There is typically a dearth of women in political executive positions in Canada. Women rarely comprise more than one-third of cabinet ministers at any level of government (Equal Voice, 2007), and between 2002 and 2008, no women served as chief executive and the provincial or federal level. It is hardly surprising that the existing literature contends that major Canadian political parties are considerably less likely to select women leaders than are smaller, left-leaning parties (O’Neill and Stewart 2009; Cross and Blais 2012).
However, between 2008 and 2013, 6 women served as provincial premiers; at the time of writing, 85% of Canadians are governed by a woman chief executive at the sub-national level. Each woman selected premier after 2010 has done so in a post-crisis (Beckwith, 2013) or glass-cliff context (Ryan, Haslam, and Kulich, 2010). Most women entered the premier’s office on the heels of unpopular men and were/are not anticipated to retain the office through general election (Clark, Redford, Wynne). Others have followed extremely popular men who defined their province’s politics (Dunderdale). Only one has secured the premier’s office first through a general election (Marois).
This pilot study examines women’s recruitment and success in executive political office in Canada. What accounts for the emergence of so many women premiers between 2010 and 2013? Do Canada’s governing provincial parties select women leaders only when the party is a precarious position? What mechanisms that allow for women’s recruitment as chief executive when their party is unpopular fail when the party is popular? Has the selection of women premiers in some provinces acted as a contagion in others? What mechanisms allow for women’s retention in executive office? The answers may allow us to predict how likely it is that women executives will be retained once this first cohort of executive women retires.
