Women candidates and Edmonton municipal politics

Canadian Political Science Review, 2015

Recent elections have resulted in women holding over one quarter of provincial legislative seats, with women in urban and Western Canada seeing greater success. A much smaller proportion of seats are held by lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) politicians, although they are found in similar regions. This article identifies factors such as stronger parties of the left, less traditional social and economic structures, and a greater attention to diversity in more populous urban centers as attributing to these results for both female and LGB candidates.

2012

Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie, 2008

ABSTRACT

Topic: Using examples from the course, discuss the relationship of representation, citizenship and identity in Canada. In your answer, address the different meanings or aspects of representation discussed in class (voice/image) and the ways in which the intersectionality of gender, race, class and sexuality impacts the quality and quantity of representation we achieve.

Do women in municipal politics encounter the same level of media bias as women in national politics? Does every type of newspapers exhibit a bias against women municipal politicians, if at all? These questions guided a study of how three daily and three community newspapers portrayed women council candidates during the 2007 Alberta municipal elections. Using content and discourse analysis, the study compared how journalists reported on female and male candidates’ personal traits such as age, appearance, family situation, gender, and emotions as well as their policy ideas and public utterances. Results from the study indicate that while local women politicians do face a subtle sexism, the media environment they encounter while campaigning is generally more gender-neutral and hospitable to them than the one awaiting women vying for elite national office. Thus, women contemplating a bid for council should not be concerned that local journalists will obsess about their looks or otherwise overtly disadvantage them before prospective voters.

Atlantis Critical Studies in Gender Culture Social Justice, 2003

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ideological diversity among feminist women in electoral politics in Canada. It shows that feminist political women form a diversified group: some are liberal but others are conservative. Certain feminists even support positions against what are known as traditional demands of the second-wave feminism. RESUME Cet article se propose d'explorer la diversite ideologique parmi les femmes feministes elues en politique au Canada. II montre que les femmes politiques feministes constituent ungroupe diversifie : certaines sont liberates alors que d'autres sont conservatrices. Quelquesunes soutiennent meme des positions contraires aux revendications traditionnellement associees a la deuxieme vague du feminisme.

cpsa-acsp.ca

Left History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Historical Inquiry and Debate

The purpose of this literature review is to give an overview of the identified barriers to women's involvement in local governance and strategies to overcome those barriers. The review is part of a three-year project titled, "Action on Systemic Barriers to Women's Participation in Local Government", funded by Status of Women Canada. The collaboration between Women Transforming Cities and the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women involves working within the cities of Vancouver, BC and Surrey, BC to develop effective and sustainable approaches to gender-based inclusion and equity within local governance policies and structures. This literature review will first highlight thematic individual, structural and systemic barriers to women's involvement in local-level governance, including select examples of approaches used to address them. 1 Second, the review will provide a summary of strengths and gaps in the existing literature, key considerations for the project, and potential ways the project may contribute to the current literature.

1995

2015

Abstract: The news media’s fascination with which party is ahead in the polls — otherwise known as the horse race — has raised questions about how well informed voters are about their choices on the ballot box. A preoccupation with campaign strategies, gaffes, and photo-ops leaves journalists with less time to report on issues and platforms. Some scholars argue women are particularly handicapped by horse-race coverage because it can lead to negative evaluations of their electoral viability and because the masculine language used in this type of coverage could depict them as inappropriately aggressive and therefore transgressing traditional gender norms. But this study on newspaper coverage of municipal elections in one Canadian province reveals that journalists treat regular council contests more as a marathon than a horse race. The nature of municipal election coverage suggests journalists treat candidates as a mass group of runners, doing little to distinguish them from each other and rarely speculating on their electoral chances. The real problem for women and men council candidates is not media bias but media invisibility—getting the coverage they need to build a public profile so voters will support them.

2010

Social welfare indicators place Aboriginal women at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, making them one of the most socially marginalized groups in Canada. Aboriginal women’s marginal status results from a unique combination of colonialism, racism and gender inequality. These intersecting forms of oppression have led many Aboriginal women to believe that their interests differ substantially from the interests of non-Aboriginal women. Along the same lines, Aboriginal women contend that the Canadian state and Aboriginal institutions are both obstacles to and facilitators for the pursuit of their interests. Yet, little is known about how Aboriginal women participate in such governing institutions, or whether their participation differs fundamentally from non-Aboriginal women. This paper examines how Aboriginal women participate in electoral politics in Canada. What do they share with non-Aboriginal women and how do they differ in their electoral behaviour? Drawing on the gender and...

The hidden rise of new women candidates seeking election to the House of Commons, 2000-2008, 2012

Women’s candidacy and election are tracked over four Canadian national elections from 2000 to 2008. These elections brought a dramatic expansion in women candidates, but only a small increase in the number elected. Simulations of alternative electoral outcomes indicate only minor impact due to the shift from Liberal to Conservative governments. Women candidates from all major parties are found to have been similarly successful as men with the same party and incumbency status. Analysis of the candidate-pool composition reveals that there were too few new women candidates in 2000 even to maintain the status quo in the House. Increases in 2004 and 2006 brought candidacies into balance with the House composition. In 2008 the recruitment rate exceeded the House proportion meaning-fully. Since the Conservatives caught up part-way to the other parties in nominating new women candidates in 2008, the gender composition of the House became far less sensitive to voters’ partisan preferences than was the case earlier. The results show that the flat numbers elected arose not from stagnation in recruitment of new women candidates, but rather from two relatively large fluctuations: a cross-party collapse in 2000, followed by a cross-party resurgence. Women’s share of non-incumbent major-party candidacies and turned-over seats nearly doubled over the eight-year period, both reaching the one-third mark for the first time in 2008. This cross-party resurgence is shown to have carried over to the 2011 election.

Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & …, 2003