Quebec Women and Legislative Representation

Women represent a slight majority of Quebec’s population, yetthey continue to occupy a minority of seats in its National Assemblyand in Canada’s House of Commons and Senate. To explain why thisis, Manon Tremblay examines Quebec women’s political engagementsfrom 1791 to the present. She traces the path that led to womenobtaining the rights to vote and run for office and then draws onstatistics and interviews with female politicians to paint an in-depthportrait of women’s under-representation and its main causes. Herinnovative account not only documents the significant democraticdeficit in Canada’s parliamentary systems, it also outlinesstrategies to improve women’s access to legislative representationin Canada and elsewhere.