Opinion: What's wrong with this picture?
Elizabeth Renzetti is a Globe and Mail columnist. Her latest book isRecently, Kate Graham was in the midst of a video shoot with a group of little girls. Dr. Graham is a political scientist at Western University, former candidate for the Ontario provincial Liberals, and creator of a project called No Second Chances, which looks at the lack of women at the top of Canadian politics. The little girls were shown a group picture of Canada’s premiers, and asked if they noticed anything.
The short answer is yes, and the reasons are long. For one thing, diversity – in gender, race, socioeconomic background and age – provides better decision-making, a crucial matter when developing public policy. For another, young women who want to go into political life need to see themselves represented there, to understand that the premier’s office is open to them.
Political parties that feel like they have lost any chance of winning an election may take a longshot bet on a woman leader, hoping that dramatic change will help their fortunes. Conversely, a party that thinks it has a chance at electoral victory is much less likely to choose a woman as its leader. “To be a bit salty about it,” Dr. Thomas said, “this is like the bro-cialist we all know who claims to be a good feminist, but when it all comes down to it he really thinks that men are naturally better leaders than women.’’
To understand the challenges that women face as political leaders, the particular pleasures and burdens of being the first and sometimes the only, Dr. Graham went to talk to them. Over several months, she visited all the former first ministers at their homes The result is No Second Chances, a project of the Canada 2020 think tank. In June, most of the former first ministers will gather in Ottawa – the first time they’ve all been together in one place. In the meantime, Dr.
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