Still Counting: Women in Politics Across the Country

Margaret Conrad is Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canada Studies at
the University of New Brunswick. She is the author of Atlantic Canada: A
Region in the Making, and co-author of Intimate Relations: Family and
Community in Planter Nova Scotia, 1759–

When women began to make gains in electoral politics in the 1970s,
scholars started counting the successes in anticipation of the day when
gender equality would be achieved. The authors of this book are “still
counting,” because, they argue, women have hit a “glass ceiling”
in politics—their representation stalled at 20 to 25 percent—just as
they have done in the corporate world. By bearing witness to the
“democratic deficit” created by women’s exclusion from equal
participation in Canadian political life, the authors hope to inspire
efforts to remove the barriers that currently face women and minorities
seeking public office.

This book is written with a sense of urgency because the numbers at the
beginning of the 21st century suggest that electoral progress for women
is by no means certain. Indeed, in some jurisdictions, most notably in
Nova Scotia, the number of women legislators seems to be declining.
Arguing that in a genuine democracy men may represent women’s
interests but cannot hold power in their stead, the authors maintain
that it is necessary to engage women across the political spectrum, even
if, like Reform/Alliance MP Deborah Grey, they declare that they are not
feminists. The so-called “Deb Effect,” they claim, will produce
beneficial outcomes for all women, who, like men, cannot be expected to
adhere to one ideological position.

The rich analysis in this book is informed by a generation of research
on the barriers to women’s political participation, but this is no
dry-as-dust academic tome. Determined to be “interesting and
provocative,” the authors write spirited and accessible prose,
offering bulleted summaries of their main points, and highlighting terms
that they define in an appended glossary. Graphs and tables chart
women’s political participation at federal and provincial levels since
1916. (Unfortunately, there is no index of tables to help readers find
specific information.) Although the narrative is sometimes dated—the
appointment of Myra Freeman as lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia in
2000 goes unacknowledged, for example—the authors have created a
website to help track the numbers as they evolve.