2026 marks 30 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was a adopted as a UN resolution; a landmark global commitment to achieving equal representation for women in political life. Canada, however, is still behind on reaching that goal. Today, women and gender diverse people hold only 36 percent of elected offices in provincial and federal legislatures, and far behind other countries.
The contrast with Mexico, a country that shares Canada’s gender equality commitments, is striking. At the federal and state-levels, Mexico maintains legislated gender quotas, and women hold 50 percent of the seats in the federal Chamber of Deputies. Canada, on the other hand, relies only on voluntary party quotas for increased office-holding by women. As a result, while more than half of the deputies in Mexico are women, in Canada, women comprise less than one-third of the MPs in the House of Commons. Overall, Mexico ranks fourth in the world for women’s representation in national parliaments while Canada ranks 72nd.
Adequate gender representation is important because it also shapes what governments do. In India, a policy where only women are elected to the heads of some Village Councils has led to increased investment toward previously underprovided public goods, including health, education, and social protection. This policy change towards increased inclusion changes the policy agenda. As demonstrated with this case in India, and progressive policy changes in Mexico under the leadership of President Claudia Sheinbaum, for Canada, more women in legislatures and cabinets would change the policy priorities of governments.
To achieve policy change, according to Madison Schramm, “Quotas do work. With few exceptions, all states that have succeeded in electing more than 30% of women to the national legislature have some sort of quota system.” The world’s first national gender quota was adopted in Argentina in 1991, and the policy has spread globally, lending to increased outcomes for inclusion. Canada’s unfortunately late arrival to this conversation, however, can be a strategic advantage with more than three decades of global experience in its implementation and evidence of outcomes. This experience is valuable in correcting the negative effects of quota-based policies, as research suggests that quotas designed to boost women’s representation in selective groups such as school admissions, hiring candidates, and elections for public office can unintentionally reduce representation for other marginalized groups, such as youth, ethnic minorities, or lower-income candidates.
Without careful policy design, gender quotas could shuffle representation within marginalized groups, while the status quo is maintained. For example, Tunisia introduced quotas both women and youth in the aftermath of the 2011 uprisings to increase democratic participation and while the reform did increase the number of young women elected, the share of older men barely changed. While representatives of the status quo remained, this quota policy as designed had the appearance of reform without substantial change.
From these decades of experiences with policies to increase inclusion, Canada could look to complementary policies that negate these externalities. For instance, instead of focusing only on increasing the number of underrepresented groups, setting ceilings for overrepresented groups limits how many seats or nominations can go to dominant groups.
While it could be argued that this kind of quota system unfairly punishes members of the dominant group and undermines ideals of meritocracy, however, Canadian democracy suffers when it is an uneven playing field where dominant groups benefit from donor networks, incumbency, party connections, and visibility. What is neglected in this argument is the continued empowerment of the status quo at the expense of democracy. Ceiling quotas force candidates for schools, jobs, and especially public office to compete fairly, rather than benefit from systemic advantages.
To move forward from status quo public policy through a truly representative democracy, Canada should adopt policies that help our electoral politics reflect the people of this country. Decades of experience and experimentation can help Canadians design rules that increase women’s representation without sidelining marginalized groups. Canadians can build a more gender balanced democracy that also limits the outsized power of the status quo.
This piece was written for the Centre for Global Social Policy’s Opinion Piece project, with funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Canada Research Chairs.
