THUNDER BAY -- Women are still in search for equal representation in politics, says Minister of Status of Women.
Patty Hajdu took part in the Northwest Ontario Municipalities Association Regional conference Friday afternoon.
The Minister spoke about her journey into politics and her experience as a new Member of Parliament and Minister during a Women in Politics Luncheon at the Victoria Inn.
“My goal today was to talk about women in politics, and how to get more women in leadership roles,” Hajdu said.
The objective is to encourage, train and mentor women to run for all levels of elected government in hopes of women being equally represented.
Hajdu said there are a number of barriers that hold women back from participating in politics.
“I talked a lot about the barrier of money and often it’s a very expensive endeavor, so women often don’t have the resources that it takes and it is difficult for women to gather those resources,” Hajdu said.
She added that there are also preconceived stereotypes and misconceptions about women in leadership roles that continue to persist even after many decades.
“We are working on those at the Federal level, but it’s exciting to see that work is being done at the local level as well.”
Groups like Women in Politics have been playing a pivotal role at local levels to inspire, support and make sure women have the necessary resources they need.
“We need to look at how we can make sure that the process from start to finish will ensure that more women are representing us at the Federal level,” Hajdu said.
"Some early research has shown that women need to be encouraged to run, so making sure we are asking qualified great women in our communities across the sectors to consider running and serving their city, province or country.”
She added that the narrative we are taught over and over again is that gender equality has been reached.
“When we see the gender wage gap is still 27 cents to the dollars, and that we have roughly 16 to 18 per cent representation on private sector boards, those are the kinds of stats that show the real reality for women in Canada.”