User:Rottchel/sandbox

= Why women are underrepresented in Canadian politics and what to expect in the future. = Women make up over half of Canada's population, yet they are vastly underrepresented within the parliamentary system. Women elected Members of Parliament (MP) have been on the noticeable rise since 2011, when 76 women were elected to the House of Commons, that number increased slightly to 88 in 2015, and in the most recent 2019 election 98 women became elected MP's. Although the increase in numbers throughout Canada's electoral history is a telling sign, these numbers are still far too low and do not accurately represent the demographics of Canada. It is important to look at some of the causation around this issue and how they are specifically tailored to Canadian politics. The 3 main issues that can explain the low number of women in politics are A) ideology and sociological barriers B) Canada's electoral system C) the absence of any quotas . All three issues must be addressed as Canadians look forward to increase the role of women in our parliamentary system.

A) Ideology and Sociological Barriers
There are many sociological and ideological barriers that are impeded into Canadian society that disproportionately effect women and can help explain why there is such a gender gap within Canadian parliament. Historically politics has been a male dominated sphere, that women are still struggling to break the rigid barriers that are in place. When women are nominated as candidates, they perform on par with them at the ballot box. Meaning that majority of Canadian’s don’t have a problem voting for women and the problem lays outside of that. The process from nomination to elected official is a long one, and it’s important to understand at what point the gender deficit is highlighted the most. The real gender deficit is highlighted in the number of women who seek nomination in comparison to men. This alludes to the fact that political ambition is gendered. meaning that women are more likely to enter politics when party gatekeepers encourage them, it has also been found that having male gate keepers tend to discourage women from entering politics. Furthermore the more prominent women are within higher ranks of a party signals to other women that this is a safe place and numbers tend to show that more women will be recruited. Research also showcases that along with having more prominent female recruiters present within parties, also extending the length of time or earlier nomination contests tend to encourage more women to enter into the nomination stage. Lengthening the duration local parties are recruiting allows for those women interested to organize their personal lives and seek arrangements in their personal life. This is another important social and cultural aspect that hinder women from entering politics. Women on the trail might need extra after school care for their children or other such support. This is because women still bare the majority of the responsibility of children. Currently in the House of Commons at least 261 elected members are parents, nearly 77%. However, women are more criticize when entering politics as mothers, and are responsible for seeking out childcare arrangements. In fact, it had been proven that women are more likely to either delay when they have children so they can enter into political work or they will put off politics until their children reach a certain age. Whereas, men MP’s are more likely to not only have more children than women MP’s but will also enter into politics while their children are young and are celebrated over the fact that they are fathers. This concludes that there seems to be a motherhood penalty that men who are also fathers tend to be exempt from. This unequal power dynamic between women and men MPs allows for stereotypes and prejudice to continue to discourage women from not only entering the political arena, but also making it harder for them to succeed once they have decided to enter politics. All of these play a role in the sociological way we view women and their role in politics. These Issues need to be addressed through government policies that encourage and counteract these provisions and barriers.

B) Canada's Electoral System
In Canada's Single Member Plurality (SMP) electoral system federal parties and party leaders are essentially gatekeepers when it comes to deciding who will be included in politics. Within the SMP system there is a complete lack of transparency as to who, why, and how parties decide to nominate candidates. Parties and party leaders hold control over candidate nominations and where those candidates will run. Canadian parties are expected to nominate 338 candidates to run in all the electoral riding's in Canada. This is important for two reasons. First, the process to which parties will pick a candidate for riding's is typically done at a grass-root level that is then overlooked by the party leader. However, this competitive process to which a candidate will be nominated is done behind closed doors. Party leaders have significant amount of control over who will locally represent a district and they serve as the bridge between local politics and the party.Party leaders have significant amount of control over who will locally represent a district and they serve as the bridge between local politics and the party. In 2015, 533 women were nominated in total and 88 became elected MP’s. Research shows that women are just as successful as men when they run for nomination, but far fewer women run for nomination than men. However, women are still overlooked when an equally viable male option is available. It has also been proven that since party leaders and recruiters are gatekeepers to the political arena, having increasingly more women in positions of authority within the party signals to other women on the outside that this is a safe place and typically leads to more women being recruited by those women belonging to those parties. Increasing the participation of women all round.

C) The Absence of Quotas
Quotas or the absence of allow the federal parties to reign all the control over who is to enter the political arena. Furthered by sociological barriers present in society there seems to be only a slow increase in women’s participation in politics based off the past 3 elections. (2011-2019) While some argue that a slow increase is better than none, others argue that more need to be done. The use of a quota system in politics still remains to controversial but has been successfully implemented by many countries. Quotas are not tools to discriminate against men, but rather to compensate for institutional barriers that have hindered women’s role in politics. In other words quotas are implemented to help women ‘catch up’ not give them and unfair advantage ahead. Understanding where and how these quotas are implemented is important. The “sacrificial lamb” thesis indicates that even when parties are nominating more women as candidates, they are more likely than men to be nominated to districts that are deemed ‘unwinnable’ for that party. For instance, they can be put in a district where the current incumbent is more than likely to win. Parties are under great pressure to nominate a full list of candidates (338) and sometimes that can include running ‘paper candidates.’ Meaning they simply nominate any candidate just to fulfill roles in undesirable districts. Looking forward to increasing the role of women in Canadian politics, quotas are one way for Canada to combat the barriers women face when entering politics. It has been indicated through a thorough analysis that the goal for parliament should be for women to occupy at least 30% of parliament, this number has been deemed the ‘critical mass’ which has been viewed as a sufficient minimum that women can then enact change on a national level. However, research also suggests that having more women involved in recruitment can also increase numbers, as well as increasing the length of nomination races, and even perhaps give parties a financial incentive to nominate more women candidates. s