Women’s Representation in Canadian Municipal Politics
Fresh Findings from a New Database
Alexandra Artiles (Florida State University), Susan Franceschet (University of Calgary), Jack Lucas (University of Calgary), Sandra Breux (INRS), and Meagan Cloutier (University of Calgary)
The share of women in Canadian municipal politics is just thirty-one percent—far from parity. Yet it varies widely across municipalities. What explains why sixteen percent of councils have no women on them while another sixteen percent have achieved gender parity? Such differences matter because research shows that elected women tend to prioritize issues that are distinct from men, contributing to better representation of many social issues. And young women who see themselves reflected on their councils are more likely to consider running for office themselves someday.
Figuring out why some municipalities elect more women than others had previously been challenging due to the absence of data covering all municipal elections in Canada. A national and cross-sectional database of women's presence at the municipal level has finally been created, thanks to the wider dissemination of electoral data by municipalities, ministries and municipal associations, and the work of researchers to fill in any gaps. This database permits us to dig more deeply into the sources of women’s underrepresentation in local politics.
The database is unique, offering the possibility of testing local-level correlates of women’s municipal representation across the whole country. Drawing from studies of municipal politics in Europe and the United States, we identified three sets of factors commonly found to influence the number of women in municipal politics: institutional factors like council size and ballot structure, socio-economic factors such as women’s workforce participation and the degree of urbanity, and ideological factors.
It turns out that women’s representation in Canadian municipalities is associated with most of the same factors found in other countries. Fewer women are elected to councils where there’s a larger share of conservative voters. And urban environments tend to elect more women than rural ones. The most striking findings, however, concern the consequences of district type: it turns out that at-large and hybrid elections are associated with larger proportions of women councilors compared to ward elections. At-large municipalities are also more likely to have women mayors. These two findings may be connected. Since mayors often sit on council before running for mayor, larger proportions of women in at-large municipalities may increase the pool of eligible and experienced women running for mayoral positions.
Our findings concerning district type are relevant to reform advocates wishing to improve women’s representation. While institutions are not easy to change, they can be redesigned to secure specific objectives, like electing more women, which, in turn creates better representation for women.
Read the full UAR article here.
Alexandra Artiles is a political science doctoral candidate at Florida State University and a former Fulbright scholar at the University of Ottawa. She studies public policy, state politics, and federalism through the lens of elite surveys and experimental methods. She has recently published in PS: Political Science and Politics, Educational Policy, and Publius: The Journal of Federalism.
Susan Franceschet is a professor of political science at the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on women's political representation in legislatures and executives.
Jack Lucas is a professor of political science at the University of Calgary. His research is focused on municipal democracy and representation.
Sandra Breux is a professor at the INRS (Institut national de la recherche scientifique, Montreal). Her research focuses on municipal representative democracy and voter behavior.
Meagan Cloutier is a political science doctoral candidate at the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on representation and political staff.