Manon Tremblay

Do Female MPs Substantively Represent Women? A Study of Legislative Behaviour in Canada's 35th Parliament

This article outlines the pattern of womens participation in the Canadian parliamentary system. The question of interest is whether female members of the House of Commons make a difference in politics and, notably, if they substantively represent women. The basic underlying hypothesis is that women in the Canadian House of Commons make a difference, that is to say, they substantively represent women. However, the impact of women in politics is limited: they do indeed make a difference, but not a drastic one. In this sense, women try to shape the legislative agenda and the legislative discourse in order to promote womens issues more than do men, but their activity in favour of womens concerns remains quite limited from a numerical point of view. To achieve effective results in this study, two methods were employed: a survey given to members of the 35th Canadian Parliament, and a content analysis of the Hansard Index of the House of Commons. Overall, the results presented here provide some support for the substantive argument. On the question of whether women members of the House of Commons make a difference in politics, and, significantly, if they substantively represent women, the answer is generally positive, although it is necessary to qualify this response. Both female and male MPs speak and act to support womens issues in the House of Commons, but these activities remain quantitatively marginal. However, on each aspect considered, the group of female MPs were proportionately more involved in womens issues than their male counterparts.

Les femmes sont-elles candidates dans des circonscriptions perdues d'avance? De l'examen d'une croyance

We can read in the literature that women more often than men are candidates in constituencies where defeat is expected. This study examines whether this belief is accurate. The population examined includes male and female candidates for the Quebec Liberal party and the Parti Quebecois during the 1976, 1981, 1985 and 1989 elections. Three different formulas were applied to the 958 electoral situations, from which one global difficulty index was devised. Using a log-linear model, the relation between the variables “sex of candidate” and “constituencys level of difficulty” (high, average or low) was compared. Results have shown that between 1976 and 1989, women were not more likely than men to run in constituencies where there was no hope that they would win. It must be noted though, that in 1981, fewer women than men ran for the Parti Quebecois in constituencies where victory seemed highly probable. However, when only new candidacies are considered, party affiliation becomes the most significant variable. In conclusion, it is noted that political parties will have to collaborate if more women are to become members of the National Assembly.