User login
 
Canada

Empowering Women for Stronger Political Parties

How women participate in political parties – and how those parties encourage and nurture women’s involvement and incorporate gender-equality issues – are key determinants of women’s political empowerment. They are also key to ensuring gender-equality issues are addressed in the wider society. If strategies to promote women’s involvement in the political process are to be effective, they should be linked to steps parties can take across the specific phases of the electoral cycle – the preelectoral, electoral and post-electoral phases – and to the organization and financing of the parties themselves. 
 
The most effective strategies to increase women’s participation in political parties combine reforms to political institutions with targeted support to women party activists within and outside party structures, women candidates and elected officials. These strategies require the cooperation of a variety of actors and political parties from across the political spectrum.
 
The Guide identifies targeted interventions that political parties can take to empower women. It is structured according to four phases, following an electoral cycle approach.

Canada: Women more likely to recruit other women for political office

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Mon, 2011-08-08 11:23

Summary: 

The gender composition of those responsible for candidate recruitment plays a crucial role in either encouraging or discouraging women candidates to run for office, according to a recent study in Political Research Quarterly (PRQ) published by SAGE on behalf of the Western Political Science Association.

"Researchers Christine Cheng and Margit Tavits looked at "party gatekeepers" (local party presidents) from the five major political parties in the 2004 and 2006 Canadian national elections. Unlike the US, the nomination of party candidates for the Canadian Parliament is solely the prerogative of the local party associations, and local presidents are in a position to both formally and informally influence the nomination of candidates. The research found an important relationship between the gender of party gatekeepers and who ultimately is nominated to run for office."

The study highlighted three distinct mechanisms where the gender of the party gatekeepers was likely to affect whether the local party candidate was a man or a woman: 1) gatekeepers are more likely to directly recruit and promote people like themselves, 2) the professional and social networks of women gatekeepers are more likely to include qualified women who would be suitable parliamentary candidates which increases the opportunities for direct recruitment of female candidates and, 3) the presence of female party gatekeepers sends an encouraging signal to potential female candidates that women are welcome and can be active in politics, creating a virtuous cycle of participation.

Body: 

To read the complete news EurekAlert published on 8 August 2011.


International Workshop Gender Training

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Mon, 2011-06-20 07:06
2011-07-25
2011-07-29
US/Eastern
Click here
City & Province/State: 
Ottawa
Country: 
Canada
Venue: 

University of Ottawa

Description: 

Organizations, programmes and projects are increasingly being asked to develop gender equality policies and strategies that seek to provide women and men with equal opportunities and ensure that there interventions are gender-sensitive or at the very least do not reinforce inequities.  The gender training workshop seeks to provide workshop participants with core concepts, gender analytic frameworks and gender strategies that can improve the effectiveness of your organization, programmes and projects in working with vulnerable and marginalized women and men, boys and girls.

For more information, visit Mosaic


International Workshop Gender Training

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Fri, 2011-06-17 08:50
2011-07-25
2011-07-29
US/Eastern
Click here
City & Province/State: 
Ottawa
Country: 
Canada
Venue: 


 

Description: 

Organizations, programmes and projects are increasingly being asked to develop gender equality policies and strategies that seek to provide women and men with equal opportunities and ensure that there interventions are gender-sensitive or at the very least do not reinforce inequities.  The gender training workshop seeks to provide workshop participants with core concepts, gender analytic frameworks and gender strategies that can improve the effectiveness of your organization, programmes and projects in working with vulnerable and marginalized women and men, boys and girls.

For more information, go to Mosaic International


Canada: Voters send a record 76 women to parliament - most of them NDP

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Thu, 2011-05-12 18:37

Summary: 

The 41st Parliament in Canada will have 76 women – up from 69 elected in 2008. Most are from the NDP, whose 40 women make up 39 per cent of its caucus. That’s the highest number of women in a Canadian federal caucus, but the percentage is lower than the NDP’s figures from the 2006 election.

Body: 

For more information, please visit: TheGlobeAndMail


Canada: Record number of women elected

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Thu, 2011-05-05 02:56

Summary: 

There will be more female faces in the House of Commons following Monday's federal election that saw 76 women elected.

In the 2008 election, 69 women were elected. One resigned last year, bringing the number down to 68 female MPs when the election was called in March.

Body: 

For more information, please visit CBC News.


Canada: Parties not taking women's issues seriously in campaign

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Mon, 2011-05-02 00:56

Summary: 

During the course of this election campaign, women's rights have been left out of the debate, but not off the front page.

Two weeks ago, a national audience watched four men debate the issues that they thought were important to the public -and women's issues weren't among them.

Body: 

For more information, please visit the Edmonton Journal.  


Canada: Nearly a third of election candidates are women, up slightly from 2008

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Mon, 2011-04-25 16:54

Summary: 

An advocacy group says there are 407 women candidates registered for the May 2 federal election representing 31 per cent of all those running for seats in Parliament. Equal Voice, a non-aligned, non-profit group promoting women candidates, says that’s a two-point increase from the 2008 election, when 29 per cent of major-party candidates were women. The New Democrats are fielding the most women — 125 in all, or nearly 41 per cent of all their candidates.

Body: 

For more information, please visit: ipolitics.ca


Canada: More Women Running this Election - But Many in Hopeless Race

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Wed, 2011-04-13 00:32

Summary: 

Women are better represented in this federal election than in previous campaigns, but many are running in ridings where their party doesn’t stand a chance. Equal Voice, a group that advocates for more women in Canadian politics, crunched numbers from declared candidates among major parties and found that, overall, women aren't as underrepresented as they have been in the past: Thirty-one per cent of all the candidates so far confirmed running among the five major parties are women. During the 2008 election, that figure was 29.6 per cent.

Body: 

For more information, please visit: TheGlobe&Mail


Canada: Politics locks women out

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Sun, 2011-03-27 23:53

Summary: 

Norway and Sweden have elected about 40 per cent women to their parliaments for the past 15 years, double Canada's percentage.

Why do Canadians elect so few women? Is it that women don't vote for women? No. Even men do. In Canada, the United Kingdom and United States, a woman's chance of winning an election is almost equal to that of a man's, and in some elections, they're the same.

The problem is how to get women's names on election ballots. Women are as engaged in society as men are. But while more involved as volunteers, they are less involved in formal politics.

Body: 

For more information, please visit The Telegraph Journal.