A century of women MPs, but gender parity still major issue

Political parties need to nominate women in winnable ridings. Parliament needs to improve its policies and procedures around parental leave. We need to eliminate sexual harassment from politics.

MP Margaret Aitken; Ottawa mayor Charlotte Whitton; Cairine Wilson, Canada’s first female Senator; and MP Ellen Fairclough, who became the first female federal cabinet minister, unveil a commemorative bronze bust of Agnes Macphail, the first woman elected to the House of Commons, on March 8, 1955. Duncan Cameron photograph courtesy of Library and Archives Canada

Opinion

BY ELEANOR FAST AND KIM KELLY

December 8, 2021

December 2021 marks a historic milestone in Canada’s Parliament, the 100th anniversary of the first woman MP being elected. But since Agnes Macphail’s campaign victory on Dec. 6, 1921, only 374 women have ...

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