Canada

North American experiments are showing that women have an electoral advantage. In one study in which only the names of a candidate were changed, participants rated the candidate they thought was female as stronger, more honest, and more compassionate than the male candidate. After Premier Christy Clark suddenly won the B.C. election on May 14th, I don’t remember any of the shocked pundits talking about the female factor. What happened to the polls that had apparently shown B.C. women were less inclined than men to vote for Clark?

Christy Clark shocked everyone last month with her victory in the in the British Columbia election.

Political buffs like me look for trends in elections and lately they've been depressing, like the shrinking voter turnout in national and provincial polls. So here's some good news in the political trend department: Just over a third of the people elected to the B.C. legislature in last Tuesday's vote were women. Of the 85 seats, 29 were won by women — 15 Liberals, 13 New Democrats and one Independent. That's just over one third, thought to be a record percentage in Canada.

There is a PROBLEM

The heroic stories of women in Canada’s history -- women who’ve personally sacrificed so much to secure the rights of women and children -- are curiously absent from the textbooks. Where are those role models for young girls (and boys!)?

here have been five elections in the Vancouver-area riding of Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows since the district was created in 1991 and more than two dozen candidates — but only one of them, a long-shot Marijuana party candidate in 2005, was a woman. Elizabeth Rosenau, who’s running for the NDP in the May 14 election, is the second female candidate.

Canada is seeing a growing number of women taking on the highest positions of power in the country. Five of Canada’s 10 provinces and one of its three territories are now led by female premiers.

(Read article at: Cape Breton Post)

Yet just like the early weeks of a new hockey season, there’s still a long way to go to achieve true gender parity in Canadian politics. From the way Parliament is scheduled and debate is structured, to the way political parties and the media operate, there remains a strong masculine narrative streaming through our political culture.

(Read complete article at: The Globe and Mail)