Workshop - Diversity and Representation in Canadian Legislatures

W501 - Gender and Canadian Legislatures

Date: Jun 12 | Time: 08:30am to 10:00am | Location: 680 Sherbrooke St. West 294

Chair/Président/Présidente : Jonathan Malloy (Carleton University)

Accommodating Parenthood in Parliament: Old traditions and new realities: Susan Franceschet (Unniversity of Calgary)
Abstract: Parliaments around the world have become more diverse in terms of gender over the past 25 years. Globally, women’s legislative representation increased from 11% in 1997 to 26% by 2023. Less progress appears on other dimensions of diversity, namely, age. Individuals aged 35 and under remain significantly under-represented in the world’s elected assemblies, with little change over time (Stockemer and Sundstrom 2022). Researchers have pointed to several reasons for women’s and youth under-representation in elected institutions, but few studies focus specifically on the problems faced by elected politicians with small children. Recent research has, however, explored how parliaments function as gendered institutions to reduce opportunities for women who are mothers (Thomas and Bittner 2018). Scholars have noted that parliaments’ sitting hours are decidedly family-unfriendly and expectations around long workdays and late nights pose burdens on MPs with children, particularly women. Despite women’s growing presence in politics, few elected assemblies have reformed parliamentary procedures to accommodate MPs who are new mothers. Most parliaments lack formal mechanisms for maternity leave, still require MPs to vote in person, prohibit infants in parliamentary chambers, and fail to provide on-site and flexible infant care. My paper compares how two countries with Westminster traditions—Australia and Canada—have responded to calls to accommodate new parents in their parliaments. The paper shows that the limited nature of reforms in both countries owes to the difficulty of transforming old institutions whose culture, rules, and procedures reflect an era when men’s dominance of elite institutions was standard and unquestioned.

Canada's Parliament: Becoming a More Gender and Diversity Sensitive Workplace: Jeanette Ashe (Douglas College), Tracey Raney (Toronto Metropolitan University)
Abstract: Despite some modernizing reforms such as ‘family friendlier’ calendars, violence prevention measures, and Speaker guidelines intended to improve civility and decorum, Canada’s parliament is far from a gender and diversity sensitive workplace. Some members and staff report feeling excluded and marginalized within the parliamentary workplace, with instances of racial profiling, gender-based heckling, and harassment targeted especially at those who identify as women or queer, Indigenous People, Black People, and People of Colour (IBPOC). Using an intersectional and multiple method approach, in this paper we explore Canada’s parliament as a gendered and racialized workplace by identifying gender and diversity (in)sensitivities across four dimensions: infrastructure, culture, participation, and equity policy. To do this, we draw upon interview and survey data with members of the House of Commons and the Senate, as well as with clerks, who have institutional knowledge in leadership (parliamentary actors or bodies responsible for gender and diversity equality), data (gender and diversity information collected and made public), and gender expertise (presence of gender and diversity experts). We use these data and the literature to evaluate the gender and diversity sensitivity measures already implemented and those underway or not yet enacted in Canada’s parliament. The goal of the research is to better understand how parliament as a workplace can be made more inclusive, which will in turn increase its representative function in Canadian democracy.

Insider Reflections on Gender-Based Violence in Canadian Parliamentary Spaces: Cheryl Collier (University of Windsor), Tracey Raney (Toronto Metropolitan University)
Abstract: Recent research has brought attention to the long-standing problem of gender-based violence (including sexism, sexual harassment, psychological and physical forms of violence) in Canadian legislative workplaces at all levels of government (see for example, Raney and Collier eds. (2024 forthcoming), Raney and Collier (2023), Collier and Raney (2018) and its detrimental impacts on women’s and gender minorities’ participation in legislatures and ultimately in the health of our democratic institutions. Women-identified political actors began speaking out more regularly about this persistent problem in the wake of the #MeToo movement and disclosures of gender-based violence against political actors in person and online have continued to be reported in the news on a regular basis ever since (often heightened during electoral contests). Many jurisdictions in Canada at the federal and provincial/territorial level have enacted codes of conduct and anti-harassment policies for political staff and elected members aimed at curbing this violence (Raney and Collier 2024 forthcoming), yet little research has been conducted on how well known and how effective these codes and policies have been since they started appearing across the country just prior to the second wave of the #MeToo movement. Our proposed paper will share insights on this as well as the challenges that GBVP poses to diversity and representation inside of Canada’s legislatures gleaned from survey and interview data from past and present MPs/MPPs/MLAs across the country. The paper will also share the challenges we encountered in conducting this type of data collection and analysis as part of our ongoing research project in this area.

Institutional Newness and Women’s Representation in Canada’s Senate: The Case of Bill C-65: Elizabeth McCallion (University of Toronto), Tracey Raney (Toronto Metropolitan University)
Abstract: Previous research has examined how institutional ‘newness’ creates opportunities for gendered policy change (Chappell 2014; Mackay 2014). When the underlying gendered ‘logic’ of predominantly white, highly masculinized institutions is in flux, spaces for feminist actors to enact gendered policies are potentially created. In this paper we assess how and in what ways institutional ‘newness’ facilitated or curtailed the substantive representation of women’s issues in Canada’s Senate. The Canadian Senate is a useful site case to evaluate institutional change and women’s representation. A new appointments process adopted in 2015 has resulted in some significant changes inside the Senate, including an influx of women and independent senators who are no longer subject to party discipline. Using a feminist institutionalist lens, we ask: have these new senators taken bold steps to stand up for women’s interests? To address this question, we analyse Senate deliberations of Bill C-65, anti-harassment legislation introduced by the Trudeau government in 2018 that applies to all federally-regulated workplaces, including parliament. Using content analyses and archival research of parliamentary records, we focus on senators’ deliberations of the bill inside the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights and on the floor of the Senate. The research contributes to growing literature on the role of parliamentary committees in legislative processes, as well as of the Canadian Senate from a gendered perspective (Rayment and McCallion 2023). The findings have implications beyond the Senate, highlighting the constraints and opportunities for gendered change inside less partisan contexts, such as municipal governments and international organizations.