Where have all the women leaders gone?
December 20, 2002 - As Sheila Copps prepares her third bid for the leadership of the federal Liberal party, she knows from her long experience in the upper ranks of her party that her gender may prevent her from attaining this goal. Double standards continue to raise barriers to women seeking political power. Men are encouraged to be frank, dynamic, and adversarial, but "if you're a woman and you're aggressive, you're a ball-buster," Copps recently told Ottawa Citizen journalist Joan Bryden.
Copps should know. She has been called every name in the book, including a few epithets reserved for women ("slut", "baby", "witch", and "ignorant bitch"). Years of experience as a senior minister have failed to expunge her "rat pack" image. The picture of Sheila as an opposition MP leaping over chairs to confront a Conservative cabinet minister bent on escaping tough questions from a parliamentary committee continues to reinforce the notion that her assertiveness is somehow unwomanly. Yet her femininity has been used against her; Copps has actually been told to "go back to the kitchen," and she has endured comments from fellow parliamentarians about her looks, weight, bra size, and the pitch of her voice. She has plenty of experience with what happens when women challenge male complacency about their place in the power hierarchy.
Sheila Copps is undoubtedly well aware of all the pitfalls ahead of her, including the so-called "Flora Syndrome", where support is promised but not delivered at the ballot box. Also, media treatment of women politicians, even if not overtly sexist, groans under the weight of gender-based assumptions and judgements. But the biggest hurdle she has to cross is the lingering, largely unspoken assumption that party leadership remains masculine turf. Only 20 women have led competitive political parties in Canada (that is, parties successful in winning at least one seat during the woman's term as leader). All but a handful of these female leaders were chosen in acts of desperation by political parties that male eligibles considered too uncompetitive to be worth their effort. Men who aspire to lead moribund parties risk being seen as weak for going after a flawed prize. Not so, for women.
When women make it to the top job their success is usually the result of a last-ditch effort to save parties that are already electorally decimated. They are then expected to perform partisan CPR. For instance, Pam Barrett was chosen Alberta NDP leader after the party lost all its seats in the 1993 election, and, more recently, the task of heading the two-member BC ND caucus has been assigned to Joy MacPhail. At least half of the women party leaders fall into this category. A second trajectory for women leaders is similar, albeit less common. In two cases, notably the one involving former Prime Minister Kim Campbell, women have been given the impossible task of resuscitating governing parties careening towards defeat.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, several ailing provincial and federal parties picked women to nurture their electoral fortunes, with 1993 standing out as the high-water mark for female leaders. A decade ago, 10 women had the top job. Now, with Alexa McDonough's departure from the leadership of the federal NDP, there are only three female party leaders. Since women have been no more successful than their male counterparts at performing electoral miracles, party strategists see no point in recruiting or encouraging them. The brief flirtation with women leaders has turned to indifference.
Where have all the women leaders gone? Most have been unceremoniously dumped, victims of their party's misfortunes. Or, those who were modestly successful in improving party prospects now sit on the sidelines, ousted once the job became appealing to male candidates.
More importantly, perhaps, why have all the women leaders gone? When the head of the New Brunswick NDP, Elizabeth Weir, was asked if she would challenge the federal party leadership, she unequivocally put herself out of the running, saying, "No. Never in a trillion years." Sheila Copps excepted, most seasoned female politicians are steering clear of the leader's job because they know that their gender quickly becomes a liability.
The future for women party leaders looks bleak, as even women with long experience are passed over for these important positions. What's worse, women are no longer being talked up as leadership hopefuls. The federal Tories and New Democrats are selecting new leaders in 2003, and no women are among the top contenders. For many, it is now clear that the party leader's post is simply out of reach.
Sheila Copps faces a daunting uphill, even extremely unlikely, battle against her party's Goliath. With continued high approval ratings in the opinion polls, the Liberals are poised to win a fourth straight majority government. So, this is a coveted job, one that many high-profile men want, and one that simply does not have room for a serious woman contender. Still, it's considered good form to have a woman candidate among the suits, and that's largely why Copps is being encouraged by the party to run against Paul Martin. Having a woman on the platform makes the process seem more open than it does when the boys duke it out among themselves.
(Linda Trimble is a professor in the University of Alberta Department of Political Science, and Jane Arscott is a professor in the Centre for Work and Community Studies at Athabasca University. Their new book, Still Counting: Women in Politics Across Canada, will be released by Broadview Press in March 2003.)
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Dr. Linda Trimble's U of A Web page: http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~polisci/faculty/trimble.html
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