Recruiting of women falls short
By GLORIA GALLOWAY. Source: Globe and Mail.

Thursday, January 5, 2006 Posted at 5:19 AM EST

OTTAWA — Two years after Liberal Leader Paul Martin said he looked forward to the day that the number of women in Parliament reflected their share of the population, just 26 per cent of his party's candidates are female.
But the Liberal showing is respectable when compared with the Conservatives, who have nominated women in 12 per cent of the country's 308 ridings.
Less than 30 per cent of Bloc Québécois candidates are female. And even the NDP, which has actively pushed to recruit women, has a slate of candidates that is just 35 per cent female.
Over all, there has been a slight increase in women candidates since the 2004 election -- from 23.2 per cent to 24.6 per cent. But groups pushing for equal political representation say more must be done.
" At the present rate of progress, it will take another four generations to get an equal number of women in the House and that's just not good enough," said Rosemary Speirs, the national chair or Equal Voice, an organization dedicated to bringing more women into politics.
" The life experience of women is different to men so there are issues that women are much more likely to care about, such as childcare, poverty -- all those things fall harder on women."
Mr. Martin told his party at the 2003 convention that 52 per cent of all MPs should be female. "We have to go out across this country and, in riding after riding, recruit young women who want to dedicate themselves to the public service," he said. That recruitment drive has yet to happen.
The Conservatives, on the other hand, take some pride in the fact that there has been no attempt by their party to influence which candidates are nominated. And that means there has been no attempt to bolster the number of women.
" We have a great caucus now and we have to do a lot more work to have more Conservative women elected. All parties need to do a better job in attracting women candidates, including the Conservatives party," said party spokeswoman Emma Welford.
The New Democrats, who have increased the ranks of their female candidates from 96 to 106 between elections, have worked hard for that increase. The party has a stated policy of affirmative action, said Judy Wasylycia-Leis, an NDP MP from Manitoba.
" A riding had to clearly show that it had sought out affirmative action candidates before it could hold a nomination meeting," she said. And "the federal party had to take responsibility for putting resources into nomination races of women."
There are at least three barriers that prevent women from seeking nominations, she said. Women are less likely than men to have secure jobs that will allow them time to campaign. They are more likely to have primary responsibility for caring for children and older relatives. And politics can be a nasty business in which women are sometimes treated more harshly than men.

Female candidates

Women constitute 52 per cent of the population but that is not reflected in candidate nominations for the four main federal parties.

Liberal Party: Female, 26%; Male, 74%
NDP: Female, 35%; Male, 65%
Conservative Party of Canada: Female, 12%; Male, 88%
Bloc Québécois: Female, 29%; Male, 71%