Doing Politics Differently?
Doing Politics Differently?
Women Premiers in Canada’s Provinces and Territories
Women have reached the highest levels of political office in Canada’s provinces and territories, but what difference – if any – has their rise to the top made? Have they changed the content, tone, or style of political debate? What role has gender played in their triumph and defeat?
In Doing Politics Differently? leading researchers from across the country assess the track records of eleven premiers, including their impact on policies of particular interest to women and their influence on the tenor of legislative debate and the recruitment of other women as party candidates, cabinet ministers, and senior bureaucrats.
From Catherine Callbeck in Prince Edward Island to Christy Clark in British Columbia to Eva Aariak in Nunavut, Canada stands out for the variety and number of women who have reached the top. By comparing the performance of women premiers across the country and by evaluating their records in light of the men who preceded and succeeded them, this innovative volume asks how important demographic diversity is to government decision making.
This book will appeal to both students and scholars of Canadian politics, history, and gender studies, and is an accessible read for anyone interested in women’s political and social status.
This volume opens up new scholarly terrain, and it ought to lead academics to engage the many questions it raises and test some of the answers it provides.
Overall, Bashevkin’s collection explores an important issue from a new perspective, challenging readers to consider our progress on equality in the political sphere as well as what merits further research and in some cases censure
Doing Politics Differently? is a wonderful book filled with revelations about gender politics in Canada. Sylvia Bashevkin and her team of collaborators paint a fascinating picture of the eleven women who have led governments in six of our provinces and all three of our territories. Most useful is the categorization of women’s leadership opportunities as ‘imperiled’ or ‘empowered.’ This is a terrific, accessible, and very useful picture of an important facet of governance in our country. These women are helping to redefine political leadership in Canada.
Essential reading for anyone who wants to know whether women’s presence in executive office matters, Doing Politics Differently? answers critical questions about the impact of women premiers on the tone of political debate, patterns of political recruitment, and policy outcomes.
1 Exploring Women’s Leadership / Sylvia Bashevkin
Part 1: The Territories
2 “Never in My Life Did I Do Anything Alone”: Nellie Cournoyea as Premier of the Northwest Territories / Graham White
3 Pat Duncan, Yukon’s Accidental Premier / Maura Forrest
4 Eva Aariak: Strong Nunavut Leader, Reluctant Politician / Sheena Kennedy Dalseg
Part 2: Atlantic Canada
5 Striking a Balance: Catherine Callbeck as Premier of Prince Edward Island / Don Desserud and Robin Sutherland
6 In the Wake of Male Charisma: Kathy Dunderdale and the Status of Women in Newfoundland and Labrador Politics / Drew Brown, Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant, and Amanda Bittner
Part 3: Central Canada
7 Pauline Marois’s Paradoxical Record as Quebec Premier / Philippe Bernier Arcand
8 Activist Outsider Becomes Partisan Insider: Kathleen Wynne as Ontario Premier / Sylvia Bashevkin
Part 4: Western Canada
9 Rita Johnston and Christy Clark as British Columbia Premiers / Tracy Summerville
10 Women and Politics in Alberta under Alison Redford / Clark Banack
11 Governing as if Women Mattered: Rachel Notley as Alberta Premier / Melanee Thomas
Part 5: Drawing Conclusions
12 Doing Politics Differently? / Sylvia Bashevkin
Contributors; Index
Stalled
The Representation of Women in Canadian Governments
Edited by Linda Trimble, Jane Arscott, and Manon Tremblay
Representation in Action
Canadian MPs in the Constituencies
By Royce Koop, Heather Bastedo, and Kelly Blidook
Feminism’s Fight
Challenging Politics and Policies in Canada since 1970
Edited by Barbara Cameron and Meg Luxton
