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Departmentof PoliticalScienc e Memor ial Un ivers ity
September, 2011
Formypar ents
Finally, I needto acknowledgemyfriends-ifI were to listyournamesand allthatyou have done forme,thelist would belonger than thisthesis.
Thank you.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . TABLE OF CONTENTS .
CHAPTER I:INTRODUCTION...
CHAPTER II: WOMENIN CANADIAN POLITICS:A BACKGROUN D 2.1 TheRepresentation ofWomen....
2.1.1.DescriptiveRepresentationand Critica lMass 9 2.1.2.Substan tiveRepresentatio n...
Women'sPresencein Legislatures....
2.2.1.RunningforOffice....
GenderedMediaCoverage onthe Campaign Trail...
Stereotypesabout Women'sRoles...
SelfPercep tion andthe Decisionto Run 20
TheRo/eMode/Eff ect....
2.2.2.TheImpactof PoliticalParties .
2.2.3.QuotaSystemsandHowThey Can Increasethe Representationof Women....28 CHAPTER3:CABINET PORT FO LIOS, WOMEN'SROLES,AND
CANADIANPOLITICS...
3.1 Determining the Prestigeof CabinetPortfolios....
Portfolio Allocation:TheImp act ofOfJice-SeekingTendencies..
Women andCabinet Portfalios...
Party Leadership:No Womenin the Driver' sSeat,Who'sDrivingtheCar?
3.3. RepresentationalPlateau:Why Studythe Period ofI997-2011?
ExplainingthePlateau... . .41
4.1. Data and MeasuringCareers in Parliarnent .44
4.1.2.Independent Variables .44
TheStatusofWomen .
Hypotheses:the ExpectedImp act ofSubstantively RepresentingWomen....
4.1.3.DependentVariable...
Cabinet Portfolios:PipelineversusOther...
4.1.4.Control/lnterveningVariables....
CHAPTER 5:NOTABLE WOMENIN THE 36THTO THE40THPARLIAMENTS
Martha Hall Findlay...
AlexaMcDonough .
5.8.NotableWomen:CanadianFemaleMPs1997-20 11....
LegislativeActivityRelatedto"Women'sInterests" ..
Legislativ eActivity Relatedto theStatus ofWomen 68
WhoReccivesth e"Pipeline"Posts? 69
"Pipeline " Cabinet Postsand"Women'sInterests " 73
"Pipeline" Cabinet Postsand theStatusof Women 76
6.2.1."Pipeline"and"Women'sInterests"Posts:Sex-TypedPositions?
WomeninCabinet: TheProportionThat HaveMinistries 84
PostsHeldByWomen 86
6.3. Leadershipand SubstantiveRepresentationof Women.... .. 88
Women'sInterestsand Leadership ... . 90
Status ofWomenand Leadership 95
"Pipeline"Cabinet Postsand Leadership ....
Longevityand SubstantiveRepresentationof Women .100
Women'sInterestsand Longevity....
Status ofWomenand"S uccess"...
Wbatare"Pipeline"CabinetPosts? 52 Whatare"Women's Interests" Cabinet Posts? .53
Martha Hall Findlay 60
DianeAlbonczy 61
AlexaMcdonou gh...
Adoptionof "Women 's]nterests"b yS ex 66
"Women's[nterests"Cabinet Posts bySex 67
InvolvementinStatusof Women,BySex..
CabinetPostswithinGovemingParties..
"Pipeline"CabinetPostsand Cabin etPosts,AmongstMP s...
"Pipeline" Cabinet PostsandCabinet Posts,AmongstMPs,bySex
"Women'sInterests"Cabinet Postsand"Pipe line" CabinetPosts....
"Women'sInterests" CabinetPostsand "Pipeline" Cabinet Posts,BySex Involvement in Statusof Womenand"Pipeline"Cabinet Posts...
Involvement inSt atusofWomen and"Pipeline" Cabinet Posts,BySe x...
StatusofWomen Cabinet Posts andAppointment to"Pipeline" Cabinet Posts...
Ministersof"Pipeline"and"Women' s]nterest"CabinetPosts,4OthSittin g SO Ministersof"Pipeline"and"Women' s]nterest"Cabin etPosts, 39thSitting Sl Ministersof"Pipeline "and"Women 's]nterest"Cabinet Posts,3SthSitting S2
Ministers of "Pipeline" and" Women's Interest" Cabinet Posts, 37thSitting 83 Ministers of"Pipeline"and"Women'sInterest"Cabinet Posts, 36thSitting 84 Number ofWomeninCabinet,36th - 40thParliament.WithPortfolios
Cabinet PostsHeldByWomenfrom1997-2011 87
Leadership,By Sex 89
Adoption of"Women'sInterests"andLeadership 90 Adoptionof..Women ' slnterests" andLe adership,B y Sex ..
"Women'sInterests" Cabinet Postand Leadership... ..Women'sl nterests" CabinetPo st andL eadership,By Sex .
Involvement in theStatus of Women and Leadership 95
Involvement in theStatusof Women and Leadership,BySex
Status of Women Cabinet Posts and Leadership 97
..Pipeline" CabinetP ostsandLeadership... ..
"Pipeline" Cabinet Posts and Leadership, BySex...
Career Length, BySex...
Table6-30 Legislative Activity Relatedto "Women'sInterests" andCareer Length of MPs...
Adoptionof "Women's Interests"andCareerLengthofMPs.
"Pipeline" Cabinet Posts andCareerLength... . 104
"Success",By Sex... .. 105
"Success"and..Women'sInt erests" CabinetP ost,By Sex...
"Success" and Involvementin the Statusof Women,BySex..
"Success" andStatusof Women Cabinet Posl...
Figure l-I ProportionofMPsThatAreFemale.19 22-201! . Figure1-2 ProportionofMPsThatAreFemale.!997- 2008 ..
Figure6-! Percentage ofFemaleCabinet Ministerswith Portfoliosper Sitting.
Women havebeen sittingin theCanadian House of Commo ns for nearlyninety years. Despite the fact that women have broken throughmany glassceilings in thepastnumber of decades,they arestill largely abse nt fromthepowerfulcentre ofthe government: the executive. Theministry appears to be the lasts poke in the wheelo ffe malere prese ntation. Recent resear charo und the world isturningits attention tothehighestlevels ofofficeto understand whytherearesofew women in position s ofpower,both asleaders aswell asin keygovernmentposts.
Cabinet portfolio s arefrequ entl yreferredto as "scarce politic alresources"bythose studying the rise(orstall)of women in power(Heath et aI., 2005;Escobar-LemmonandTaylor-Robinso n, 2005;Trimble and Arscott, 2003). Theseresource saretheprecious and rareentrancew ays to prestige and poweringovernme nt.Itisthroughthesepositionsthat future primeministers emergefromcommon Members.Thesepathways are limited;prime ministers allocateportfolios strategically, intricatelybalancing opportunities forcaucusmembers.Furtherrnore,p ortfoli os are notall equalandahandful ofpositions aremuch moreprestigiou sthanthe others.Thefact that thesepositions arehierarchi calintennsofstatuscomplicat es the primeminister' s strategic calculations,and may also have aninfluence onwomen's representationintheserank s.The moreprestigiouspositi ons areoftendoled outasameanstoappease existing competitive dynarnics within theparty.Thus,those whoalready domin atethe politicalfieldare rewarded , andothersmaybe deniedthe opportunity to advance tothehighestIevels of power. Generally, femalecab inet memb erstend nottohold highlyprestigiousportfolios. Scholarshave found that more often, theyhold less prestigious positionsor havenoportfolioata ll(suchastheposition of
"Minister of State").Heathetal. (2005) describ ethistend enc y as a "hoarding"of thepolit ical resour ceswithin the"dominantgroup"(420).
Thismaybe problematic when it comestowomen'scapaci tyto substantivelyinfluence policy.
Trimble and Arscott(2003) state that "policy ismadebytheexecutive;thus,women who make it tothecabinet table will havesignificantlymorepolicy-makin gpowerthan theirfemale counterparts on thebackb enchesor theoppositionranks"(134). The Canadianexperience demonstratesthedifficultywomenmayhavein inlluencin gpolicy: inC anadian recenthistory, only 34 differentwomenwere appointed tocabinet from 1997to 20 11 (comprisingthe 36thto the 40thsess ions ofParliament).In thesefourteen years,only34 women achievedahigherlevel ofpowerthan theaverage MP. Given thatin this sam e timeperiodtherewere atotal of 628 MPs, the proportionof women incabinet isquitelow.
While women'spresencein cabin etisimportant,the typeofportfolio they hold is alsocritica l forwomen'sadvancement. Theportfoliosof Finance.Justiceand Attorney Generaland Foreign
Affairs are consideredtobe "Pipeline"cabin etposts.Thesearethemostesteemed cabinet position sinCanadian federalpolitics,and thetypesofportfoliosoftenheldbyform erprime ministers.Offemal ecabinetministers,onlyone hasheld oneof thesethree most prestigious cabinetposition s:Anne McLell anheldthe postsof Justice and Attorney Genera l.No woman has everheld thepositionof Minister of Finance inCanada,whichisoneof themostprestigious cabinetpositionsinthiscountry.Womenhaverarelybeenplacedinto thesepowerfulpostsin Canada,a trend that isvisiblegloballyas well. Theex ecutiveand the pow erthereinremains largelydominatedby men,despitethepresenceof women ingovernme ntsformanydecades.
Theperiodofl997-2011wasprecededbyaperiod ofhighvisibilitybyfemalepo liticians.The early1990s saw an increasein the descriptiverepresentationof women(morewomenwere electedto Parliament),and more focuson"women'sissues"duringcampaignsand withinthe Legislature(Trimbleand Arscotl,2003;Bashevkin,2009).In thisperiod,KimCampbellalso becamethe firstCanadian femalePrime Ministerin1993.However,soon afterthishighpoint, thetide changed.Scholars studying women in Canadian federal politicshave used anumber of wordstodescribethecurrentstate ofgender parityin Parliamenl.Trimble and Arscotl(2003) describeitasa"plateau", a"nearstandstill",a"stalling" and a"levellingoff'(36);B ashevkin as a"stalemate,""stagnation,"and "outright decline"(2009:6).Whicheverterrn isemployed,the basicpremiseremains.With the exceptionof thejump to about25%in themostrecent(2011) election,theprogressof equalityin Canadianfederalpoliticshasnotrecently experiencedan upward trend.Bashevkin(2009) suggests thatthisearly success mayhaveactuallyhad a negative side-effect:the effect of convincin gthepopulationtha tequalityhasbeen achievedin Parliament,thus shifting concem away fromgenderequality. Arguably,thisp erceptioni sech oed in Parliament. Activi tiesand committeesassociated speci ficallywith womenarenot considered to be terriblyprestigious.Figure1-1 and Figure1-2illustratetheproportion ofMPsthatwere female from 1922-20 11 and 1997-2011, respectively.
Figurel-l:
Propertion of Ml'sThatAr e Fem"le,1922 -2011
Figurel-2:
P"0I'0rtlonofMP,T1",t Are1'em ..
I.,
1997 -2008 401
J.35
-;:301 - -- - - -
~
251 - -- - - - - - - - - - - - -~
20I---~==========-
; 15l - -- - - -- -- - -
101 - -- - - r- - ---,- - - ---,--- - ---.--- _
Thisthesisexaminestheimpactof women' sinvolvement in"Women'sInterests"in theHouse ofCommons (whetherthrough committeeworkor in cabinet):arewomen whotake onthese responsibilitiesandrolespenalizedintheirpoliticalcareers, giventhat theserolestend tobeless
be necessaryto ensurethat morewomen gain accesstotheroutetosuccess.
Thisresearchhasimportant norm ativeimplications:ifwomen tendtobe placed mostoftenon committees relatedto"Women'sInterests"and theseposition sare consideredto be less prestigiou s,this sendsa fairly clearmessage about the role of women inpoiiti cs. First,it suggeststhat wome n'sissues are not important.Second,it indicatesthat genderedstandardsstill exist within Parliam ent,and thatcertain roles(i.e.theprestigiou spositions) aresimply not appropriate forwom en.Third,thedataindicatethatrepresentingwomen byfocu singon women' sissues appearstopenalizefemale Parliament arians.FemaleMemb ersofParli ament
prestigiousissuesand portfoliosaremorelikelytotake on leade rship roleswithin parties.This group is aminority,however :themajority offemaleMPs areplaced oncommitteesassociated
Althoughtherelation shipbetweenthe sex ofa polit icianand theIikelihood of receivingahighly prestigiouscabin etpositionhasbeenexamined both attheprovinciall evelin Canada(Studlar and Moncri ef,1997) aswellasinother region sof the world (Escobar-LemmenandTaylor- Robinson,2005;Heath et al.,2005;Reynolds,1999;Moonand Fountain,I997 ),astudy base d onCanada'sfederalParliamenthasnotyet beenundertaken.Inordertounderstandtheeffect thatrepresentin gwomenhason thecareerpathsof bothwomenandmen, 1employdatagathered from theParliament of Canadaregardingthe careersofMembe rs ofParliament from themost recentsittings of theHouse of Commons(1997-2011 ).1find thatwhen womenrepresentwomen' theyarelesslikelytoreachhigherlevelsofsuccess and when theyignore"women's"issues and insteadfocuson"Pipeline"issues,theyaremorelikelytoreapthepolit icalrewards.
Thisthesisproceedsasfollows:first,Iexplore variousconceptionsof representation,what representation meansandwhyitisnecessaryforthepublic tobe both"descriptive ly"and
"substantively"represented.Second, I thenassessthe existingIiteratur eandtraditional explanationsforwomen ' sunderrepresentation as candidates ,aselected representatives, in prestigiouspositionsand aspartyleaders.Ithen explainthe dataIcollected aswellasthe study's method ology andfindings.Finally, I conclud e withadiscussion of potential avenu est o improve therepresentationof wom en in politics, and theimplicat ionsifmeasure s are nottaken torecti fy
2.1TheRepresent ati onof Women
Inherfo undationalandgroundbreakingbookThe ConceptojRepresentati on(1967),Hanna Pitkin differentiatesbetween four typesof representation.Thefirst,FormalisticRepresentation, encompassestheinstitutional arrangements surrounding representation.Thesecond,Symbolic Repre sentation,refersto how the representative "stands for"the constituent s:whatit meansto beasymbolfor that district ,and howthesymbolisacceptedbythepopulation.Thelast two typesof representation she explore s,Descriptiveand Substantive ,tend to be thebiggestfocusin the literatureon women'srepresentation,andwillprovidethefoundation of theresearch presentedinthisthesis.
Descriptiverepresentationreferstothe extenttowhichmembersresemblethe groupsthat they represent.When we study theproportionof women inlegislatures.for example,weoftendo so
withthe ideaof comparingthisto theproportionof women in the population. Themorecl osely the proportion ofwomeninParliament matchesthe proportion ofwomenin"therealworld"the more that Parliamentis said to descripti velyrepresent women.In contrast,substantive representationisless about thephysicalattribu tesorethnocultura Ibackground soflegislators, andmoreabout theaction stakenwhen in Parliament. Substantiverepresentationrequiresthatthe needsand interestsofthegroup being repre sentedbeheardandactedupon (Poggione,2 006). In academicresearch, substantiverepresentation isoftenstudied byexaminingthe rate at which
policyis presentedandadoptedwithin legislatures. For example,whetheror not women' sissue s and interestsare addressedthrough policies,regardlessof"who"introducesthose policies.
Arguably,neither fonn ofrepresentation is sufficienton itsown, although both havetheir individualmerits.If"equal"representationisa goal (andIarguethat itshould be),then no group can besystematically excludedfromdecision-making roles(thusdescriptive representationis necessary) ,and the interestsof the group mustbe addressed withinthe decision-makin gbody (thus substantiverepresentationisimportant).This sectionexploresthese two typesof representation inparticular-substantiveand descriptiverepresentation-andtheir implications
2.1.1.Desc riptiveRepresentationandCritica l Mass
DescriptiveRepresentation suggests that representative s shouldresemble thegroup forwhom they stand.In thisway,thelegislatureresemblesa microcosmofsociety :ifhalfofthep opulation isconstituted by women,then,half ofitsrepresentativesought to be women.Alack of descriptiverepre sentation ,what isknownasaskewed Parliarnent(Kanter1977),canhavea number of negativeconsequencesfor thegroup inlargersociety.Firsr,itcanimplant the perception thatsome membersofsociety arenot capableof beingdecisionmakers.Second, somesuggest thatif agroup doesnot occupyacertainproportionofrepresentatives,a"Critical Mass",it isdifficult tohave enough support in thelegislatureto addresstheissuesand needsof thatgroup (Kanter,1977; Dahlerup,2006;Childsand Krook,2006; Gray,2006;Arscottand Trimble1997).
Anincreasednumberoffemalerepresentatives arebetterable toachieve a higherlevel of substantive represent ation.Therefor e,descriptiv erepresentation leads tos ubstantive representation.
Increasingthenumber of women in Parli amentcanhave anumber of benefit s for the
representation ofwomen .However,scholars havenotedthatnumbers arenot everything.The
"types"and diversityofwomen electedalso matters. Bratten(2005)arguesthat:
Therearetwo significant pointswithinBratten'squote. First, women are mostlikelyto acton behalf of women andseco nd,increaseddiversity canbringchange.Additionally,sincegenerally womenrepresentwomen'sinterestsmore often thanmen, an increasein women createsabasis of supportthatallowsformore success forwomen'sinterestlegislation.Itisnot simply the numbers ofwomenthat are important,but the types of women that areelected.AsMurray (2008)
These "criticalactors"areessential for change inParliament.Theproportionof women that are sitting in Parliamentmustincludethosewhofight for women's intereststoberepresented.This iswhatnecessitatesnot onlystudying howmany womenareinParliament (or ,descripti ve represe ntation) butalso their activitieswhilesittingasrepre sentatives (substantive
beingovernment,butillis crucialthat thesewomenact,Thisiswhat ismeantbysubstantive
found thatindeed, women'sinterests are distinctfrom men's interests andthat womentendtobe
morelikel ytorepresent womensubstantively,both inCanadaand abroad. Whether itbethe UK (Child s and Withey, 2004),NewZealand (Curtin , 2008), the UnitedStates (Mans bridge,1999) or inCanada (Trembl ay,1998;Trimbleand Arscott , 2003)scholars have shown thatwomen are likelytorepresenttheinterests ofwomen .Whatisnotnecessarilyclear,however,is exactlywhat is encompasse d in theterm"Women'sInterests". A substantialbodyofresearch has explored the meanin g of"women'sinterests,"and thetype s ofthingsthatfallunder thi sh ead ing.Th is section explores what ismeantby "Women'sInterests",and how thisaffects the substantive representationofwomen.
Womenand mencontinu etohave separa te responsibiliti esin society, and therefore,main tain uniquesetsofinterests.Thetwo sexescont inue to be socialized differently and toholdunequ al responsibiliti eswithinth efamily structurewith women still undertakinga higherproportion of theunpaiddomestic work(Elder,2004;Fox andLawless,2005;Thorntonet.al, 1983).
Consequently, issues suchas welfare andsocial benefits affect womenmorethanmen (Poggione, 2006).As aresult,theinterests andpriorities of men andwomen can differ.
Thereis some agreemen tthro ughoutthe worldasto whatconstitutes"Women' sInterests"in politic s,usuall ybased on thetypes ofposts women tendto hold. Inhisinternational study, Reynolds(1999)findsthat:
Themostpopularportfoliotobehandl edby a woman world wideisHealth(48, or 14 percent ofthetotal),which isclosely followed byWomen's Affairs(47,or13 percent),
Education(32,or9percent),Culture/Arts(32,or9 percent),andFamily/ChildAtTairs (30,or8 percent) (565).
Reynolds'findingsregard ingthep ortfoliosthat women dom inateare supported by others.
Escobar-LemmonandTaylor-Robinson(2005)identify"culture,education,environment,family, health, women'saffairs"(829) aswomen'sinterestsin theirstudyof Latin America.Simi larly, Krook andO'Brien (201I)include"children, education,health , and women's atTairs"as
"Women's Interests"inCanada(13).InCanada,Tremblay(1999)arguesthat"Women's Interests"tendtobe"health care,care of the elderly,education,housingand the environment"
(440).Tremblay makesafurtherditTerentiationbetween"Women'sInterests"and"women's rights".Tremblay's"women'srights"resembles whatotherscholars havereferredtoas
"women'saffairs".The Canadian equivalentof a"women'saffairs"committeeisthe Status of Women Committee. Notonlyarecertaincommittees associatedwithwomen,"Women's Interests" suchashealthand environment, but thereisoftenalso acommitteededicated specificallyto"women":"women's affairs"or"women'srights",However,allcommittees associatedwith"Women'sInterests"and"women's rights"tendtobeundervaluedin prestige and there fore, substantivelyrepresent ingtheinterestso fwom encanhave aunfortun ate etTecton thecareersof thesepoliti cians' .Thisisnottosaythat thesecommitteesorinterestsare,infact, unimportant,butinsteadthattheydonothavethesame f!uidityintopowerasmoreprestigious positions(suchasthe"Pipeline"positions).If indeed,theseinterestsaremoreimportantto
Parliam entand thus,illustrat esan exampleofinequality tha t mayham per gende requality within the politicalrealm inCan ada.
Thec onsequences ofb eingfemaleandth enf ocusingon women's interestswithinCanadian Parliamenthasbeensho wn tohave a strong but varied relationship .Trembl ay and Trim ble (2004 )arguethat"gendercontinue st o act as ac au sal vari abl e shap ingthecharacteristics and careersoffederal politicians,but itseffect s are comple x and multi- dimen sional"(98).The relation shipbetweensex and careerpath isbothcomplic ated and very strong. The opinionsand pathsof maleand femalepolitician scontinue tovary. Love nduski andNorris(2003) findthat:
Indeed ,althoughfemalelegislators resemble theirmale colleag uesmorethan the average wom an,they still differ signi fican tly frommale Parl iam entarian sin theirParli am entary invol vem ent(Poggione, 2006;Trimble andArscott,2003) . However,these wome n' sinterests arestill undervalu ed.Studiesfind thatwom en arebeingdelegatedtotradition alwomen's interest sand theseare not theintereststhatthe studies define asbein ghighin presti ge(Escobar- Lem monand Taylor-Robi nson , 2005;Heathet al. , 2005).Furthermore,lIeath et al.(2005 ) argue that,"whereawomen' s issues committee exi sts,women arelesslikel yto sit on power and economics/foreign affairscommittees"(425),indicatingthat the mere existence of committees
suchastheStatusof Womencommitteeencourageleadersto appo int womentotokenpositions.
InCanada,the effectremains; women infrequently receive"top jobs"and women'sinterests are
"large ly ignor edin Parliament "(Trimble and Arscott,2003:139).Simultaneou sly,wome n
remainshutoutof mostleadershiproles,especiallyingoverning parties.Wh enitcomest o women'sunderrepr esent ation,itmay be descriptiverepresentation that isthe problem.It isnot thatwomenarenot representingwomen;it isthatwomencannotrepresentwomenin Parliament if theyhavenot run for office.
2.2. \Vomen ' sPresen cein Legislature s
Men stillgreatlyoutnumberwomeningovernments throughouttheworld.Whydoesthis gender gappersistafter years(and indeed,manydecades)of political parlicipationofwom en?
Explanations are usuallydividedup into two categorie sa)theremaining societ aldifferences betweenmen and women;and b) thegendered politicalenvironmentthat still exists.The participationof womeninCanadianParliamenthaslingered aroundthe20%marksince Kim Carnpbell's shOrlstintasPrimeMinisterinI993(althou ghmany scholar s of genderandpolitics in Canada were please dtosee the numbe rriseto 25%in20 11,largely asa resultof the NDP' s electoralsuccess).Generally speaking,thenumberof womenrunningforoffice (and subsequently,becomingelected, holding prestige positions, andleadership) hasbeenmaintain ed
getinvolved in politics.
2.2.1. Runningfor Office
"Theprimaryreasonfor women'sunderrepresentationisthat womenaresignificantly lesslikely to choose torun than men"(Elder,2004:27).
Women sitinParli ament ata much lowe rproportionthanmen,and the progress towardsequality in Parliarnenthas reacheda standstill(Trimbleand Arscott,200 3,Bashevkin,2009).Elder (2004)argues thatthe mainexplanationfor thisis foundat the electoraltevel.Women simplyare notrunningforoffice.If women do not offer themselves as candidates,thereare onlya small numberofwomenintheelectoral pool originall y.Less of thesenomin eesbecome elected politiciansandthus, there are evenfewerto choosefrom forhigher positions.Thereisno singular expl anation astowhy women decid etorun,or nottorun,for office.Yet,as Elder states,theyare still muchlesslikelythanmen to consider running.Whatmakes wome n distinct inthisaspect?There are aquite a few possible explanations. Primarily,women andmenstill experienceadifferent socialization and farnilylifethatultimatelyimpacts this decision(Elder, 2004; Foxand Lawless, 2005;Thomt on et.al,1983;Bashevkin,2009).Additionally,thefemale exper ienceof campaig ningcan also be morenegativethanthemale experiences, potentially discou ragingwomen from runningfor office(Gidengil andEveritt,2000).
Gendered Media Coverageon the Campaign Trail
Researchhasfoundthatwomen facedifferentbarriersthanmenwhen camp aigning.Women are judgedmoreharsh!ythantheirmale counterpa rts;this criticismranges fromfocusingontheir toneofvoicetotheir physical appearan ce(Bashevkin,2009;Gidengiland Everitt,2000;
Mcdermott,1998 ;Plut zer and Zipp;1996).Womenmust fit intoboththestereotypeofa politician,banda woman(Bashevkin,2009). Gidengil and Everitt(2000) foundthatin the1993 Canadian federal election"coverageoffe ma!e politicalleaders[was)morefilteredthanmen' s"
(105).Theyarguethat,
As aresult,women mustbemilitantinadapting theirbehaviour. and theyoperateinamore regulated environment thanmaleswho arealsocampaigning. Thiscreates a setting in which femalep oliticians aren ot only assessed onthe ir capabilities asapolitician,but also as a traditionalfemale.This acts as adeterrent for womenconsideringrunning foroffice.Women often havetomake thechoice to faceanextralevel of criticismof theirpersonal !ife,aboveand beyondthat ofthe averagemale politician.
StereotypesaboutWomen's Roles
Thenegativ e stereotype wom enface whilecam paignin gis exagge rated oncevotersreac h the poll s;stud ies (McDenn ott,1998 ;Alexand er andAnders on, 1993)havefoundthatwhe nvoters havelittle othe r infonn ation ab outcandid ates,theyrelyongender toinferv ot e-det enninin g inform ation .When gende r is associa ted with cert aincharacteri stics,for example.when males are associated with more arnbition (Larim er etaI.,2007), decidin gavote based onthe genderof the candidatecan havetheunfort unateeffect of attributingacharac teristicto acandid ate simply becauseof their gender.Theresultisthatpoliticianscontinueto facebarri er sbecau se of gende r stereo typeseven after the carnpaignhasended .Howe ver,it isnotonl ythegenderstereo typeson the campaigntrailthatare impactin g awoman' sdecision torun,butthe gender role distribut ion in the greatersociety alsohasthiseffect.
Stereotypesregardin g gende r-appropriate workinflue ncethe likel ihoodthata wom anwilldecid e torun for office.Wom en still holdalargerprop ortionoffamil yre spon sibilities andhaveless leisuretimethanmen(Bashevk in,2009:7).Wom en aremorelikelyto still facethe doubl e sh ift at homeandat work.and thereforehaveless freetimethanmento explore and dedicateto other endeavourss-suchasrunningforoffice. Iftheydodecidetorun for office,their responsibilities arecompoun ded.Yet,it isnot simply theirincreasedrespon sibilities,but the view-bothof the
largersocietyand their ownself-pe rception- rega rdi ng womeninpoliticsthatkeepswomen
fromrunning in largernumbers.
Avarietyof factorsimpactthe viewofwhatconstitutesappropriate"women'sroles"insoc iety.
Thomton et al.(19 83) attribut es"youth,labor force experie nce,and education al atta inme nt...to
the formationofegalitarian viewsof women'sroles,whilechurch attendanceanda fundamentalistProtestantreligiousidentification tend to preservemoretraditional outlooks"
(211).Younger, well-educated,membersof thepopulationwith jobexperienceare more likely than their religious,older.traditionalcounterpartstosupport egalitarian rolesinsociety.
Therefore,these factorsarelikelyto impacthowafemalepoliticianisregarded,byherselfand bylargersociety.
Self-Perceptionand the Decision to Run
Society'sviewsofappropriaterolesfor women impacttheopportunitiesfor thosewomento
have politicalroles.Theseviewpointsinfluence thestereotypes women facewhilerunningfor officeand their own opinionsaboutwhetheror not theyare suitablecandidates. It isthis self- perception that often causeswomen to decide not to run in an election.Women arelesslikelyto viewthemselvesasa potentialpolitician,and consequently,are notthrowingtheirhatsinto the politicalarena. Fox and Lawless(2005)argue that:
Women,therefore,arelesslikelyto believe they wouldmakea goodcandidate.Theirp ast asa memberofapoliticallye xcludedgroup-asawoman-furtherdecreasestheirchancesof presentingthemselves asa potentialpoliticalrepresentative.Thiscan be compoundeddepending ontheir"politicized upbringing"(orlack thereof)and theiradditional"status asamembero f a
group historically excludedfrom politics", suchasan ethnicgroup. Elder(2004)agreeswith Foxand Lawless(2005), arguing that, "po liticalgenderrolesocialization, al ack ofp olitical confidence" (27)contribute tothe chancesthatawomanwill present herself as a candid ate.
Contributing tothisrelationshipiswhatVerbaetal(1997 ) describe as adisengagementfrom politics-morewomen than menfeeldistancedfromthepolitical realm, "Womenareless politically interested,informed,and efficaciou sthanmenandthatthis gendergapin politi cal engagement hasconsequencesfor political participation"andthat"genderdi fferencesinpolitical interest,information,andefficacy"must alsobeconsideredto explainthegendergapin politi cal parti cipation(105 1).Although,Elde r highlights self-selectionasthe most important factor explaining why womenarenotrunning at the same rates asmen (whytheyhave alower descripti ve representation) thisisnotthe only factorthatimpactstherelationship. Elder(2004) expands the explanation to include"familyresponsibilitiesandthe relativelyfewnumberso f visiblewomen role modelsinpolitics"(27).Thesefactor scombinedcontribu teto an unwelcomingenvironment forpotentialfemale candidates evaluatingadecisiontorunin an election. lt ismuch less appealingtodecideto runforofficewhen you areaware thatyour personallife willbescrutinize d.Additionally,withso fewwomen inParliament,itisdifficultfor the existingwomen to setaprecedent -andactas arolemodel-forfuture,aspiringpoliticians.
TheRo/eMode/Eff ect
Theavailabilityof femalepolitica lrolemodelsisa significant factor inencouraging womento run for office.Without femaleleadersand politiciansto lookuptothejob of politicianbecome s viewed asa maleprofession.Thisisanexampleof a"chicken ortheegg"scenario; womenare
morelikelyto runifwomen alreadysit in Parliament-but female politica lrolemodelscannot existwithout firstrunning.If women do notseeother womenholdingpoliticalpositions,theyare lesslikelyto envision themselve s aspotentialcandidates(Hoogheand Stolle, 2004). However, the benefitsof havin gfemale rolemodelsarenot limited to thisencouragement. Role models can alsoincreasethechancesofvoterschoosinga particular party andofthelikel ihood of candidatesfocussingon"Women'sInterests"whilecarnpaigning.Thelackof role modelscan help explaintherecent plateauin representationof women in Parliament-womenarelesslikely to run withoutrolemodelsandcandidatesare lesslikelyto focuson"Women'sInterests"if women are not alargeproportion of candidates.
Elder (2004)arguesthatthisrolemodel effect isa particularly noteworthyfactorforencouraging women to run forpolitics,andthat:
Youn gwomenlook to theserolemodelsasaguide-tosee whichopportunitiesthatwill be available tothem when theybecomewomen.InCanada,this situationisparticularlydire-we have onlyhad one femalePrime Minister-for short period ofsix month s.Few womenhold
positionsof prestigewithinthe executive - only onewoman (A. AnneMclellan)hashelda
"Pipeline"cabinetpost sincesince1997, and no womanhaseverheldthepo sitionofMinisterof Finance.Without theserole models to refer to,theself-doubting cycle continuesand fewer women are encouragedto becomepoliticians in Canada.
Whilewomen are morelikelytorun whentheycanenvisionthemselvesinthe role,thisefTectis not limited to adultwomen.Studieshave found thisrelation shiptoexistarnong young, adolescentgirls.Changesin presscoverageefTecttheinformation girls receiveabout female politicians,and thus,theacceptabilityof women as strong political Ieaders.Carnpbelland Wolbrecht(2006)found that:
Considering the role-mod el cycle, it isclear that,aslesswomenocc upyhighprofilepositions- fewergirls vicariouslyenvision themselvesin thesepositions.
TherolemodelefTectexists on other levelsof political life asweII.Thegend erof high-profile politicianshasbeen found to impactthesubstantiverepresentation of womenand party pereept ionbyvoters.O ' Neill(l997)foundthat afemaleparty leaderresultedin:
The existenceofa femalepartyleader persuadesvoterstosupport theirparty.In this way,role models also increasethe electora lchancesofaparty.O'Neill(1997)doesnot believe thisisdue to increased substantive representation-"theneedtoimprovethestatusof women and insupport offemini sm"(lll) -butinstead ,an increasein descriptiverepresentation(the voterstendenc yto positivelyevaluatethepartyleaders).Thislend sadditionalsupport tothenecessityof descriptiv e representation.
Additionally,otherstudiesfind thatif astrongcandidateexists,it maylead toan increasedfocus on women'sissues-iftheseissuescouldpotentiall yholdabenefitelectorally.Murray( 2008)
Theenvironment regardingwomen'sissueschange sifthoseissuesbecomesalient for other candidates-thus, allowing a focuson women'sinterests. In this event,strongfem alecandidatcs become agendasetters for theirdistrict.On theotherhand,ifstrong femalecandidate sare not runningfor office-thereislesspressureon othercandidatesto addresswomen' si ssues.Itis bettertohave astrong female running,who doesnot becom e elected,thantohave nostrong femalecandida teatall.Not onlycan rolemodelsencouragewomen to run foroffice,butstrong femalepolitical role modelscan havethe additionalbenefitsofrecruitingfemalevotersand increasingthefocuson women' s interests.
2.2.2. The Impact of Polit ical Parties
One factorthatimpactsa woman'sexperience in Parliamentisthepoliticalpartyto whichshe belongs-andthere arcanumber of explanationsfor this. First, women havebeenfound to be more left-leaningthan their malecounterpart s(Escob ar-Lemmonand TaylorRobinson,2005;
Ingleh artandNorris,2000; Gidengilet aI., 2003; Wirls,1986 ;andConover, 1988) .Thismight suggestthat thesepartiesare more female-friendly-orthatwomen tend torelateto theissues that lefti stpartiesare likelytoadopt. Regardl ess,th eirinclinationtowardsleftparties canbet o their advantage,asthesepartiesare more likelytopromote and reward womenwith politic al opportunities.
In their 2005study of LatinAmerica,Escobar-Lemmon and Taylor-Robinson(2005)found that leftist governments were morelikely to appointmorewomenandto increasinglyprestigious
positions.StudlarandMoncrief(l999)came to asimilar conclusionregarding femalepoliticians in Canadianprovincial politics.It islikely then,that leftistpartieson thefederallevelwould appointwomento moreprestigiouspositionsthanthemoreright-leaningparties.However.this basicrelationshiphasbeenunexploredattheCanadianfederalleveI.
It hasbeen establi shedthough,thatthe experi ences of women withinthe partiesvary(Trimble and Arscott,2003;Bashevkin ,1993;Lovenduskiand Norris,1993).Thismight bebecause federal politicalpartieshavediffered in theirapproach to female inclusion.Throughouthistor y, each party has adopted differentapproaches and mandatesforappealingto women and increasingwomen'sparticipation;consequentl y,each partyhasmetwith varyingresult s.
Measures such as nominationquotas,for example,havebeenadopte d briefly(by some parties)
asameansto increaseparticipation bywomenat the elec toral level.Secondly,theatmosphereof politica l partiesand their levelof openness,affectsthe experienee ofthose women.
The NOP,particularly,possessesaunique"thirdparty"status in Can adian federal polit ics -this distinctive role inthepolitica lrealm hasthe potentialto broadenthe definitionof"Success"
within thatparty (andsubsequently,thepathtosuccess)soasto bern ore inclusive to traditional women'sinterests.Iftheprioritiesand platformsof thesepartiesresemble"Women'sInterests",
success withinsuchapartyhasa differentmeaning. This study aimsto uncover whatandhow political party influencesthe experiencesof Members of Parliamen tand whetheror not theyare morelikely to become success ful in aparticular politica lparty.The NOP,asthe "third"party, hasan unusualpositionwithin the Canadianfederalrealm.Primari ly,the fact thattheNOP has neverbeen afederal governingparty allowsthem an independence fromthelimitationsfaced by thegoverning parties.Bowlerand Lanoue (1992)posit that Ouverger' sLawpitsthe NOP asa
"peripheralactor"(485).Inthat way,the NOPisableto somewhatcircumve nt traditionalparty competition to operatewithinindependentstandards. Theycan foeusonissuesnot adoptedby traditionalparties-or traditiona lissuesin aunique way.
AlthoughYoung( 1996)arguesthatthe"cohesive ,impermeablecharacterof Canadianparties and athree-partysystemhavepreventedthe Canadian [feminist]movementfrom developin gan exclusiverelationshipwithany oneparty"(229) and the Canadianfemi nist movement hashad a
"growing apartisan orientationsincethemid-1980s"(229),theNOP is still considered to hold
valuab legroundwith Canadianwomen.Ericksonand O'Neill(2002)arguethatCanadian womenare morelikely thanmen to vote for partiesontheleft,inparticular,the NOP.
Furthermo re, of the three womento lead electorall y viable federalpart ies inCanada-two headedthe NDP: AudreyMcLaughlinfromDecember1989toOctober1995and then, Alexa McDonoughfromOctober1995toJanuary 2003. ThethirdwasKimCampbell, thefirst (and only) femalePrimeMinisterof Canadawhoserveda shortsixmonth s asleaderofthe Progressive Conservatives - June toDecemb er 1993(Trimble and Arscott,2003 :72-73).
Women seemtopenetrateleadershiproles with theNDP more frequently,andforlongerperiods oftime,ina waythatisunprecedentedwithinthe otherfederal politicalp artie s.ltis yett ob e determined if thesame effect willexist fortheGreenParty,and leader ElizabethMay,elected as
Studlaran d Monc rief (1997)arguethatat theprovinciallevel,it istheproportionof the governing caucusthatis composedof womenthatismorelikelytoinIluencetheproportion of womenin cabinet, rathe rthantheproportion of femalememb ers of thelegislatur e as a whole.In Canadaspeci fically, part ies with morewomenare likelytopromote women to cabinet.This sugges ts thatthelack of women inCanada'sgovem ing partie sisdirectly relatedtothelevel of powerthatwomenareable to achieve-yetagain, we see that descriptiverepresentation affects the substantive capabiliti es of female politicians.The female-friendly atmo sphere ofl eft-leanin g parties,includingtheir voluntary nomin ationquotas,helpto increasesupport from female voters and to supportgender equalityin Parliam ent.Measures suchasthesehave thepotent ial to overcomeinherentgende r barriersinCanadian politi csthatremaindespite yearsof politica l particip ationbywomen.
2.2.3 .Quota Systemsan d How TheyCan Incr easetheRepre sent ation ofWomen
Onemeasurein particularhas consistentlyshown toincreasethenumberof womenin governme nts-quotas.Adoptionofsuch quotas,therefore,hasthepot enti alto jumpstartfem ale particip ationin Canada' sParliamentand circumventtheexisting barriersto women'sdescriptive representationingovernment. Asa result, examining possiblequotaimplementation inCanada- and adopting such measur es-couldallowwomen an increased prese ncein Parliamentwithout major societal change.More women in Parliament couldresultinincreasedopportunities for women,aswell asmoresupport-andthus,moreattention givento-women'sissues.lf women
con stitutealarger proportionof the seats in Parliament ,a larger pool ofwomenwillexist to choosefrom for high- rankin gposition sand a criticalmasswillexist tobringincre ased suppo rt for theissue sintroducedbywomen.However,quotashaveonlybeen employed inCana da on a voluntary levelby two parti es,theLiberals and theNDP,with the former aba ndoning these measures short ly aftertheirado ption.
Heathetal. (2005)identify anumberof instituti onalfact ors asin fiuencin gan inc reaseinthe descriptiv erep resent ationof women .FirstPastthePostel ect oraIsystems,aswellasleader- basedcommitteeand cabinetappointment struc tures(both ofwhichCan adahas ) can disad vant agewomen politicians.In order toencour age gende r parit yinParliament.Bashe vkin (2009 )and othersrecommend the ado ption of quotas.Researchon quota sforwomenin politics hasincreasedin the past couple decade s(Krook,2009). ThisispartiallyduetowhatKrook (2009)describe s as a"surgeof interest in politicalrepre sentation"(3).The ad optionofquotas hasincreasedexpone ntiallysince the1995 UNConf erenc eon Womenin Beijing:
Quotasarebecomin g afast growing trendin politicsand political research(Kro ok, 2009:4).
Krookli ststhreet ypesof genderquotas.First,reserved seats requirethataset numberof seats are setaside for female candida tes and polit ician s.Thistype of quota function sdifferentl y dependingon theelector alsystem of thegiven area (6).Second ,legislativequotasprovidethe newe st genre of quotapoli cy.Thistypeofquotagene ra llytakes theform0flegislationpassedby nationalassemblies that requirespartiesto nominatea certainnumberofwomeninelections(8).
Third,partyquotasaresim ilar to legislativ equotas except that theyare ado pted volunt aril yby partiesthemselve s.Partiescansugges t thatthey aim toreach acertainproportionoffem ales within theirnominees(7),and often placethesepoli ciesdirectl yinto their partyconstituti on s.
Partyquotashavebeen implementedin vary ingway sinCanada, with differences across provinc es and parties.
Fem alenom inationquotatargetswereintroduc edin theinthe 1993 and1997el ection s as an attempt to increase the number of womennomin atedby each party(Trimble andArsco tt,2003:
60).TheProgressive Conservatives did notintroducesuch measure s;howeve r, the Libera I Party and the NOP both attempted to fill more candida tespotswith female s-a 25%goal for the Liberalsanda50% goalforthe NOP.Each part ymetwithsomesuccess- 28% oftheLiberal
candidateswere femalein the1997,upfrom22%in 1993.Similarly,theNOP nom inated 39%
fem alesin 1993,and36% in 199 7.Despitethis success, theLiberalPartydid not ren ewthis com mitment for the 2000 election.TheNOP cont inu esto attempt to reach gende r parityin its
nominationprocess.An adoption of aquotasystem can encouragethepartyto increaseitsfocus onequality inParliam entandhelpencou ragewom ent orunfor office-therefore,increasingth e
maythenleadtomore womenin the higher ranks of power.
CABINET PORTFOLIOS, WOMEN'SROLES, AND CANADIAN POLITICS
Therepresentation ofwomen inlegislatur es (orlackthereot)has adistinct effect besides just the representationfor women'sinterests.Itcan also lead to a genderspeci fic (male-dominated) organizat ionalstructure.Ithasbeensuggeste dthatthegende rof participan tsaffects thewayin whichorganizations function.Womenhavebeen found to operate differentlyin committeesthan
men (Kathlene,1994;Rosenth al,1998). Rosenthal (1998) statesthat,"comparedtotheirmale colleag ues,womencommitteechai rsonaverage alsoreport agreater relianceoncollaborative strategies in themanagement oftheir committees"(847).Kathlene(1994)states that "asthe proportionofwomenincreases inalegislativebody,menbecomemoreverbally aggressiveand
controllin g ofthe hearing.Wom enlegislators maybe seriously disadvantaged andunabl eto partici pate equallyin legislati vepolicymakingin committeehearings"(560).Cabinetand committe es continue to operateinamale-dominated sphere.
Infact,Heath et al (200 5) argue that "toachievefull incorporationintothelegislative arena, newc omers must domorethan just winseats. Theymustchangethe institutions that allow the
traditio nallydomin ant group tohoard scarce polit icalresources"(420). For women tobe underrepresentedin politi cs istoperpetuate amale-centredpoliticalstructure that will continue todisadvantagewomen and continu etobeimpenetrable for wom enpoliticians and leaders. An organ izational structuregenerated by onegender disp roportionatelymorethan theother,isto have apoliticalstructure determin edbyinequality.
Wom en ' spresenceisimportantfor substantive repr esen tation,buttheirpresenceisimport ant sym bo licallyas wel l. Asdiscussedabove,women'spresen ceinlegislatureshasan important rolemodeleffect,and normativ ely,demonstrate sthat thelegi slature isinclusiveandrepresents thepopulation.However,the sym bolic importan ce of women ' spresenceextend sbeyond simply attainin g seats in the legislature .The natureoflegi slative activity andleader shiprolesof membersofParliamen tisalsoimportant. Only aminority of politician s are able to enter the upperlevel sof power-of these,fewarewomen . Studies hav e shown thatwomentendtobe delegatedpositionsas sociatedwithwom en'sint erests andthattheseposition sarenotgenera lly
consideredto be presti giou s.Thus,for"traditionallydominantmalepoliticalleader s"to
"distribute scarce politicalresource s"to femalesr epr esent s ac onflict -there arelimited seats
and womenfreque ntlyreceivethe position s of lower status (Esc obar-Lemmonand Taylor- Robinson , 2005).
Membersofthe politicalexecutiv e -thecabin et - formthe gove mm en talelite.To beplacedin cabinet isto achievea level of politicalprestige and powerthat isbeyondthelevelafforded to the average politician.AsStudlarandMoncri ef (1997) state,"acabin et pos ition isa m uch stronger positionfromwhichtowieldpowerinan executiv e-cent ered and party-di sciplin ed Parliamentary system"(67) .Thus,in orderforwomento gainsubsta ntialpowerwithin government,itisimportantthattheyare represented withincabinet. Furthermore.Atchison
(2009-and others, see Thom as,1991)findsthathavin gwom enin cabinetdoesmak e a difference-theyare betterpositi onedthan female sinlegislaturestos uccess fullypass fema le- friendlypolicy.Curtin(2008)addsto thisby arguing that, "the descriptiverep resent ationof womenin cabinetis anecessarybut not suffic ient conditiontoach ieve wo men-friendly poli cy
outcomes. Rather, substantive representation ofwomenbywomenpoliti calleadersalso requires women'spolitic al activism"(490). When women areplaced in cab inet,theytendtopursue substantive repre sent ationfor women-andthey areable todo thismore effectivelywhen they are in po sition sof power, asin theexecutiv e .How ever,whe n in theexecutive,women areoften placedin positionsof lowerprestige and power.Asthe levelof prestigeincreases,women's presenceislesscomm on .
Researchalsopointstotheimportance ofacriticalmass - amass thatsupportswomen's interests. The abilit y of woment omake adi fference whileincab inet isfurther influencedby whetheror not theyaresupported bytheir peers.Thomas (1991)states that"women do indeed make adifferenceand thattheir capaci ty todo sois related tothe levelof support from colleagues"(958).Curtinspecifies that an"in fluentialj eministreference group is anecessary suppleme nt towome n'sexecutive presence"(490,emphasisadded).Thus,not only must women be chose n for theseposition sbuta supportsystem increasestheirchances of beingheard while in cabinet.A critical mass-of criticalactors -mustaccompanywomeninordertomost effectively
Inorder to bestinfluence policy,wom enmustbecon sid eredforimportant positionswhen power isdistributedamongstpoliticians,asmostpower isparticularlyconcentratedin asmall number ofposition s.Thus,it isnot simply theappoinlmenltothe cabinetthatmatter s,buttowhichthe portfoliomatters,aswell. Cabinet memb ersdohave ahigherlevelof pow erthan aMemb er of Parliarn ent-whichis accompanied by anincreased ability toinfluencepolicy-making.
3.1 Delerminingth ePresti ge ofCabine t Portfolio s
While beingappointed to cabinet isasignificant indicatorofalegislator' simportanceand positionwithinthegove rning party,thereisanother importantdistinctiontobemadewithin cabinetitself ,betweenregularportfoliosand "topjobs."These "topjobs" arerolesthatcome equipped with the highestlevel sof prestigeand power. Globa lly,womentendto not be appointed to thesehighprestigeposts(Escob ar-Lemmonand Taylor-Robinson, 2005;Heath et al.,2005;Reynolds,1999). Additionally,portfolios associated with women aregenerally not consideredto be prestigious.Whichpositionsaretop jobs?AccordingtoTrimble and Arscott (2003)'~opjobs" aredefinedby thefact thattheyeonfer statusandleadership (184).Worldwide, portfoliosrelated to finance and foreign affair shave beenshown tohoidpowerandinfluence withingovemment s.lnt heCan adiancontext,theMinisterofJusticei san addition al"top position"(Bashevkin2009:130) .CanadianfemalepoliticianshoIdadisproportionat elylow number of these"top jobs"(Trimbleand Arscott,2003:3).
Therearea variety of methodsfor measurin gtheprestige ofportfolio s. Everitt (201I)and Escobar-Lemmonand Taylor-Robinson(2005),distinguishrolesas"high, mediumand low prestige"-indicatingascale of importance.Escobar-L emmonand Taylor-Robinson(2005) describehigh level ministrie s asthosethat"exercisesignificant controlover policy,are very prestigiou s,and arehighlyvisible "-including"FinanceandEconomy,Foreign Affairs, Governm ent/Interior,and Public Securityand Defense"(833).Medium-prestigeministers, on theother hand, "controlsignificant financialresource s,but lack the prestigeoftopposts:
Agriculture,ConstructionandPublicWorks,Education,Environment andNaturalResources, Healthand SocialWelfare,Industryand Commerce ,Justice,Labo r,Transportation,
Communicationsand Information,and Planningand Development "(833).They include all other portfolios(many that could beclassifiedas traditionalwomen'sinterests)as"low- prestige and offer fewresource sfor patronage"(833).Theseinclude:Childrenand Family,Culture, Scienceand Technology,Sports,Tourism,Women'sAffairs.ministersforreform of thestate, tempor aryand transientministrie s,and ministerswithoutportfolio (833).
Moon and Fountain(1997) utilizea methodthat groups portfoliosbasedontheirt ype-
"defining, physicalresourcesandsocial"- which isbasedon a defin itionbyRose,1976.Moon and Fountain (1997) describethesecategories asencomp assingparticularportfolios:
What isgenerallyassociated with traditionalwomen'sinterests arc identifiedbyMoon and Fountain (1997) and Rose(1976)as "social" .Laverand Hunt (1992)advanc e onestep furtherto confer rankingsonto theseportfolios.
The position sofFinanceandForeignAffa irsare consistentl yfound to beprestigiousinavariety ofgovernme nts-from Latin Americato Australia(Heath etal.,2005;Moonand Fount ain, 1997) .InCanada, theseportfoliosarealsoprestigiou s, andin addition,Juslicei su sually consideredto be a top job.Accordingto Laverand Hunt (1992),the highestrankedportfolios in Canada(with I constitutin gthehighestrankingand 10asthe lowestranking)are:Finance (1.50),ExternalAffair s(3.05),Trade(3.85),andJuslice(5.31).Bashevkin' s( 2009) categorizationoftopjobsal soinclude sJu slice,butexclud esTrade.
What are theimplications ofthisdefinition of "Pipeline" posts?If only threetofourpositions are consideredhi ghlypr estigious,only a smallnumber of politicians can gainaccess to these keysto power . Furthermore,noneoftheseprestigious portfoliosoverlapswithvtraditionalwomen's interests"- indicating that" Women'sInterests"arenots imilarlyequippedwithprestige.By extension,focusing onactivities relatedtotheseinterests willnotincrease prestige forth eM P - andindeed cankeepthe MPfrom beinginvolvedininterests that aremoreprestigious:timeand resources arelimited.MPs cannot doeverything.
Portfolio Allocotion:Thelm pact ofOffi ce-Seeking Tendencies
The Canadian politicalenvironmentand the factors influencing careeradvancementmay affect why "topjobs"are moreprestigiousthan"Women' sInterests". Laverand Hunt(1992)found that Members of Parliarnent inCanadatend toberegarded as "office-seeking" moreso than
"policy-seeking."They state that thesecabinet positionscanbe:
On thissca le (las policy-seeking,9asoffice-seeking),Laverand Hunt(1992) rank Canadaat 5.23;thismeansthat Canadian MPs are slightlymore office-seekingthan policy-seeking(163).
CabinetpositionsinCanadaare consideredtobe rewardsoffonn inggovemmentrather thanasa meansto create policy.Cabinetpositions,therefore, are allocated based on who shouldreceive the"valued payoffs"instead of whowouldbe themosteffective policy-maker.Thusthosewho aremorecompetitive contenders- whoHeath(2005)refersto asthe "t raditionallydominant
group" -tend toreceiveth esepo sition sa sapayoff,oram eanst oappease the comp etition .Thi s
"dominantgroup" isalmost entirely composedofmen .
Cabinet portfolios and committee position sare alimited resourc eand theirallocation result sin politicalconsequences for the executive.The numberofpositionsisnotinfinite,and theprestige ofeachposition varies.Therecanonly be one Finance Ministerat any given time,forexampl e, and onlyoneMP receivestheprestigeand power accorded to the position. Inthiswa y, successi s alimitedresource,divviedup throughoutthe party bythePrimeMinister.The PMallocates theseposition sinastrategy ofwhat Laver and Hunt (1992) describe asthe"government fonnation game". Portfoliosar eallocatedbasedonwhatismoststrategicallybeneficialfo rth e executive.Thisrelationshipisespeciall y strongwhen thePMallocates thesepositions,rather than a committee.Reynold s(1999)and Heath(2005)find thatwhen government leader sor the executive controlappointments,asthe PrimeMinisterdoesinCanada,womenarelesslikelyto
beappointed tothesepositions.Reynolds(1999 )arguesthat"ab sence isnot merelyasignof disadvantageanddisenfranchisement,butthe exclusionofwomenfrom positionsof power also compound s genderstereotypes and retard sthepace of equalization"(549). Furthermor e,the positionsthat womenare likelyto be allocatedto tend to beconsideredlowerstatus.This conseq uently impactsthechancesofwomenrising in power.
Women and CabinetPortfolios
One persistentfact regarding womenin theexecutivesoflegislaturesacrossthe world isthat they tendtoreceivc"women' si ssues"cabinet posts.andthese posts arenotgenerallyco nsidered tobeprestigious.Intheir LatinAmerican-conce ntratedstudy, Heathe ta l.(2005)found"that womentendtobeisolated on women's issuesandsocialissues committeesandkeptoffof power andeconomics/foreignaffairscommittees"(420).MoonandFountain (1997) observedasimilar resultinAustralia where"womenministersareoverrepresentedinsocialportfolioareasand underrep resentedin definin gand physicalresourcemobilisationareas"(4 55). "Women'sissues"
are notsynonymouswith"high profile"position s.Thus,while it isdesirableto have women in cabinet,forwomentobe appointed to portfoliospertainingto traditionaIwomen' s spheresisto prohibitthemfrom holding higherranking positions.
In the Canadian context,Clarkeand Korn berg (1979)andTrimbleand Arsco tt(2003) have observeda similareffect(ashave StudlarandMoncrief(I997) atthe prov inciallevel).Women in Canadianpoliticsarestill largeiy focused on"Women'sInterests"and remainexcluded from
'~op jobs."In her I 999 article,Tremblayidentifies "health care,care of the eiderly,education,
housingand the environment"(440)aswomen'sinterests.However,the effectthat the adopti on of theseinterestshason the"Success" of female MPsislargelyunexarnined.lfwomenareless likelyto receive prestigiousportfolioswhen they focuson women'sinterests,thenwhatwomen currentlyfacein Parliament is a glassceiling thatisevenlessperceptible than previousglass ceilings . Thenextfrontierinequality in Parliarnentistobe foughtont he frontlinesofthe
3.2 PartyLeade rship: No Wome n in the Drive r 'sSca t,Who' sDrivin g theCa r?
"Women hovetheirfootinthedoor ondcansit amongthecountry'sleodingp olitico/
decision-makers,buttheyarenotpositionedtoassume/ eodershipofpolitica/ parties, regard/ess oftheirpersona/ qualities " (Trimb/e andArscolI,2003:/59)
Runni ngfor the leadersh ipofapolitical partyisanindicatorof supportfrom party member sand becomingleader confersalevel ofprest ige and power, alevelofpowerthathas been almos t
entirelybeenawardedto maleParliamentarians.Apart from a few exception s,womenhave rarelyfronted afederalCanad ianpoliticalpartyandonlyonce hasa womanledagovemi ng part y.Kim Campbell'scareerasCanada' sonlyfemalePrime Ministerwasmarkedlyshort (six months) and did not survivetheelection.AsBashevkin (1993) states,"thehigher, more powerful and more competitive politicalpositi onsremainoverwhelmingly in thehandsof men"(89).This is afeatur e ofwhatTrimbl eand Arscott (2003) describeasthe"revolvingdoor"of fem ale leadersh ip (women as party leade rsaregenerallyshort-lived positions): "femaleleaders serve, on average,onlytwo yearsin the post"(183) .Womenoften donot hold thesepositions,and even lessfrequently holdthem lon g-term.
If womenare not present in thesepositions-orrarely.and for short periods0ftirnes-this indicatesthatwomenarenotraisinginstatus withinpartiestothesamedegreeasmen.This.
alongwith theirabsencefrom prestigiou sportfolioswithin cabinet,illustratesthatwomenare still not reachinglevels of power comparabletowhatisavailableto men.For th is reaso n,itis importanttoconsiderleadership-includingleade rshipbids-whenconsidering thenature of politicalcareer sand theextent towhich successmay vary accordingto variables suchas sex.
Whilebecomingtheleader of apart yismorediffic ultand demonstratesa higher levelof prestige
andsuccess thansimply running.Therefo re,runningfor the leade rship of apartyis also importantand indicatesmore status thanwhatis afforded totheaverag e MP.
While the numberof femalepartyleaders(and President sand PrimeMinisters) around the world islimited,their presence in theseto p job hasincreasedovertime,ma king itincreasinglypossible to studynot onlybarrierstosuccess, butalso thepathwaystosuccess.The lackof womenin leadership rolesexaggeratesan atmospherethatislessthan welcomingto women.Bystudying theeasewithwhichwomencan reach highlevels of power isto study notonly their impact on women'srepresentation.but alsoth e opportunitiesthe yh avetoinfluence thebasic structure and environmentof politics.Morewomenin politicsnotonlycan changetheissuesthat are address ed, but theway inwhich they are approached and discussed.This factorhasthe potential to inlluence thetotal experience of involvementin politics-ashift possibly fro mco nfrontational methodsto collaborative- thereforealsoencouragingmorewomen,andmoretypesof women.
to become involvedin politics.
3.3. RepresentationalPlateau: WhySludythePeriodof 1997-2011?
As of1993.Canadawasexperiencin gitsown effects of the "Yearof theWoman"-the boom in femalepoliticalparticipationthatAmericahadwitnessedin1992 (Dolan,1998 ;Delli Carp ini and Fuchs,1993;PlutzerandZipp, 1996). Notonly had Canadaswo rn in itsfirst femalePrime Minister,butit was at its "high water mark"forfederal femaleleadership(Trimbleand Arscott, 2003:70.Thcfutureappcarcdtobcbright forgcndcr cquality inParliarnent.Unexpectedly, thingsbegantochange(oractually-remainthesarne)asthe percentage of electedfemaleMPs
reached aplateau and hovered around20% (TrimbleandArscott,2003: 30).Nowomanhas since reachedcomp arablelevels of powertoKim Campbe ll.Thistimeline,therefore,presents an
interestingcasestudyasit representsa uniquepe riodof history."Women' sInterests"were once
prominent on the politica l forefrontand laterdecreasedinpolitical significance. What remains is a plateauforgend er equality.Thisresult sin a newexperienceforworneninParliament, anda freshneed for innov ative solutions to break throughthe lingerin g obstacles.
Explaining /he Plateau
What accounts forthe apparent stagna tion?Academics haveproposed anumber of theo ries regardin gwom en's participatio nin politics. Oneexplanatio nis theshiftinga ttitudi nal perspec tive inNorth Americaregard ingfemalepoliticalparticip ation or"currentcomplacency withthestatus quo"(Trimble and Arscott,2003:160).Bashevkin(2009)explainsthisfurther, demonstratin gthatthepublicfeelsthatequality has already been achieve d:"the seemingsuccess ofpastdecadeshasironically come toform yetanother barrier...we assume thatprogresshas already been made"(8). Supportfor feminis m has beenaleading indicator of how the public feels towardsgenderpari tyin Par liame nt(lnglehanandNorris,2000;Conover, 1988).A number offactorsimpact the strength ofsupponfor fem inism : particularly,workand familylife (Plutze r, 1988;Thornt onet al.,1983);indeed,eventhe priority one placeson materia lism plays a role (Steeletal.,1992).Accord ingtothisperspectiv e,women arc now ataplateauingovernment, fuelledbythcpublic'sbeliefthat equalityhasbeenachieved.However,there are a number of politicalrealmsin which womenare notequaltomen.These arcless visible than inother
decades.It isnotthatwomen arenot sitting intheHouse,but thattheyarelesslikelytohave opportunitieswithinpart iesandthe executive.
Publicpartiesrespondinkindtopubliccompl acency,withtheirown inaction.The attention that political partiesdevoteto genderequalityiscertainlynot at itspeak . TrimbleandArscott(2003) arguethattherewas a:
Short20-yearspanin whichtheunderrepresentationofwomen in politicsreceived an entionasanidentifiable problem onthe publicagenda worthyofpolicysolution, that is,fromroughly themid tolate1960sto the mid tolate 1980s (l 60).
Since thebeginningoftheI990s, thefederal politicalatmospherehaschangedconsiderably.
Gidengil etal.(2003) assertt hatthe1 993 election marked a "re-emergenceof significan tgender gapinsupportofthenew party of theright:womenwere muchlesslikelythan mentovote Reforrn"(I40). Gidengileta l.(2003)argue thatthistrend persistedthroughthe1997 and2000 election,evenafter the rebrandingoftheReforrnParty totheCanadian Aliiance in the2000 election(140).
This gendergap remains with Harper's govemme nt-withmen preferringHarper- "Hewasten percentagepointsweaker among femalesin earlyJuneof[2 004]"and thatgap remain edin2008 (Bashevkin, 2009: 134-5).Harper 's govemment introdu ced othersocial measuresthataidthe explanationastowhyprogress has stalled.His govemmenthasconsistentlyopposedchild-care prograrnsintroducedbythePaulMartingovemm entin2004andsocial prograrnsintroduced duringtheMulroney years havebeen slowly"shredding"(Bashevkin,2009:133-5).Asa result, Canadianshaveincreasinglymorehouseholdresponsibilities,and becausewomenare responsiblefor moreunpaid work thanmen,thisresults in unequalresponsibilities in theprivate sphere(Bashev kin,2009:7).Harperhas appointeda small proportion ofwornen tohiscab inets
and no woman in the recentConservative partyhasheld"top positionscomparableto thoseheld bywomenof theMulroney years and followin g, suchasdeput yprimeminister ,ministerof foreignaff airs , orminister ofjustice"(Bash evkin , 2009:1 30).ltappearsthat progressin women's advancement within thelegislature isnot onlyslowing,butslowl yreversing.
Based on earlier decades,one could assume thatwomen from 1997to 2011 wouldbeoffered moreop portunities,andm orepre stigious positions,than everbe fore.H owever,the oppositeis
true;womenhavebeenofferedfewer prospects .If thisisnot addressed,and thetrend contin ues, womenwill notbeableto achieve positionswith higberlevels ofprestige,andtheir opportunitiesmayactuallydecrease .Thisisthe firsttime since womenenteredCanadian politics thattheir predecessorshavehad more opportunitiesthan thosewho arenow entering.Womenin thisperiodhad few possibiliti esto progressto higherlevel sofsucce ss.even thosewho focus on committeework related to the prestigious "Pipeline"issueareas.
4.1.Dat a andMeasur ingCareers in Parli am ent
The goal ofthis study isto understandthe effect thatcareer pathsandcomm itteem embership
cabinetpostsand particularlyinvestigateswhether focusingon"Women'sInterests"affectsthe likelihood of becomin g"Successful"in Parliarnent.Speci ficaUy,Iask whether politicianswho substantivelyrepresent women (through"Women'sInterest"committees)are lesslikelyto
receive"Pipeline" cabinet posts,lesslikelyto remainin Parliament fora significant periodof time, orlesslikely to becomeleader of theirparty?
To beginto answerthisquestion,Iassembled adatasetoncommittee memb ershipsandcabinet postsfor menand women MPsin the 36thto40thsittingsofParliarnent (1997-201I).Myprimary source ofinfonnationwas theParliamentofCanada website,whichfeaturesprofilesfor each MemberofParliarnentin Canad a.Th erew ere6 28individualMPsintheperiodstudied-495 of theseMPsweremen(78.8%)and 133 werewomen(or21.2%).
4.1.2.Indep endentVar ia bles
Inorder to understandhow involvementwith"Women'sInterests"affectsthe careerpaths of politicians,Ifirst neededto quantify thesubstantive representati on of women .Onewayto conceptualize substantiverepresentationisbyanalyzin gtheMember'sinvolvementin
commineesand cabinetposts/ .The seactivitiesindicatethe areasin which politiciansexpend theireffortsand energy. However,as thesepositionsand membershipsare appointedbythe executive or partyleaders,the selectionof memberscan alsobe analyzedto understandwhich typesof politiciansare placed on whichcommillees.
Ibreak the substantiverepresentationof women intotwodistinctindicators (traditional
"Women'sInterests"andthe"Status ofWomen"),both of whichare based on Tremblay's (1999)study,"Do FemaleMPsSubstantivelyRepresentWomen?A Study of Legislative BehaviourinCanada' s 35thParliaroent".Inthisresearch,Tremblaydefines "Women'sInterests"
billsas separatefrom"women' srights"bills.
Tremblay(1999) pointsto otherscholars who identify women' sinterestsasthosethat"reflect women'sroles as caregiversboth in the familyandsociety"(440).Specifically,she linksthis with involvement in"healthcare,care of theelderly,education,housingand theenvironment".
Thusoneoftheindependent variables in this study,"Women'sInterests",includesan involvementincommilleesorcabinetpostsrelatedto thesefields(seeTable 4· 1).
2Thisis not tosay committee involvementisthe only,or even the most cfTectivetest of Substantive Representation,butinstead,one way ofmeasuringthe activitiesof MPsandhow theyareabletosubstantivclyrepresenti ntercstgroups.
Whatare"Women'slnterests"
committees?
"Women's interests" includeinvolvement
in co mmittee s andlorcabinetpositionsthat corre spondwith Trembl ay'sdefin itionof
"traditional women's interests"-those
relatedto"healthcare,careofthe elde rly, education,housing and theenvironment".
Comm ittees thatrelatetothis incl ude:
HumanRigh ts Thesecom mitt eesreflect thisdefinit ionof
"t raditio nal women'sinterests" .
The"Women'sInterest"variable isbinary:ifapolitician wasinvolvedina"Women'sInterest"
committeeorcabinet post,their involvementwith"Women'sInterests"wascod edasI(while those withoutsuch invol vement werecodedasO).
TheStatusofWomen
Accord ingto Trem blay(\999), "wo men'srights"aredistinctfrom"women' stradit ional interests";"Wom en'srights'tare vthosethatare feministin intentand that dealwith issue s having adirec timpact on wom en" (439). Ther efore,thecommitt ee equivalent to"women' s rights"billsisinvolvem entwiththe comm ittee forthe Status ofWom en.Totestthe effec tof
substantive representati onrelated to"wo me n'srights."participation inlegislativeactivityrelated
totheStatus ofwomen wasincludedas a separate vari abl e.Thisvariableis alsobinary:if anMP
wasinvolvedinthe Status of WomenCommittee (aseitheramemberorastheMinister)they werecodedasI,if not,theywerecodedasO.
Hypoth eses:theExpectedImpact ofSubstant ivelyRepresentingWom en
Thereare anumber of hypoth eses1 propose.First,asHeathetal.(2005) havefound that the existence ofa"women's affairs"committeedecreasesthe chancesthata womanwillbe
promotedtohigh prestigepositions,1hypoth esizethatlegislatorswill be lesslikelyto achieve
"Success"ifthey are involvedin women'sinterests and women ' srights.
Hla:Participationin activiti esrelated/0"Women'sInterests"and theStat us ofWom en leadsMPstoachi eveless "Success".
Secondly,lhypothesizethat womenwillconstitutethemajority ofmemberson these committees.Iexpectthatwe willsee fewermenon these committees thanwomen.
~::ne;:'~~i~:;;a highertendencyto bein"Women 'sInterests "and the Status
0/
I expect thathypoth esesla andIb will bedirectlyrelated.Sincewomenare morelikely to repre sentwomen'sintere stsin committeemember ship,theywillthereforefacethe consequences
of pursuingintereststhatare in fact,lessprestigious,Thiswill Iead them to be lesslikely tohave long careers,lesslikel ytohavehighstatus positionsincabinet, and lesslikelytorun in leadershipconventions.Involvement in these typesof committ ees.however,isnot the sole factor that impacts whetheror nota womanwill become"Successful", but one factorthataffects this result ;for thepurposes of this study, committeemembershipisthe mainvari abletobe examined tounderstandtheimpacton"Success" .
