Women in the 44th Canadian Parliament

[4] The Canadian Parliament has seen a dramatic increase in the number of women and racialized people that sit in the House of Commons in the last decade.

According to the Library of the Canadian Parliament, there are seven key factors that contribute to the barriers to entry that women face: gender stereotypes and discrimination, lack of confidence in their abilities, insufficient efforts to recruit female candidates, difficulties in financing their campaigns, absence of family-friendly and gender-sensitive workplaces, gender-based violence and harassment, and gender-biased media treatment.

[12] In terms of gender representation in government, Canada outperforms a country like the United States in which the House of Representatives is made up of 27.4% women.

[10] However, in a country where women make up a slim majority of the population at 50.4% as of 2010,[13] the 43rd Canadian Parliament still falls short when it comes to achieving gender parity in government.

Canadian provinces and territories come much closer to achieving gender parity in their Legislative Assemblies than their federal counterparts.