Telling women to ‘lean in’ won’t get more of them in politics — the parties have left women behind

By Jennifer M. Piscopo via Toronto Star

Men dominate Canadian politics. In the 2021 federal election, men represented 57 per cent of candidates for the Liberal party, 67 per cent of Conservative candidates and 70 per cent of elected MPs.

Yet rarely do we hear about men’s political dominance. Instead, we hear about women’s absence. Women don’t run, the pundits say. Women lack confidence, doubt their qualifications and wait to be asked. Women must, as a 2019 House of Commons report concluded, be empowered to stand.

Enter the “lean in” narrative of women’s underrepresentation. To overcome women’s reluctance, dozens of programs and schools across Canada and the globe are training women to run for office.

Except “lean in” directs attention away from the real culprits — and it won’t bring about gender parity anytime soon.

The lean-in solution exists because research shows that women have less political ambition than men. Study after study from the U.S. found that women were consistently less likely than men to consider running for office. In Canada, one in three men had thought about running, versus one in five women.

Women’s lack of political ambition is a deceptively simple fact. On the one hand, this gender gap does exist. On the other hand, it blames women for their own underrepresentation, implying that it’s female character deficiencies in need of fixing.

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