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Gender representation has been a significant issue in Canadian politics. The first woman elected to the House of Commons of Canada was Agnes Macphail, in the 1921 election. Although female representation in politics has increased since then, and several political parties have identified increasing the number of female candidates as an organizational and political goal, no major Canadian political party to date has achieved gender parity in the number of candidates nominated for election. Political parties have occasionally achieved balanced representation in their elected caucuses, but mainly as a byproduct of a party collapse – for example, in the 1993 election, the Progressive Conservatives achieved gender parity in their elected caucus, but only by virtue of electing just two Members of Parliament nationwide and losing official party status. At various times, parties have also had 100 per cent female representation in their caucuses, but again only by virtue of having a caucus that consisted of just one or two members. The Yukon New Democratic Party attained the distinction, in the Yukon general election, 2011, of becoming the first party with official party status ever to have an elected caucus that was more than 50 per cent female, with four women and two men elected as MLAs. The Alberta New Democratic Party attained the distinction, in the Alberta general election, 2015, of coming the closest that a governing party caucus has ever come to attaining gender balance — the party's caucus has 25 women and 28 men, representing a caucus that is 47 per cent female.〔("Young MLAs, many of them female, will soon rule in Alberta" ). ''Toronto Star'', May 9, 2015.〕 As of 2010, Canada ranked 50th in the world for women's participation in politics, with women holding just 23 per cent of the seats in federal, provincial and territorial legislatures.〔("Canada 50th in participation by women in politics" ). ''Toronto Star'', March 8, 2010.〕 At the federal level, Canada was tied with Mauritania for 49th place.〔("Women in national parliaments" ). ''Inter-parliamentary Union'', February 28, 2010.〕 ==Women as federal representatives== In the 1921 election Agnes Macphail became the first woman elected to the Canadian House of Commons. Four other women – Harriet Dick, Rose Mary Henderson, Elizabeth Bethune Kiely and Harriet Dunlop Prenter – also stood as candidates in the same election, although they were not successful. Macphail was reelected in every subsequent election until 1940. She was the only woman in the House of Commons until 1935, when she was joined by Martha Black. In the 1940 election, Macphail was defeated and Black did not stand as a candidate, but Dorise Nielsen was elected, and Cora Taylor Casselman was elected in a 1941 byelection to succeed her late husband. Nielsen and Casselman were both defeated in 1945, but Gladys Strum was elected that year. Strum, in turn, was defeated in 1949, the only election after 1921 in which no female candidates were elected to Parliament at all. However, Ellen Fairclough was elected to the House in a by-election the following year. In the subsequent 1953 election, ''four'' women – Fairclough, Margaret Aitken, Sybil Bennett and Ann Shipley – were elected to Parliament. Every subsequent election has had at least two women elected to Parliament, except 1968 when Grace MacInnis was the only woman elected. Shipley became, in 1955, the first woman in Canadian history to introduce the formal motion to accept a Speech from the Throne. Fairclough became, in 1957, the first woman appointed to the Cabinet of Canada; she was also named as Acting Prime Minister for two days in 1958 while John Diefenbaker was out of the country on a state visit, the first woman ever to be given that duty. The number of women elected to the House reached double digits for the first time in the 1979 election, when 10 women were elected. In 1980, Jeanne Sauvé was appointed the first female Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons. Federally, the 1993 election holds the record for the most female candidates in a single election, with 476 women running for office that year. In terms of women ''elected'' to the House of Commons, the 2015 election holds the record, with 88 successful female candidates. As of 2015, 314 women overall have served in the House of Commons. Of the major federal political parties, the New Democratic Party has nominated the most female candidates in every election since its creation, except in the 1962 election, when it tied with the Progressive Conservatives, and the 2008 election, when the Liberals nominated the most female candidates for the first time in their history. The Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada nominated more women than the New Democrats in 1979 and 1980, although they are a minor party who have never won a seat in the House of Commons. Between the 1935 and 1958 elections, the top ranking was consistently held by either the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation or the Labour Progressives. The New Democratic Party caucuses in the 39th Canadian Parliament, the 41st Canadian Parliament and the 42nd Canadian Parliament were all 40 per cent female, the closest that a party with official party status has ever come to attaining full gender balance. The party's slate of candidates in the 2015 election was also 42 per cent female, with 145 women constituting the largest slate of female candidates ever nominated by a single political party in a federal election. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Women in Canadian politics」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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