History Of Gender Based Quotas

In addition to the arguments above there are some very strong disadvantages to this system such as it excludes women from the legislature. The ‘most broadly acceptable candidate’ syndrome also affects the ability of women to be elected to legislative office because they are often less likely to be selected as candidates by male-dominated party structures. Although the evidence across the world suggests that women are less likely to be elected to the

In contrast, American women hold a minor role in political participation. With only 84 of 435 seats, women face more challenges in American politics than men. (Catalyst) For example, we can look at the most recent election where Hillary Clinton was the victim to many implicit gender bias’. In order to elect the most qualified person to lead a country shouldn’t gender be taken out of the equation? Plato’s approach focuses on electing those who are most qualified and justly, eliminates gender as a factor.

It is not up for debate whether women are discriminated against in the workplace, it is evident in census data; in 2013, among full-time, year-round workers, women were paid 78 percent of what men were paid. It is said that the organizations that are pro-equal pay, including some unions, support the idea that the government should set wages for all jobs. To the contrary, the organizations that are proponents of equal pay are not for job wages being set by the government-they wish to have the discrimination taken out of pay scales from within the company. Commonly, this pay gap is attributed to the fact that women in the United States are still expected to attend to familial obligations over work.

Female representation is impediment for Political matters and topics regarding women decided by the Federal Government. For example, in 2006, female Senators from all main parties united and supported a bill to change legislation on the abortion pill, removing the Health Minister Tony Abbott’s right to retain the veto on the introduction of the

What was the most underrepresented social group in the elected assemblies of the world? whether is the minority ethnic, religious groups or the poor? According to Putman’s statistic, the answer was “women”. (Putnam 1976 cited in Megyery 1991) Statistics have shown that although women around the globe occupy more than one half of the population, very small proportion become political elite. Different from what women have encountered, man tends to dominate many spheres in life which includes electoral politics. Such gender disparity happens everywhere not just in Canada. Ever since Canadian women suffrage and the right to candidacy was achieved, they have made a couple strides in political arena, yet not as many as they wish with the existence of electoral glass ceiling standing

It is also evident that since female and male candidates are equally qualified for political positions and have the same success rate in elections, the gender gap can be explained through the lack of female participation in elections. Many governments, including the Canadian government, have contemplated introducing quota systems to reduce the scope of the gender gap and ensure female representation in parliament. However, in a democratic system, quotas can be viewed as a “violation of liberal democracy” because they favour a specific people group (“50% Population”). The solution, therefore, rests in the hands of the next generation of female leaders. It is up to young, educated women to embrace Virginia Woolf’s parting message in her essay A Room of One’s Own of acquiring “a room of [their] own” (Woolf 4). In other words, young women are faced with the task of developing a sense of independence and having the “habit of freedom and the courage” in order to pursue a career in politics (Woolf 112). Even though there are initiatives in universities aimed prepare women to run for politics such as the She Will Run, it is essential to acknowledge that gender parity in the political environment will not be achieved automatically ("50% Population”). As instructed by Woolf, young women must move past stereotypes, suppress

This essay will argue why Canada should take a substantive approach to women’s representation in parliament. Having an adequate representation of women in parliament would be a huge turning point for women and allow their voices to be heard. Each woman holds a different view, just like men do. Each gender and person will bring their own view forth and allow for a diverse House. The issue is that women are not getting adequate representation, and therefore are not being able to represent their views. Men have a much larger congregation than women, therefore overpowering the views/ideologies of them. In Canada, everyone strives for equality, and the best place to start is to take a substantive approach to women’s representation in parliament.

More specifically the representation that women and visible minorities receive in parliament. “Women, visible minorities, and Aboriginal peoples continue to be significantly under-represented in the ranks of elected politicians at all levels of government.”(Howe & Northrup, 2000) It is obvious that sufficient representation by government means that everyone in Canada must be represented. There has been an increase for females elected to parliament, however it is subtle. In comparison to other countries, Canada is in the middle, ranked 29th worldwide, in this area. (Howe & Northrup, 2000) Canadians do feel that something should be done to even the playing field by choosing as many female representatives as they do males, much like the Reforms taking place in France. Measures have been taken to rectify this situation, with Bill C-2. This Bill suggested that parties with at least 20 per cent female MPs would be granted a larger amount of reimbursement for their election expenses, and an even larger refund for those parties with 30 per cent female MPs. (Howe & Northrup, 2000) Canadians support the idea that parties should be required to increase the amount of female candidates.

Barriers Women may face when entering politics in Canada Women have expressed interest in running for office but not many women get pasted the nomination process. Women make up 52 percent of Canada’s population while only 22 percent of women are members of Parliament. Canada ranked 50th out of 189 countries in the number of women elected in national parliament. This puts Canada behind countries such as Rwanda, Afghanistan and Iraq. Even with economic growth and political stability, Canada has fewer women in parliament than most of Europe.

At the beginning of the twentieth century women had very little role in the United States in general. They could not vote, could not own land, could not serve on juries, or hold elective office. But as the twentieth century continued, women moved into a more active role in American, but were still not equally represented. Although today they make up fifty-one percent of the nation, women make up less than one-fifth of government in the United States. With such a minor role in government, it leaves the issues that revolve around women to be addressed by people who are not women. If there was a way to regulate the amount of men, and women, in the government, these issues could be addressed by the people they affect more. Women have faced similar problems in other countries, but some have found a solution. Some countries have introduced quotas in order to monitor and control the amount of men and women in

With wage discrimination between men and women, occupational segregation, higher poverty rates among females, and the lack of women in the decision-making body, Canadian women continue to fall behind men economically, socially, and politically. According to Linda Trimble and Pamela Marie Paxton, the lack of female political representation has been the principal reason for ongoing gender inequality. The underrepresentation of women in decision-making positions results in the neglect of women’s issues in public policies and programs; thus, the lack of critical numbers of women representatives not only impedes women from important negotiations in areas of finance or labour, but it also allows for the unequal status quo to continue/exist between genders.

The article “Moving Beyond the Gender Gap” by Abby M. McCloskey discusses the gender gap when voting. In a national election, more women vote for the Democrat nominee rather than the Republican nominee. In the past, Mitt Romney lost the women’s vote by twelve points to President Barack Obama. In the most recent election, Hillary Clinton won the women’s vote by twelve points. When broken down by race and ethnicity, the gap grew to ninety points among black women and forty-two points among Latina women.

Political participation is when one partakes in an activity that has the intent or effect of influencing government action. The most political participation women partake in is voting. National documents do not refer to women and refer to them in context as wives, mothers or property. Most of the freedoms and virtues given in those documents were to white men. McBride and Parry discuss of the Supreme Court views women's rights. They state “At the same time, the Supreme Court guidelines leave room for legislation that treats men and women differently, with potential for unequal treatment. The equality dilemma remains unsolved” (47). Since the nineteenth amendment was ratified not much has been done about women’s equality and while the court promises equality for all it does not live up to its promise. A lot has changed since the twentieth century and the courts should work with the government to reach decisions on various issues discussed in this paper. In terms of political participation and the political parties the numbers are again disportionate. In agreement with this, Barbara Burelli states in her book Women and Political Participation; A Reference Handbook “Women make up a small portion of Democrat and Republican delegates. Women have consistently reported lower levels of involvement, and the gap has not

In Canada, women comprise over 50% of the population and the fact that they are not present in halls of government in proportion to their population reflects poorly on our democracy. The significant under-representation of women in Canadian legislation has severe consequences that are symbolic; it deprives our government’s policy-making process the input of a significant portion of Canadians. A system that does not adequately represent its majority population calls into question the legitimacy of our democratic institutions. Women’s participation in formal politics is crucial because the quantity of representation will influence the quality of representation in Canadian legislation. It reflects poorly on democracy because the minorities, the white heterosexual men in power, are regulating the majority population. Women need to advocate for mirror representation and not settle for a quota. A quota in our legislation is not enough to ensure sufficient representation of women in decision making. When we have a few women in our legislation they no longer fight for those who elected them in the first place. Instead they are pressured by the majority of men in power to conform to the culture and practices that continue to oppress those who elected them in the first place. When there are enough women in legislature to mutually support one another, we will begin to see decisions that improve citizen’s quality of life. In this essay I will argue that political parties need to ensure

New Zealand was the first country to give women the right to vote in 1893, however, since then we have dropped to 27th when it comes to gender representation in government, out of 188 countries. One of the many reasons as to why women are under represented in parliament can be linked to the issue of the political obstacles that face women. This is when they want to be in parliament, women whom are in parliament, and the many women who this is not an option for due to lack of opportunity. Women have to face this “masculine model” of politics and government. Men are dominant in parliament, meaning that political life revolves around male norms and values (Shvedova). This can be extended, politics is very much about competition and confrontation. Rather than politics being