We can’t afford to lose women in public life

Last week, community members gathered at Kindred Coffee in Lindsay to lament and address the increasing threats, trolling, and violence faced by women in politics. There was standing room only. Women and men. Everyone. The event was an inspiring evening of togetherness, inspiration, and hope. 

What is stopping many women from running for public office isn’t capability. It’s the calculation about what public life costs these days, costs that I don’t need to pay nearly as much as a man.

This calculation is a problem. Unfortunately, we’re not an outlier. We’re part of the pattern. We are losing women in politics before the race even begins. Currently, only two of our nine members of council are women.

In Ontario’s last municipal elections, only 31 per cent of all candidates were women. But when women run, they win. And at a higher rate than men: 47 per cent to 43 per cent in Ontario’s last municipal cycle. The barrier isn’t electability. It’s candidacy. 

And this is ours to fix. 

Misogyny – yes, misogyny, not just sexism – in local politics isn’t usually something obvious enough to condemn in a statement. It shows up as a woman councillor being interrupted mid-sentence, or talked over, and everyone pretending it’s just lively debate. 

It comes in the form of women candidates’ passion being called “bitchy” or “hysterical.” It also arrives as a female candidate’s position being called emotional while the identical argument from a man is “principled” or the challenging – or berating – of a woman leader when the male who’s present leaves the room. And it takes the forms of the harassment that lands in email inboxes, and voicemails, and comment sections dressed in persistence and aggressiveness. It is reserved for women who hold opinions in public. This isn’t an occupational hazard – “part of the job” – it’s a structural failure. It’s an extension of the sexist attitudes still entrenched in our society: women as less competent, weaker, appearance-based, threatening. 

In our municipality with eight wards and a council table that needs to reflect the full range of who we are, we cannot afford to keep losing people before the race even begins. When women participate fully in economic and civic life, the evidence is clear: economies grow, poverty shrinks, and decisions better reflect the communities they’re meant to serve. No community can afford to leave half its talent on the sidelines. 

I want to be specific about what we men can do, partly because I think we spend too much time waiting for women to carry this fight themselves, and partly because I haven’t always gotten it right myself. Here are some thing that have helped, in my experience: ask women leaders what they need and want before deciding to “go to bat” for them (I did before writing this article); notice and speak up when it happens — in the room – before the meeting moves on; when a woman is being talked over, say so; when a female candidate is piled on online, respond publicly; push for gender-diverse panels and speakers; and don’t just ask women if they’ve considered running. Meet with them. Tell them why you think they should. Offer support.

Culture doesn’t change from the top down. It changes at the margins, one correction at a time — at the coffee shop, in the lunchroom, on social media. The harassment Tracy Richardson faces, and Councillor Pat Warren receives, didn’t start online. It began more ordinary than that.

With the municipal election now less than four months away, the recruitment window is open. 

This doesn’t take a big plan. It just requires deciding that democratic participation is worth protecting, and that protecting it is the job of all of us.

We in Kawartha Lakes have many challenges to work on — cost-of-living, roads, housing, healthcare, keeping our environment beautiful. We’re going to need every capable person we can get at the table. 

Half our talent can’t afford to opt out because we didn’t create an equal and respectful room together.

— Councillor Mike Perry represents Ward 3 on Kawartha Lakes City Council.