Equal Voice: Encouraging women’s participation in government

Earlier this week Chandra and I attended a reception hosted by Equal Voice, in celebration of their Experiences mentorship program. Equal Voice is an organization that works in partnership with women in elected positions at all levels of government to encourage women across Canada to become more involved in politics.

Currently only 21% of elected officials in all levels of government in Canada are women. Just 22% of the Members of Parliament in the House of Commons are women. This ranks Canada 49th out of 189 countries, including under several developing countries. The current Federal Ministry has one of the highest proportions of women of any Cabinet, but still only 11 out of 37 (less than half) are women.

Equal Voice, through its research, advocacy and programs, hopes to change these numbers. One of the ways to promote change is to encourage younger generations of Canadian girls and women to become more involved in politics.

This is the goal of the Experiences mentorship program. This program matches girls and young women across the country with a local female politician (former or current). The young women spend time with their mentors, are able to ask questions or advice about working in politics, and have the opportunity to see what it is like to be a woman in a governing or decision-making position. Through this mentoring process, Equal Voice hopes to encourage more young women to get involved in politics.

At this particular reception, Equal Voice staff and mentors, including Jen Hunter, a federal candidate in the Ottawa Centre riding, spoke about the importance of opening doors for young women and helping them to realize they can make a difference in policy development in Canada. A mentee also spoke about her experience and finding role models in many of Canada’s female elected representatives.

Experiences and other Equal Voice programs have the potential to really impact the lives and choices of young women across the country, encouraging them that they can make a difference within the political sphere. But there is still a lot of work to be done before the number of women in politics accurately reflects Canada’s population.