Women’s Role in Canadian Politics – Both as Voters and Candidates

This essay discusses the role of women in Canadian politics as election candidates and voters. It provides a brief overview of the Post-Confederation and the contribution of women in shaping the history of the Confederation post 1867. The essay also talks about women’s suffrage and their role as election candidates.

Running head: WOMEN’S ROLE IN CANADIAN POLITICS – BOTH AS VOTERS AND CANDIDATES
WOMEN’S ROLE IN CANADIAN POLITICS – BOTH AS VOTERS AND CANDIDATES
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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WOMEN’S ROLE IN CANADIAN POLITICS – BOTH AS VOTERS AND CANDIDATES
Introduction
The aim of the essay is to provide an important event in the Post Confederation, that is,
Canada after 1867. However, it needs mentioning that women’s role in the forming of the
Canadian nation and the subsequent only began after the First World War and strengthened after
Second World War. Although the women’s voice began to be heard, their role in mainstream
politics was hardly recognized with just one woman being elected as a representative out of the
235 seats during the 1921 elections. The main thesis of this essay is to argue that the role of
women in Canadian politics as election candidates has not been realized fully even today despite
the fact that women had a huge role to play in Canadian history post 1867.
The essay will first provide a brief overview of the Post-Confederation followed by the
discussion on women in the Post-Confederation. Then, it will discuss the place, role and
contribution of women in the Post-Confederation. The essay will then talk about women’s
suffrage and their role as election candidates.
Discussion
Despite Canada being a self-governing colony since the 1840s, it had yet to realize
complete autonomy and sovereignty until 18671. Prior to 1867, Canada was known as
Confederation Canada and one in three people in Canada was French while more than 100,000
Canadians belonged to the Aboriginal community. They were known as First Nations, Metis and
Inuit. The Post Confederation Canada thus covers the history of the formation of a new nation
since the European colonization until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 to the present
day. The period from 1914 to 1945 is marked by chaos, called as the “decades of discord” by
1 Belshaw, John Douglas. Canadian History: Post-Confederation. Campus Manitoba, 2016.

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WOMEN’S ROLE IN CANADIAN POLITICS – BOTH AS VOTERS AND CANDIDATES
John Belshaw, a renowned Canadian historian. Apart from the conflict in other parts of the
world, tensions were also rising within the country. The Canadian culture saw a dramatic change,
similar to the Western societies due to the war. The two wars and the Great Depression in terms
of economy that shook the entire West engulfed Canada as well. People’s expectations of
making Canada a socialist nation changed to atomistic and individualistic expectation.
Nonetheless, amidst all this, women’s rights especially in terms of legal rights were starting to be
realized strongly.
The two chief Canadian parties, the Tories- led by George-Etienne Cartier and John A.
MacDonald and the Clear Grits – led by George Brown, were in constant struggle for attaining
political power. However, the two parties realized the need for a politically united Canada and
decided to come together for the “Great Coalition”. The alliance of Cartier, MacDonald and
Brown agreed on achieving tow primary goals – to resolve the deadlock that the Act on Union
had created and to obtain new territory for agricultural agreement. The goals were hard to
achieve considering the rising tensions between Canada East and Canada West. While Canada
East was English dominated, Canada West was French dominated. Within these conflicts and
tensions, the women were being marginalized and it did not take much time for the women to
raise their voice and claim their presence.
Helga K Hallgrimsdottir, Cecilia Benoit, and Rachel Phillips note that although women in
the Confederation had little role to play except when the men folk were out fighting in the First
World War, the feminist movement was emerging2. Nancy Janovicek observes that it was most
probably an Aboriginal woman during the late 1860s who had first raised her voice for her
2 Hallgrimsdottir, Helga K., Cecilia Benoit, and Rachel Phillips. "The mother‐citizen and the working girl: first‐
wave feminist citizenship claims in Canada and discursive opportunities for twenty‐first century childcare policy."
Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie 50, no. 1 (2013): 27-51.

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WOMEN’S ROLE IN CANADIAN POLITICS – BOTH AS VOTERS AND CANDIDATES
rights. She was Catherine Sutton (originally Nahebahwequa), an Anishinaabe who protested
against her dispossession of land after she married a non-Aboriginal man3. Towards the middle
of the 19th century, women from the mixed races began to take initiatives for securing various
rights of the women including property rights, educational rights and church rights. However, the
rights for suffrage and participation in politics were yet to be realized. It was at the end of the
19th century and start of the 20th century when women began to raise their voice for equal rights
in terms of voting as well. The women would become nurses and serve wearing uniform. Apart
from that, the women served during the War by taking on the role of the men in the Farm Service
Corps while they were away fighting at the front during 19184. The year was also significant for
women because it was the same year when the female franchise in Canada was expanded to
include majority of women.
During the 1867 to 1884 period, three fundamental conditions were outlined as necessary
to become an elector, which included being male, being or above 21 years of age and being a
British subject5. Thus, it is evident that women suffrage was not even in the topic during that
period. Hence, the turn of the century brought with it, the emergence of two predominant
women’s organization in the country – one was the National Council of Women in Canada
(NCWC) created in 1893 and the Fédération National Saint-Jean-Baptiste (FNSB) formed in
1907. This was called the ‘first wave feminist movement’ in Canada that started the struggle for
female suffrage. Nonetheless, Andre DiMambro, Danielle Lapointe, and Brittany Snowden find
that women suffrage first became a topic when the mother-daughter duo of Dr. Emily Howard
3 Janovicek, Nancy. "Documenting First Wave Feminisms, Volume I: Transnational Collaborations and
Crosscurrents ed. by Maureen Moynagh and Nancy Forestell, and: Documenting First Wave Feminisms, Volume II:
Canada–National and Transnational Contexts ed. by Nancy Forestell and Maureen Moynagh." Labour/Le Travail
76, no. 1 (2015): 223-226.
4 Ibid 1
5 Tolley, Erin. Framed: Media and the coverage of race in Canadian politics. UBC Press, 2015. pp. 97

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WOMEN’S ROLE IN CANADIAN POLITICS – BOTH AS VOTERS AND CANDIDATES
Stowe and Dr. Augusta Stowe-Gullen established the Toronto Women’s Literary Club6. The club
was dedicated to suffrage activities7.
After decades of struggling and fighting for their rights, partial franchise was given to
women in 1917 as per the Wartime Elections Act. Partial franchise meant that only women who
had their relatives in the army could vote. Although the universal adult franchise was introduced
a year later, women belonging to immigrant families and Aboriginal were not included.
Women were allowed the right to vote and run for provincial elections office in Nova
Scotia. New Brunswick followed suit and introduces law that allowed women to run for office.
Finally, in 1925, women attain all the basic freedom and right they had been fighting for years
including the right to obtain divorce on ground same as men8. However, once they received the
right to vote, they encountered growing resistance from the men as they made their first attempts
to enter into politics. It was Agnes Macphail in 1921 who became the first ever, Canadian
woman to become a representative of the United Farmers of Ontario after winning a seat in the
House of Commons. As mentioned in the earlier sections, only one seat out of the 23 seats went
to a woman. Then, in 1935, Martha Black followed Macphail’s legacy and became the second
woman to become a political representative. She replaced her ailing husband as Conservative MP
for Yukon. It took another five decades for an Aboriginal woman to become a Member of
Parliament in Canada. Ethel Blondin Andrews became the first indigenous woman to enter
politics after she was elected as the representative for Western Arctic, Northwest Territories in
the year 1988.
6 DiMambro, Andre, Danielle Lapointe, and Brittany Snowden. "The New Nation and Its Peoples: Differences in
Legal Status for Canada’s Different Groups." (2014).
7 Epp, Marlene, and Franca Iacovetta, eds. Sisters or strangers?: immigrant, ethnic, and racialized women in
Canadian history. Vol. 44. University of Toronto Press, 2016.
8 Kanthak, Kristin, and Jonathan Woon. "Women don't run? Election aversion and candidate entry." American
Journal of Political Science 59, no. 3 (2015): 595-612.

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WOMEN’S ROLE IN CANADIAN POLITICS – BOTH AS VOTERS AND CANDIDATES
Today, after decades of struggle and fight for their rights, Canadian women are still
battling to find a deserved place in the country’s mainstream politics, states Éléonore Lépinard.
According to the author, despite the fact that the Canadian women constitute almost half the
country’s population, their representation in politics is not even 25%9. This is a dismal figure
when one considers the sacrifices and contributions the Canadian women have made to create the
Post Confederation Canada. A report in a leading Canadian daily finds that in the 2015 federal
elections, 88 women were elected, which is a record in terms of the number of women elected in
an election10. Although the number increased from the past years, it was only a modest one with
women representing only 26% of the total seats in the House. In contrast to this view, some
suggest that women’s representation in Canadian politics has improved drastically. In the views
of Jessica Fortin-Rittberger, and Berthold Rittberger, Canada is far ahead from its other western
counterparts in terms of women representation in national politics11. However, a look at the latest
ranking of countries with highest percentage of women in its parliament reveals that Canada has
dropped nine positions to be at 59 in terms of having women at the highest political offices 12.
Tiffany D Barnes and Stephanie M. Burchard put forth another argument that women’s
representation in parliament does not make much of a difference concerning policy changes.
According to the authors, there is little evidence “that increased women’s representation changes
policy outputs”13. These studies reveal the sad yet true fact that the Canadian society is yet to
accept women as its representative.
9 Laperrière, M. and Lépinard, E., 2016. Intersectionality as a tool for social movements: Strategies of inclusion and
representation in the Québécois women’s movement. Politics, 36(4), pp.374-382.
10 Cbc.ca. 2019. "50% Population, 25% Representation: Why The Parliamentary Gender Gap Persists". Cbc.Ca.
https://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/women-politics/.
11 Fortin-Rittberger, Jessica, and Berthold Rittberger. "Do electoral rules matter? Explaining national differences in
women's representation in the European Parliament." European Union Politics 15, no. 4 (2014): 496-520.
12 Archive.ipu.org. 2019. "Women In Parliaments: World Classification". Archive.Ipu.Org.
http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm?month=6&year=2018.
13 Barnes, Tiffany D., and Stephanie M. Burchard. "“Engendering” politics: The impact of descriptive representation
on women’s political engagement in Sub-Saharan Africa." Comparative Political Studies 46, no. 7 (2013): 767-790.

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WOMEN’S ROLE IN CANADIAN POLITICS – BOTH AS VOTERS AND CANDIDATES
Further, facts such as no Canadian women has served as a premier until 1991 or that it
did not have its first female Prime Minister until 1993 shows the situation of women in Canadian
politics even after a century of struggle14. In many provinces of the country, women are still
underrepresented within the realms of power whereas men continue to enjoy the supremacy they
had prior to, during and after the Post Confederation.
Conclusion
To conclude, it needs to be stated that the history of Canada post 1867 has been
revolutionary on several accounts. The women in particular had a major contribution in shaping
the history of the Confederation post 1867. The essay provided a brief overview of the Post-
Confederation with special focus on women suffrage and their right to contest elections as
candidates. It was revealed that women were denied voting rights even years after the formation
of the Confederation. Further, the essay included discussion on the first wave of feminist
movement in Canada and the way it contributed towards the suffrage rights. It also included
discussion about the way women had to face resistance while entering politics from men. Thye
essay then analyzed the situation in the present day Canadian politics and found that women are
still underrepresented. It was revealed that Canada’s ranking as the country with highest women
representation in parliament slipped in the latest reports. This revealed that there is still a long
way to go for Canada to recognize the potential of women as capable representatives.
Bibliography:
Archive.ipu.org. 2019. "Women In Parliaments: World Classification". Archive.Ipu.Org.
http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm?month=6&year=2018
14 Theglobeandmail.com. 2019. "Politics Briefing: Across Canada, Women Are Still Underrepresented". The Globe
And Mail. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/politics-briefing-across-canada-women-are-still-
underrepresented/article38247083/.

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WOMEN’S ROLE IN CANADIAN POLITICS – BOTH AS VOTERS AND CANDIDATES
http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/ClaSSif.htm
Barnes, Tiffany D., and Stephanie M. Burchard. "“Engendering” politics: The impact of
descriptive representation on women’s political engagement in Sub-Saharan Africa."
Comparative Political Studies 46, no. 7 (2013): 767-790.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.708.3701&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Belshaw, John Douglas. Canadian History: Post-Confederation. Campus Manitoba, 2016.
(Refer to the PDF File)
Cbc.ca. 2019. "50% Population, 25% Representation: Why The Parliamentary Gender Gap
Persists". Cbc.Ca. https://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/women-politics/
https://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/women-politics/
DiMambro, Andre, Danielle Lapointe, and Brittany Snowden. "The New Nation and Its Peoples:
Differences in Legal Status for Canada’s Different Groups." (2014).
(Refer to the PDF File)
Epp, Marlene, and Franca Iacovetta, eds. Sisters or strangers?: immigrant, ethnic, and racialized
women in Canadian history. Vol. 44. University of Toronto Press, 2016.
https://books.google.co.com/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=FYVyDQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&ots=O4RA0CqD7E&sig=Pe553pp9nOqJ
qYchISE1SidhvZg#v=onepage&q&f=false

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WOMEN’S ROLE IN CANADIAN POLITICS – BOTH AS VOTERS AND CANDIDATES
Fortin-Rittberger, Jessica, and Berthold Rittberger. "Do electoral rules matter? Explaining
national differences in women's representation in the European Parliament." European Union
Politics 15, no. 4 (2014): 496-520.
(Refer to the PDF File)
Hallgrimsdottir, Helga K., Cecilia Benoit, and Rachel Phillips. "The mother‐citizen and the
working girl: first‐wave feminist citizenship claims in Canada and discursive opportunities for
twenty‐first century childcare policy." Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de
sociologie 50, no. 1 (2013): 27-51.
(Refer to the PDF File)
Janovicek, Nancy. "Documenting First Wave Feminisms, Volume I: Transnational
Collaborations and Crosscurrents ed. by Maureen Moynagh and Nancy Forestell, and:
Documenting First Wave Feminisms, Volume II: Canada–National and Transnational Contexts
ed. by Nancy Forestell and Maureen Moynagh." Labour/Le Travail 76, no. 1 (2015): 223-226.
https://books.google.co.com/books?
id=3fWIFqzaosMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f
=false
Kanthak, Kristin, and Jonathan Woon. "Women don't run? Election aversion and candidate
entry." American Journal of Political Science 59, no. 3 (2015): 595-612.
(Refer to the PDF File)

9
WOMEN’S ROLE IN CANADIAN POLITICS – BOTH AS VOTERS AND CANDIDATES
Laperrière, M. and Lépinard, E., 2016. Intersectionality as a tool for social movements:
Strategies of inclusion and representation in the Québécois women’s movement. Politics, 36(4),
pp.374-382.
(Refer to the PDF File)
Theglobeandmail.com. 2019. "Politics Briefing: Across Canada, Women Are Still
Underrepresented". The Globe And Mail.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/politics-briefing-across-canada-women-are-
still-underrepresented/article38247083/
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/politics-briefing-across-canada-women-are-
still-underrepresented/article38247083/
Tolley, Erin. Framed: Media and the coverage of race in Canadian politics. UBC Press, 2015.
pp. 97
(Refer to the PDF File)