Following the 2019 federal election, the percentage of female MPs in the House of Commons has grown slightly, from 27% to 29%, and the Prime Minister continues to maintain a gender-balanced Cabinet. Female MPs continue to face significant barriers, including harassment and lack of work-life balance. More action is needed in order to address barriers facing women in political life in Canada. The introduction of maternity and parental benefits for Parliamentarians was a welcome step forward this year.
The commitment to applying gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) across all government operations is progressing, but there is a need to strengthen intersectional analysis. Internal documents from the Department of Women and Gender Equality have identified that in 2019, fewer than half of all federal departments tracked how GBA+ is being applied and many lack the internal mechanisms to apply it. The government must do more to entrench GBA+ into the machinery of government, establish quality control, and improve intersectionality to capture the full diversity of Canadian society.
Feminist and women’s rights organizations have been critical drivers of progressive change and are responsible for many of the hard-earned gains for women’s rights worldwide. The government significantly increased funding for the Canadian women’s movement, but core funding remains scarce.
