“Because it’s 2016” Pushes for Gender Parity in Vancouver

Motion suggesting that the 50 per cent gender split in advisory committees is made mandatory

When Justin Trudeau established Canada’s first gender-balanced cabinet, he set an example for political bodies throughout the nation. Vancouver City Councillor Andrea Reimer was one of many inspired by the Prime Minister’s decision.

“I do a lot of work on gender equality in an ongoing way, but this was a rare moment with a Canadian prime minister proudly declaring himself a feminist and watching the rest of Canada feel proud of that too. Having the top man in the country willing to put his weight behind gender equality makes a lot of space for everyone to have the discussion,” she says.

Councillor Reimer has put forward a motion to mandate gender parity in all city advisory committees. In honour of Trudeau’s now-famous “Because it’s 2015” quote, the motion has been named “Because it’s 2016.” If passed, it will also commit to levelling spending on subsidized housing and social policy grants between men and women.

By maintaining male-dominated committees, the city deprives aspiring young women of role models in their government, thereby discouraging them from contributing their ideas and perspectives to politics in the future. It also means that women and their concerns are inaccurately represented, reinforcing toxic stereotypes about power relations and gender.

Mayor Gregor Robertson has already stated his support of the motion. However, some oppose Reimer’s plan to legally enforce parity rather than encourage it.

“How necessary these kinds of fixed rules are may partly depend on the level of participation and interest in civic advisory committees in Vancouver,” says Gregory Millard, chairperson and faculty member of Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s department of political science. “If interest is low across the board, then a rule like that could have the perverse effect of discouraging participation, because interested people could be turned away for having the wrong gender.”

Millard goes on to say that, he “seriously doubt[s] that this is a problem in Vancouver, but it could conceivably affect small municipalities. Still, you could always just modify the rule to state that the 50 per cent threshold must be met where there is a sufficiently large pool of talented applicants from either gender.”

Millard says that four of the nine political science instructors who have taught at Kwantlen this year are women. He notes that, “that seems like a decent ratio, although it hasn’t come about as a result of a specific policy mandating it.”

“For instance, you could prominently feature women on promotional materials inviting applications to civic committees,” instead of enforcing a policy on gender parity, Millard suggests.

Another criticism which has been voiced by the public is that appointees should be hired based on merit alone. As commenters on the CBC’s online coverage of the motion are quick to argue, movements like these are sometimes perceived as putting social equality ahead of competence.

Whether or not it passes will be announced on April 5. “I will champion it and, should it pass, oversee implementation,” says Reimer.

“When the gender equality strategy for Vancouver was written in 2005, Canada was in the top five countries in the world for gender equality—now we are hovering around 20th, below countries like South Africa and Rwanda,” she says. “The strategy presumed a level of support from the Feds and province that was no longer there. Equality is an important issue for me and the fact that women in the majority can be held back speaks to the need for greater efforts to remove barriers.”