by Anne DeGrace
At the recent all-candidates meeting at the Prestige Inn, I was struck by two things: one, that it was really, really hot in that room (and I wasn’t even on the hot seat), and two, that the candidates for all three provincial parties were women.
Politics can be hot: people get hot under the collar, especially when it comes to hot-button topics. But three women in running for a place in what is still—despite Prime Minister Trudeau’s efforts—a male-dominated institution, is pretty cool.
No disrespect to independent candidates Jesse O’Leary and Tom Prior. The beauty of democracy is that everyone can—and should—have a voice, and I commend these two for adding theirs. But I am stoked (pardon the running heat metaphor) that these three smart women—in alphabetical order Kim Charlesworth, Michelle Mungall, and Tanya Wall—all of them committed to serve for the common good, should be poised to represent this riding.
Some years ago author, journalist, and former MLA Anne Edwards published Seeking Balance: Conversations with BC Women in Politics (on our shelves at 328.711092 EDW). Edwards doesn’t concern herself with party lines nor whether the seat is federal or provincial: for her, it’s about the experience of being a women in politics, whether you’re Penny Priddy, Kim Campbell, or Iona Campagnolo.
Says Edwards in her introduction: “Ninety years after BC women won the vote and the right to stand for office, fewer than one hundred have ever been elected to the BC legislature or the Canadian Parliament. The suffragettes of 1917 would be disappointed.”
We’re a little further along, now: April 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the passing of legislation allowing BC women the vote. Shamefully, that didn’t extend to our indigenous peoples, or Asian-Canadians, who finally got the vote in the 1940s. Social and political reform is an ongoing struggle.
Today, about 38 per cent of seats in B.C.’s legislature are held by women. Of course it’s important to recruit the best person for the job, period. But there continue to be cultural and systemic barriers towards achieving a more equitable representation of voices in our political institutions—and the underrepresentation of women is an indicator.
It’s something that long-time City Councillor Donna Macdonald describes in her book Surviving City Hall. According to Macdonald, research has shown that “a minimum of 30 percent of people around a government table must be women for policies to begin to address women’s concerns.” So B.C.’s not doing so badly—except that the percentage still doesn’t reflect the gender of half the population. Macdonald cites the intimidating adversarial nature of politics and a societal shortfall in teaching girls to be leaders, among other reasons for this.
Getting perspective is an important first step, and luckily there are great opportunities to read up, from a veteran view in My Life on the Road by legendary feminist Gloria Steinem, to the perspectives of a new generation in I call Myself a Feminist: The View from Twenty-Five Women Under Thirty (305.42 ICA).
History buffs may gain perspective on the suffrage centenary by reading Firing in the Heather: The Life and Times of Nellie McClung (a champion for women’s suffrage and a member of the Alberta Legislature from 1921 – 1926), which can be found on our shelves at 305.42092 HAL, and The Struggle for Social Justice in British Columbia, which chronicles the work of reformer Helena Gutteridge (305.42092 HOW).
Of course, on May 9 it’s about striking while the iron is hot by exercising your democratic right, regardless of the gender of your chosen candidate. Because whomever you are, whomever you choose, this much is indisputable: voting makes you cool.
Anne DeGrace is the Adult Services Coordinator at the Nelson Public Library. Check This Out runs every other week. For more information go to www.nelsonlibrary.ca