Quebec Women and Legislative Representation

Quebec women have had the right to vote and run for office inprovincial and federal forums for at least six decades, yet theycontinue to occupy a minority of seats in Quebec’s NationalAssembly and in Canada’s House of Commons and Senate.

To explain this situation, Women and ParliamentaryRepresentation in Quebec examines women’s engagement inpolitics from 1791 to the present. It begins by tracing the path thatled to women achieving the right to vote and run for office and thendraws on statistics and interviews with women senators and members ofParliament to complete an in-depth portrait of Quebec women’sunder-representation and its main causes – political parties andthe voting system. This innovative account not only documents thesignificant democratic deficit in Canada’s parliamentary systems,it also outlines strategies to improve women’s access tolegislative representation in Canada and elsewhere.