The number of women entering Quebec politics keeps on growing

Quebec Premier Francois Legault present the inaugural speech to members of the National Assembly, at the legislature in Quebec City, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

A record-breaking 46.4 per cent of politicians elected in Quebec's 2022 election were women, according to the provincial government's statistics institute, an increase of 16 per cent since 2005.

"Since the last election, we have the highest proportion of women elected to the national assembly," said Marie-Andrée Gravel, expert consultant and coordinator of the Institut de la statistique du Québec's social indicators program.

Fifty-eight women held seats in the Quebec legislature after October's election.

According to Université Laval political science professor André Bodet, this stat is explained by multiple factors, including the fact that mentalities have evolved.

"Women who imagine themselves in positions of power, it's maybe more frequent today, because of socialization, than it was in the past," he explained.

Bodet believes we'll see even more women in the political sphere in the future and that there's little chance of a significant decline in this trend.

"It creates role models, but also female political figures that are in a position to play a role in democratic life," he said.

The fact that three different parties have governed Quebec in the past 10 years (the Parti Québécois, the Quebec Liberal Party and the Coalition Avenir Québec) has led to a more rapid turnover of electric officials and, therefore, more opportunities for women to leap into politics.

"This accelerates the departure of male candidates and, at the same time, permits women to gain nominations and become [MNAs]," Bodet added.

Quebec is the Canadian province with the highest percentage of women in its government. The average for other provinces is 32.7 per cent.

In the last election, a record-breaking 43 per cent of candidates were women, according to data from Elections Quebec.

The four parties currently represented in the national assembly -- the CAQ, PQ, QLP and Québec solidaire -- all had a number of women candidates that fell within the parity zone (between 40 and 60 per cent) during voting time.

At 46.4 per cent, there were more women elected to the national assembly, in proportion, than there were women candidates. A figure that may come as a surprise, since women candidates tend to be given losing constituencies, according to Bodet.

"Traditionally, when there's a riding that a party has little or no chance of winning, most men will pass, whereas women will be willing to sacrifice themselves for the team," he said.

He noted that the CAQ, in particular, made efforts to not only recruit female candidates, but place them in winnable ridings.

MUNICIPALITIES LAG BEHIND

Women are also on the rise at the municipal level. Since 2005, the percentage of women mayors elected in Quebec has jumped by almost 11 per cent.

However, municipalities are still far from the parity zone; by 2022 only 24 per cent of mayors were women.

"There has been a noticeable improvement [...] but this is still the level where women are least represented," said Marie-Andrée Gravel of the Institut de la statistique du Québec.

For Marc André Bodet, it's a question of resources and the lack of well-organized political parties in most Quebec municipalities.

"Even today, most women who want to get involved in politics come from professional sectors that are less advantageous from an economic point of view. [...] In the municipal world, there is little money available through partisan structures, as parties are generally vehicles pulled by a mayoral candidate," he explained.

"At the provincial and federal levels, political parties can often compensate for candidates with a smaller network, with funding from elsewhere," he added.

That said, women are currently at the helm of several major cities in Quebec: Valérie Plante in Montreal, Catherine Fournier in Longueuil, Évelyne Beaudin in Sherbrooke and France Bélisle in Gatineau.

But Bodet says caution should be exercised before drawing conclusions from this fact.

"We can't establish a trend yet," he said.

Note: The data from the Institut de la statistique du Québec dated October 19, 2022, i.e. before certain changes in the national assembly, such as the departure of Liberal leader Dominique Anglade and her replacement by Quebec Solidaire's Guillaume Cliche-Rivard.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on July 18, 2023 .