Standing Committee on the Status of Women

Comité permanent de la condition féminine

For immediate release

Ottawa, April 10, 2019 -

The House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women (the Committee) today tabled its report entitled Elect Her: A Roadmap for Improving the Representation of Women in Canadian Politics in the House of Commons.

The Committee undertook this study because women remain underrepresented in electoral politics at all levels of government across the country even though women’s participation in Canadian politics is on the rise. The Committee believes that increasing women’s participation in electoral politics is key to achieving greater gender equality and better social, economic and political results for all Canadians.

The report is based on briefs submitted to the committee and the testimony it heard at six meetings held between June 5, 2018, and September 6, 2018. In its report, the Committee examines the following issues specifically and presents possible solutions:

• the barriers facing women who choose to run for elected office;
• the barriers to the recruitment of diverse women in politics;
• the barriers facing women aspiring to be elected;
• the barriers facing women who are elected, such as the lack of opportunities to balance work and family life or the failure to take into consideration gender differences in political workplaces, sexist media treatment, and gender-based violence and harassment.

In its report, the Committee makes 14 recommendations to provide guidance to the Government of Canada on measures that could be implemented to increase the representation of women in elected office. The main objective of these recommendations is to improve the collection of intersectional data on the participation of women in politics, change societal perceptions of women’s participation in politics, support organizations and initiatives that promote the participation of diverse women in politics, incentivize political parties to choose more women candidates, and address the issue of the media’s sexist treatment of women in politics.

The Committee also made four observations about certain measures that could, if implemented, help foster consideration for gender differences and family responsibilities in political workplaces.

The report can be consulted on the Committee’s web page on the Parliament of Canada website.

The Standing Committee on the Status of Women has 11 members. It is chaired by Karen Vecchio (Elgin — Middlesex — London) and co-chaired by Irene Mathyssen (London — Fanshawe). The other members of the Committee are Rachel Bendayan (Outremont), Bob Bratina (Hamilton East — Stoney Creek), Terry Duguid (Winnipeg South)*, Rachael Harder (Lethbridge), Emmanuella Lambropoulos (Saint-Laurent), Hon. K. Kellie Leitch (Simcoe — Grey), Eva Nassif (Vimy), Sonia Sidhu (Brampton South) and Salma Zahid (Scarborough Centre).

* Non-voting member pursuant to Standing Order 104(5).