Despite progress, barriers remain

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/02/2022 (1330 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Heather Stefanson was sworn in back in November, she broke through a very particular glass ceiling, becoming Manitoba’s first woman premier. But, despite this, the standing of women in the Manitoba legislature is not close to equality: of the 57 candidates elected in the 2019 provincial election, only 16 (28 per cent) are women.

The proportion of women elected to the House of Commons in the most recent federal election is similar: about 31 per cent. While the percentage of women elected in Canada and the provinces has increased over time, there is still a substantial gap between women’s proportion in the population and their presence in our representative chambers.

What can explain that gap? Some might think women are discriminated against by voters when they run.

In fact, there is little evidence that’s the case. When women run, they tend on average to do just as well, if not better, than men. The problem is women tend not to find themselves in fair fights: instead, they are more likely to contest ridings where their party is less competitive, and so are often running as “sacrificial lambs.”

This suggests that if more women put their names forward in winnable seats and parties nominate them, the number of women elected should see a boost. One way for parties to achieve this is to introduce some form of quota system that fast-tracks women into the nomination in strong party seats.

Quota systems such as these fit somewhat uneasily with Canada’s geography-based electoral system and have provoked tension in the parties that have employed them. But there are also a range of informal mechanisms that parties and their officials can use to encourage and convince more women to agree to put their names forward.

A recent poll conducted by Probe Research asked Manitobans several questions about running for public office. By breaking these results down by gender, we can see differences in women’s experiences and perceptions when it comes to the decision to run.

First, Probe asked Manitobans whether they had run or considered running for public office in the past. While the overall number of people indicating they had was low (four per cent had run and only 12 per cent had considered it), male respondents were twice as likely as women to indicate they had either run or thought about it.

The survey suggests one reason there are fewer women elected in Manitoba is because women are less likely to consider taking the plunge.

What can explain this disparity? One potential answer is that men are more likely than women to be encouraged to put their names forward. We know from other research that receiving encouragement from a range of sources — particularly family and friends — can be an important factor in persuading women to throw their hats in the ring. But if no one is reaching out to offer encouragement, they may take a pass.

Women are also more likely to run if they receive encouragement and support from their parties. Without such support from party officials or activists, women may underestimate their chances of winning. We know that when women occupy important positions in the local constituency associations of Canadian parties, for example, women are more likely to be nominated as candidates in those seats.

Maybe women in Manitoba aren’t receiving that kind of encouragement from their parties?

Probe tackled this issue by asking respondents if they had been encouraged to run in the past. Roughly one-quarter indicated they had, but men were more likely to receive encouragement than women (29 per cent versus 18 per cent).

Those women who had been encouraged reported they were most likely to receive this from friends (30 per cent), colleagues (26 per cent) or family (24 per cent). But there is one alarming difference between women and men in this respect: whereas 15 per cent of men had received encouragement from a party official or member to run, only half that percentage of women (eight per cent) had.

The numbers in the survey are getting smaller at this point, but this finding seems to reinforce the argument that support from the local party is essential to the decision to run in the first place, and that men seem to receive more of this encouragement than women.

When asked by Probe what barriers would prevent them from running, women were more likely than men to indicate they thought they lacked knowledge of politics and did not know enough about the issues to run. This is consistent with other findings that women tend to underestimate their political knowledge and competence, and this is an important reason why women are less likely than men to run for public office.

Probe’s survey offers insight into and some important clues on how to address the lack of representation of women in our politics. Much of the practical responsibility for addressing this, however, falls to our parties.

Royce Koop is a professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba and academic director of the Centre for Social Science Research and Policy.