WUNRN
CANADA – GLARING LACK OF WOMEN ON CITY COUNCILS IN CANADA
- REPORT
By ERIN ANDERSSEN - The Globe and Mail – July 14, 2015
Consider the gender of the volunteers running the
neighbourhood programs, sorting books at the library, organizing the school’s
book fair. Now take a look at your city council. See a difference?
A new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives ranked the country’s 25 largest cities based on their
female-friendliness. The report looked at factors such as economic security and
education. But the political statistics were perhaps the most telling of the
balance of power: Where are the female voices on the country’s city councils?
St John’s, for example, has no women on council. In
Hamilton, women make up only 20 per cent of elected officials. Victoria –
which, incidentally, took first place in the rankings – is the only city where
female city councillors outnumber their male peers.
In a country fuelled by the economies of its cities, a
shortage of female politicians – and a lack of overall diversity – on city
councils is troubling, especially considering the influence of municipal policy
in residents’ lives, and the key decisions councils make about fiscal
priorities, including child care and affordable housing. It’s not as if there
aren’t plenty of qualified candidates: Across the country, urban-dwelling
Canadian women have more education than men.
“We have a problem we need to work on,” says the
study’s author, Kate McInturff, a senior researcher at the CCPA. “To have that
level of qualified women and that persistent low representation, we have to do
more than we are now. The status quo isn’t cutting it.”
She suggests that the cost of campaigning may be a
barrier, as well as cuts to the non-profit sector, which often served as a
grassroots training ground for upcoming municipal politicians.
The study’s findings also reinforce how social policy
and job markets spin out by gender.
Victoria earned its first place ranking largely from
its high percentage of jobs in the public sector, which has much smaller gender
wage gaps than private sector employers. In Victoria, women also have almost
identical levels of employment as men, with a difference of only 3 per cent.
Quebec cities landed in the top 10 because of generous maternity and paternity
leaves, and the province’s child care program.
Cities with male-dominated sectors, such as tech or
oil and gas, fell at the bottom of the rankings because of gaps in employment
and pay. Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo took last place, with Edmonton and
Calgary following closely behind at the bottom of the pack. In Alberta, for
instance, the report points out that men hold 88 per cent of the construction
jobs, and 76 per cent of oil and gas jobs.
Edmonton has had among the highest wages in the
country, but also one of the biggest gender gaps; there, full-time female
workers earn $16,000 less than men.
At the same time, the report applauded some grassroots
movements to level out the urban gender playing field, including Edmonton food
servers who protested being asked to wear miniskirts on the job, and a group in
Quebec City that helps hearing-impaired women get access to perinatal care.
When it comes to senior city managers, the gender gap
is smaller – in the top cities, women make up more than one-third of senior
managers. Still, the municipal buck stops at council.
In Halifax, for example, there are only four women out
of 17 councillors weighing on those decisions in the council chamber.
Burlington has one woman on council. In the nation’s capital, less than one in
five elected officials in Ottawa and the outlying areas are women. The same is
true of Oshawa. Toronto does slightly better: One-third of its elected
officials are female.
Here’s the ranked list:
1. Victoria
2. Gatineau
3. Quebec City
4. Abbotsford-Mission
5. Halifax
6. London
7. Vancouver
8. Barrie
9. Montreal
10. Oshawa
11. Ottawa
12. Toronto
13. Kelowna
14. Regina
15. St. John’s
16. St. Catharines-Niagara
17. Kingston
18. Winnipeg
19. Sherbrooke
20. Hamilton
21. Saskatoon
22. Windsor
23. Calgary
24. Edmonton
25. Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo