Political Studies Students Push For More Women in Politics

From left to right:  Taylor-Anne Yee, Shira Fenyes, Miriam Müller, Heather Franklin,
Bryn Rees, Sara Waldbillig, Paula Steckler (Photo: Mark Ferguson)

By Rory MacLean
The StarPhoenix

You don't need to be a whiz to do the math.

Women make up approximately 51 per cent of Saskatchewan's population, yet only hold about 20 per cent of the seats in the legislature - a huge pool of talent that experts say is opting out of one of our most influential career paths.

"It has sort of stagnated around that percentage," said final-year political studies student Shira Fenyes, co-founder of a group dedicated to getting more women into provincial politics called Women In the Legislature.

"We want to see if we can get more women thinking about these kinds of careers," Fenyes said. "We don't want to focus on the under-representation. We want to see this as an opportunity."

The group was formed by Fenyes and fellow University of Saskatchewan student Heather Franklin at the suggestion of their professor, Loleen Berdahl, who had encountered a similar group at McGill University.

Berdahl said it didn't take much coaxing to get the women to tackle the project.

"They put a tremendous amount of work into it," said Berdahl, a political studies professor.
"Through the process, I think they've learned at least a university's course worth of knowledge. They've received a lot of positive response."

A major part of the project is simply shifting women's perception of politics to raise awareness about the wealth of opportunities available to them.

"What we know is that part of the challenge for women in politics is just the fact that a lot of women don't even consider it a possibility for their future," she said.

"We're going to need to change that if we're going to see change in the legislature."

According to studies, gender has little effect on voters' choice of candidate, she said. A candidate's party is the biggest determinant of voter choice by far.

Women just need to get in the race if they want win, Berdahl said.

"My hope is that we'll start seeing more and more young women who see politics as a potential career road for them. They could start thinking, 'Maybe I should be doing something in the community.' If we want the best people to be involved in politics why do we want 50 per cent of the possible pool of the best to discount itself or limit itself?"

The McGill group brings female students into the House of Commons and pairs them with women MPs to shadow, but Franklin and Fenyes are starting off slightly less ambitiously. They are starting with a panel on women in politics on Wednesday, after which they will recruit 20 women to tour the legislature in March and meet female MLAs and civil servants.

"We want to create an informative and inspirational introductory experience for women," Franklin said.

"To see what they do and why they do it, we know that personal interaction will get them more active in their communities. We want to give them the tools to do that, to come home and become more involved," Fenyes said.

Since students are at a point in their lives where they're making key career choices, it's an influential time to promote a career in public office, she said.

rmaclean@thestarphoenix.com
twitter.com/rory_borealis

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