| Speech- Rosemary Speirs -Chair of Equal voice
Mar29-06 YWCA-panel
 Canadian
women are advantaged in so many ways-- in economic status, health,
and personal liberty. So it may sound strange to hear me talking
about us being politically backward compared to women in many other
countries. But it is true. The so-called “feminist revolution” got
stalled here in the Nineties, and where it really counts—in
power at the top—we still have a long way to go.
The Inter-Parliamentary Union ranks countries by the number of
women in their national legislatures, and ranks Canada 44th.
With only 64 women in the elected House of Commons—or less
than 21 per cent of the seats-- we are way behind not just the
Scandanavian countries and some European nations, but behind countries
in the middle East, Africa, Central America, Asia.
Five years ago, a number of us veterans of the gender wars got
together to talk about the issue of Canadian women’s under-representation
in politics. We were concerned that the women’s movement
has stagnated in Canada. But we didn’t want to revive the
feminist lobbies that used to descend on Parliament Hill to demand
a national child care system or equal pay for women doing equal
jobs. This time we wanted INSIDE the corridors of power. We want
women elected to office, playing an equal role at the table when
social programs are being designed that effect us more.
So, in the spring of 2001—five years ago—we created
Equal Voice. We started as a little ginger group, meeting in one
another’s homes over wine and pizza, sending off news releases
to the media about the low levels of women being nominated and
challenging political leaders to do better.
WE had two rules: One, our only task was to create an atmosphere in which more
women would be elected. And two: we would be multi-partisan, working with women
in all major parties. We have won the backing of most elected women and that
adds greatly to our clout. And it helps those elected women when we bringing
pressure on their party leaders from outside.
Another thing that helps tremendously is that women are raising the issue internationally
and the United Nations and European Union are calling on member countries to
live up to standards for fairer representation. And when Spain elects 33 per
cent women, or Afghanistan 27 per cent, we can say why can’t we in Canada
do that.
But we are up against North American attitudes, coming mainly-- but far from
exclusively-- from the political and religious right in the United States, and
also in Canada. This is the attitude that is fed up with so-called “social
engineering” and “political correctness” and says if women
really want into politics, they have only run. Quotas—being used effectively
elsewhere—have little chance of acceptance in North America. Affirmative
action is out.
In North America the word feminist has somehow been turned into a negative word.
It once meant that women could do anything that men could do. But, for some time
now in North America, the word feminist has been equated with shrillness and
bra-burning, and younger women today make a point of disclaiming. How many times
have you heard “I am not a feminist, but”.
Last week I learned from the papers that in the U.S. Congressional elections
this year Democratic party women are contesting half a dozen of the most competitive
seats in the House. That’s progress in a Congress with only 15 per cent
women. Good for those Democratic women. But, the Republicans reacted by calling
the Democrats the “mommy party”—meant to belittle and suggest
more elected women would be soft on security.
It is so easy to pull out stereotypes about women, and the sad part is that they
have their effect, and women start accepting them too. Political party organizers
report they are having great difficulty recruiting women to run in Canadian elections,
because women are saying the political world is too rough and dirty for them.
Women themselves are opting out.
In Canada, only Jack Layton’s fourth place party, the New Democrats, have
pulled out the stops to elect women, with the result the NDP caucus in the House
is 41 per cent women. But in the two major parties, we in Equal Voice feel strong
resistance. Not to our aim of electing more women. Every party agrees in principle
on that. But there is resistance to the remedies we suggest, even though we have
been so careful not to talk about quotas.
We want parties to adopt voluntary targets for nominating many more women; we
ask for electoral financing reform because money is a barrier to many women who
might otherwise run, we want fair nominations overseen by the Chief Electoral
Officer, we want voting system reform to introduce proportional representation,
better reflecting the actual makeup of the population.
Despite the resistance, I am encouraged to think we will win yet. I am encouraged
by the growth in Equal Voice itself, which has become a national organization,
with provincial chapters, plus a national youth chapter and a new Toronto chapter.
Under its new chair Mehreen Raza, the chapter is turning out to be reflection
of multi-cultural Toronto.
That is something else Equal Voice’s cause owes to women of other countries.
We find the young women joining us now tend to come from immigrant backgrounds,
often from countries where women have learned hard lessons.
While young Canadian women are often apathetic about politics, regarding it as
irrelevant to their lives, and just assuming their generation will enjoy gender
equality without fighting for it, women who come from elsewhere have no such
illusions. Mehreen Raza, Choice Okoro, Rowena Santos, Charm Darby, Elida Sekulovski,
Shirley Ichhkanian, Betsy Kikuchi, Tam Goossen, are some of the members of our
Toronto Chapter interested in running some day.
Equal Voice’s job is to help clear the way, so these women will find themselves
in an atmosphere friendly to their political ambitions.
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