British Columbia’s women-majority legislative assembly has to prove they are for women

Women must have a place in politics, but they must work to empower all women, too

B.C.'s legislature has more women than men. (Nyamat Singh)

B.C.’s legislature has more women than men. (Nyamat Singh)

As of the 2024 provincial election, women make up more than half of all MLAs in the British Columbian legislative assembly, according to CBC News

To break it down, 49 of the 93, or 52.7 per cent, sitting B.C. MLAs identify as women. By party, 31 of the 47 NDP members, or 66 per cent, are women. Among the province’s Conservatives, 18 of the 44 Tories, or 41 per cent, are women. The BC Greens are not charting because both of their MLAs are men.

Regarding those with ministerial positions, the B.C. cabinet is 63-per-cent women.

Comparatively, in 2023, within the federal House of Commons, just 30.6 per cent of MPs were women, with 48.7 per cent of federal cabinet members being female, according to a Statistics Canada survey.

Women in Canadian politics have made some impressive inroads as of late. Aside from B.C. being the first province to elect a female-majority legislature, New Brunswick elected its first woman premier on Oct. 21, and Manitoba’s legislative assembly is also about 30-per-cent women. Around one-third of Winnipeg’s city councillors are also women. 

One could go as far as to say that it’s springtime for Canadian women in elected posts. But we should not mistake victories at the ballot box for social improvement, advancements in equality, or full-fledged emancipation.

Gender-based violence cannot simply be voted away. Especially not when racialized and 2SLGBTQIA+ women are disproportionately victims of domestic and sexual violence. Missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and the victimization of Indigenous women in general, still constitutes a national crisis which remains largely unaddressed. 

Legal protections for women and women’s rights — whether it be in the workplace, health care, education, housing, based on identity — can be, and very much should be, championed by women politicians, advocates, and allies. But, as the inclusion of the latter two suggests, the legislature ought not act as the be-all-end-all to perpetuating women’s rights.

Equally so, women politicians are not guaranteed to protect women’s rights and interests. They can even, in fact, regress, attack, or distort feminist causes to further exclusionary, chauvinistic class and racial agendas. 

Margaret Thatcher, Giorgia Meloni, and Danielle Smith were and are women leaders who would only be called “feminist” if one were to define the word in a shallow and flimsy manner. Even if they do not outright proclaim all women to be inherently inferior to men, they support policies that less-than-forwardly or indirectly uphold a patriarchal, racist, and classist status quo. 

Voting for women is still an important first step, but one cannot trust that they will automatically be feminists or egalitarian by virtue of being women. Their platforms might actually be substantively and diametrically opposed to equality, but use feminist rhetoric to justify themselves and their policies.

Whether it is the legislative, executive, or judicial branches, a government that is gender-diverse or equal is only the first step. Even then, it can only be a true full first step if the policies legislated, enforced, and interpreted actually advance gender equality and women’s rights in society. 

Failing, ignoring, or harming one demographic of women compromises the feminist cause in its totality. The B.C. cabinet and legislative assembly may be woman-dominated, but both must prove that they are for women. To assume that they already are is — for the reasons already stated above — fallacious, naïve, and idealistic. The next four years are for the government to prove to us that it does have women’s interests at heart.