hold only a quarter of the seats in the House of Commons � a proportion that rose by just seven percentage points between 1993 and 2011. In this illuminating study, Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant examines a significant obstacle still facing women in political life: gendered media coverage. Based on interviews with MPs and party leaders, and on an analysis of print and television media in the 2000 and 2006 federal elections, Gendered News reveals an unsettling climate that affects the success of women in office, and that could deter them from running at all.




Stalled


Book Description

Following significant increases in women’s electoral representation in the 1980s and '90s, progress has stalled. Despite some high-profile successes at the provincial level, there are now only a few more women in Canada’s parliament and legislatures than a decade ago. What has happened to the representational gains for women and why does gender parity remain so elusive? To answer these questions, Stalled provides a provides a detailed roadmap of women’s political representation as candidates, office-holders, cabinet ministers, party leaders, and as representatives of the Crown at all levels of government across Canada. Prospects for gender parity in political office are assessed in each jurisdiction and institution. Explanations are re-examined and analyzed using data from across the country. The representation of women in elected and appointed offices is an important indicator of both gender equality and the overall health of democratic governance. By this measure Canada continues to fall short.




Queering Representation


Book Description

Political representation matters. And representation requires participation: voting, joining political parties, running as candidates, acting as politicians. Yet the election of openly LGBTQ people is a relatively recent phenomenon in the West. Queering Representation explores long-ignored issues relating to LGBTQ voters and politicians in Canada. What are the LGBTQ electorate’s characteristics and voting behaviours, and what empowerment has it achieved through electoral systems? How do straight voters view out LGBTQ politicians, and what part do the media play in framing these perceptions? What pathways to power do LGBTQ politicians follow? Do they represent LGBTQ people and communities in particular, and, if so, how is this role articulated? And finally, how do Canadian party ideologies shape LGBTQ representation? The contributors to Queering Representation address these questions by offering diverse, nuanced readings of political representation, shining a spotlight on relations between electoral processes and LGBTQ communities.




Still Counting


Book Description

"Still Counting is a state-of-the-art examination of women's involvement in Canadian politics.... This book belongs on the shelf of anyone with an interest in contemporary Canadian politics." - Lisa Young, University of Calgary




Parties, Elections, and the Future of Canadian Politics


Book Description

On May 2, 2011, as Canadians watched the federal election results roll in and Stephen Harper’s Conservatives achieve a majority, it appeared that we were witnessing a major shift in the political landscape. In reality, Canadian politics had been changing for quite some time. This volume provides the first account of the political upheavals of the past two decades and speculates on the future of the country’s national party system. By documenting how parties and voters responded to new challenges between 1993 and 2011, this book sheds light on one of the most tumultuous periods in Canadian political history.




Pathways into the Political Arena


Book Description

As epitomized in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, women in politics may hit a “glass ceiling” or in the case of former U.K. Prime Minister, Theresa May in 2019, go over a “glass cliff”. Even though women are starting to experience more success gaining offices at state and local levels, women’s participation in the political arena is still disproportionately low. This book explores current research findings, development practices, theory, and the lived experience to deliver provocative thinking that enhances leadership knowledge and improves leadership development of women around the world.




The Palgrave Handbook of Gender, Sexuality, and Canadian Politics


Book Description

The Palgrave Handbook of Gender, Sexuality, and Canadian Politics offers the first and only handbook in the field of Canadian politics that uses 'gender' (which it interprets broadly, as inclusive of sex, sexualities, and other intersecting identities) as its category of analysis. Its premise is that political actors’ identities frame how Canadian politics is thought, told, and done; in turn, Canadian politics, as a set of ideas, state institutions and decision-making processes, and civil society mobilizations, does and redoes gender. Following the standard structure of mainstream introductory Canadian politics textbooks, this handbook is divided into four sections (ideologies, institutions, civil society, and public policy) each of which contains several chapters on topics commonly taught in Canadian politics classes. The originality of the handbook lies in its approach: each chapter reviews the basics of a given topic from the perspective of gendered/sexualized and other intersectional identities. Such an approach makes the handbook the only one of its kind in Canadian Politics.




Electing a Diverse Canada


Book Description

Electing a Diverse Canada presents the most extensive analysis to date of the electoral representation of immigrants, minorities, and women in Canada. Covering eleven cities, as well as Canada's Parliament, it breaks new ground by assessing the representation of diverse identity groups across multiple levels of government. Electoral representation is an important indicator of a democracy's health, and this book provides both a baseline for future research and an outline of the key challenges facing Canadian democracy.