Women’s Participation in the Ontario Political Parties, 1971-1981

Abstract

In the contemporary literature on Canadian party politics, relatively little attention is devoted to the participation of women. This article considers female involvement in the three major Ontario provincial parties, at the riding and provincial levels as well as in election campaigns. It concludes that while women’s participation is less than that of men on decision-making levels in all three provincial organizations, women are presently best represented on such levels in the Ontario NDP. Overall, the study suggests that although female party involvement has substantially increased during the past decade, reforms such as internal affirmative action may be necessary in order for women to obtain a more equitable share of political responsibility in the major parties.