Sep. 14, 2010 - Issue #778 : Pilobolus
Vuepoint
Not quite equal
With election fever slowly beginning to spread around the city, or at least to its local politicos, talk of arenas and airports overshadowed a very short newspiece this week. Edmonton city council has commissioned staff to report on how national mentoring programs get women involved in politics. A report with this mission and specific mandate should be commended. It's noteworthy that this report does not double numerous efforts that study why the numbers of women in politics is stagnating (in some cases declining) or asking why women aren't involved in politics. Those are issues we know. A study by Brown University summarizes the reasons that so many other reports and studies have found: women don't think they're qualified and women are less likely to be asked or encouraged not only to run for election, but to take on the leadership positions that then lead to running for office.
For doubters that this issue is still a problem, a quick look at the numbers: the Federation of Canadian Municipalities records the number of women engaged at a city council level to be at 23 percent and nationally, Canada ranks 50th in the world for women's participation in the political sphere.
Edmonton's City Council operates closer to parity, at least before this election gets underway, and so was also clear that the purpose of the report was to look at why numbers of women lagged in areas of leadership such as city council boards and committees which are open to citizens of Edmonton. Councillor Leibovici stated to the CBC that less than a quarter of the members on over a dozen boards are women.
With the knowledge of previous mentorship efforts and a specific mandate, this report could prove quite fruitful. And the councillors who supported this initiative should be commended at a time when the issue of women in politics is often a forgotten problem, or one that is entirely ignored by those who thought we solved it when women got the vote.
The report is due back to council in January, and here's hoping it will lead to Edmonton beating the numbers and achieving women's parity in all leadership positions. V
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