{"id":94652,"date":"2026-02-26T02:39:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T07:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/informedperspectives.org\/?post_type=research&#038;p=94652"},"modified":"2026-03-23T10:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T14:14:09","slug":"canada-can-achieve-gender-parity-in-politics-heres-how","status":"publish","type":"research","link":"https:\/\/informedperspectives.org\/fr\/research\/canada-can-achieve-gender-parity-in-politics-heres-how\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada can achieve gender parity in politics: here&rsquo;s how"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>How to advance equal representation for women in Parliament<\/strong><br><strong><br><\/strong>Canada is a leader in supporting women\u2019s equality around the world, but at home we are falling behind when it comes to electing women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li style=\"margin-right:0;margin-left:0\">Women won only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/women-in-parliament-1.7640315\">30 per cent<\/a> of Parliamentary seats in the April 2025 election.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Canada places <a href=\"https:\/\/data.ipu.org\/women-ranking\/?date_month=10&amp;date_year=2025\">72 out of 181 countries<\/a> on this metric \u2013 down from <a href=\"https:\/\/data.ipu.org\/women-ranking\/?date_month=12&amp;date_year=2020\">57th five years ago<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li style=\"margin-right:0;margin-left:0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/26563456\">More than 100 countries<\/a> have statutory gender quotas, making us an outlier, and our democratic peers, like France, Spain and Belgium, all require gender parity among candidates.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Why gender parity matters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Representation is fundamental to democracy, and recent research shows that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=D&amp;q=https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/american-political-science-review\/article\/electoral-gender-quotas-and-democratic-legitimacy\/CDA8CB9E942FD178D36EAE26A86FD4CC&amp;ust=1765044300000000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3ecqhzkjwIFw7l9O3MOeY0&amp;hl=en\">voters view decision-making bodies with gender parity as more democratic, more legitimate and more trustworthy and fair than all-male bodies<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=D&amp;q=https:\/\/informedperspectives.org\/resource\/canadians-want-action-on-gender-parity-in-politics\/&amp;ust=1765044300000000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2ngQIDEnwT_6DpGfjZS8_2&amp;hl=en\">86 per cent of Canadians polled<\/a> said equal representation of men and women in politics is important because it strengthens our economy, improves decision-making and better reflects Canadian values.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Continuing to accept men\u2019s over-representation reinforces perceptions that women do not belong in politics and are incapable of wielding power.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Not having gender parity signals to other countries that Canada is not meaningfully committed to gender equality.<br><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-primary-dark-blue-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-73d002b801edb5bd0d255893d16a0908\"><strong>Research conducted by international expert Dr. Jennifer Piscopo, a widely cited professor of gender and politics at Royal Holloway, University of London, examined the approaches other countries adopted to achieve or approach gender parity. Her findings are reflected below:<\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pipeline theory for gender parity debunked<br><\/strong><br>The pipeline theory that gender parity in politics would occur once women caught up to men in education and experience in politics-adjacent fields like law and business is simply not true:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Canadian <a href=\"https:\/\/historyproject.allard.ubc.ca\/sites\/default\/files\/milestone\/gender_gap_milestone.pdf\">women have outnumbered men as law school graduates since the 1990s and currently outnumber men as both law and business graduates<\/a>. However, their numbers in Parliament have not increased in comparable fashion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Women won the same proportion of seats in 2025 as they did in the 2021 federal election.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Women still face gender discrimination within political parties in terms of how decisions are made, who is given opportunities, and what supports are provided.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Systemic approaches have proven more effective<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The number of women in legislative bodies only meaningfully increases when gender parity rules are adopted that apply to all political parties.<br><br>Most countries electing more than 40 per cent women use a statutory gender quota that applies to the number of women candidates parties run.<br><br>An analysis of the five democracies with national electoral systems most comparable to Canada\u2019s (single-member districts with first-past-the-post rules) demonstrated that the criteria and enforcement mechanisms employed make a measurable difference to their impact.&nbsp;<br><br>The research finds that approaches taken in Nepal, South Korea and Uzbekistan rely on weak requirements and have been largely ineffective; France has achieved mixed results. However, Mexico, where women now make up 50.2% of federal representatives, has a very effective statutory candidate gender quota with features that Canada could effectively adapt as outlined below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-primary-dark-blue-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e1b8857f102a42171a734216990ad4fd\"><strong>An effective Canadian-designed system would:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-primary-dark-blue-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-385ee914b97723371ce0d5882aae05d7\">\u2714 Mandate gender parity among parties\u2019 candidates across all ridings;<br>\u2714 Use obligatory language (\u201cparties must\u201d) rather than (\u201cparties should\u201d);<br>\u2714 Require parties to practice gender parity across competitive ridings, including both winning and swing ridings<br>\u2714 Impose meaningful enforcement mechanisms such that parties failing to follow the rules would have an opportunity to correct their candidate registries, but if they do not do so within a stipulated window, they would be prevented from fielding candidates in the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-primary-dark-blue-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-88f1ce14d5a855c1cefdfe419afcc4ba\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-primary-dark-blue-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2c35fabfbe2136a09b642a32329af0d9\"><strong>Canada needs to act on these insights and implement systemic change measures in line with democracies around the world to:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-primary-dark-blue-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-af3c20fa874463bf6b14815dbb89f0f8\">\u2714 Demonstrate its genuine commitment to advancing gender equality;<br>\u2714 Ensure that policy-decision making benefits from women\u2019s insights; and<br>\u2714 Increase public trust in government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/informedperspectives.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Gender-Parity-in-Canada.pdf\">Read Jennifer Piscopo&rsquo;s full report here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Informed Perspectives<\/strong> is a registered charity working to bridge the gender gap in Canadian public discourse. Conversations happening in the news media and political spheres have the power to influence everything else, and the chronic under-representation of women\u2019s voices hampers our ability to advance in every arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Monitor media representation and drive accountability through our Gender Gap Tracker<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Elevate women\u2019s voices through workshops that transform knowledge into influence<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Connect 1,500 journalists with diverse qualified sources through our expert database<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Commission research into equality measures that can inform systemic change solutions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How to advance equal representation for women in ParliamentCanada is a leader in supporting women\u2019s equality around the world, but at home we are falling behind when it comes to electing women. Why gender parity matters Research conducted by international expert Dr. Jennifer Piscopo, a widely cited professor of gender and politics at Royal Holloway, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"research_category":[1408],"class_list":["post-94652","research","type-research","status-publish","hentry","research_category-women-in-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Canada can achieve gender parity in politics: here&#039;s how - Informed Perspectives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/informedperspectives.org\/fr\/research\/canada-can-achieve-gender-parity-in-politics-heres-how\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Canada can achieve gender parity in politics: here&#039;s how - Informed Perspectives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How to advance equal representation for women in ParliamentCanada is a leader in supporting women\u2019s equality around the world, but at home we are falling behind when it comes to electing women. 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