Representation of Women in Government - A Snapshot
It seems simple: our elected leaders – those who sit on City Councils and School Boards or in Legislatures or Parliament – should reflect the communities they serve. We know that we make better policy decisions and see better outcomes when we have a diversity of voices at the table. However, the reality is that for many years, this has not been the case.
The first woman elected to the House of Commons was Agnes Macphail in 1921 – more than half a century after the founding of Canada. She was the only federally elected woman until 1935. Only 14 women have served as First Ministers, including the only female Prime Minister, Kim Campbell. Canada’s first female Cabinet Minister was appointed in 1957, and since then, women have been featured prominently in Cabinet only in rare instances. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 2015 Cabinet was the first to have parity in Minister roles.
In the past five years, we’ve seen at least one election at each level of government. We also saw some significant progress made in the representation of women in government. 2021 was historic for many reasons: Calgary elected its first woman Mayor. Edmonton elected 8 women to City Council. A record number of women were elected to Canada’s House of Commons.
As we get closer to the 2025 election cycle, we wanted to take a broad look at this progress and where women’s representation in government currently stands. We looked across Alberta, Canada, and the world to gather the data to see how we stack up. Specifically, we looked at:
How Calgary and Edmonton compare to other major cities in Alberta;
How Alberta compares to other provinces; and
How Canada fares among comparator nations.
Disclaimer: these statistics capture only part of the diversity we would like to see in our municipal, provincial and federal governments. Limited data is available on the proportion of legislators who are members of the BIPOC community or part of the 2SLGBTQI+ community.
Municipal Representation
Medicine Hat and Edmonton saw the highest percentage of women elected to City Council. Calgary and Red Deer were tied at 33%, and Lethbridge was lowest among the major cities at 22%.
Cities like Medicine Hat and Edmonton have not only reached parity on their City Councils, they’ve exceeded it. While this is excellent news, we can’t take this for granted. To sustain this progress, we need to ensure that women are continually equipped with the tools to run for office. We also need to ensure that women who are elected are able to have good experiences in government - free from harassment and double-standards.
At 33%, cities like Calgary and Red Deer have an opportunity to achieve parity in 2025. In order to achieve that, we need to empower women with the connections, confidence, and knowledge to successfully run for office.
Provincial Representation
Québec had the highest percentage of women in their National Assembly, at 45%. Newfoundland and Labrador’s General Assembly saw the lowest level of representation, at 23%. As of the 2023 election, Alberta’s Legislature is 38% women. This election also saw the first Black woman and first First Nations woman elected to office. However, there is still progress to be made: only 5 of our 24 cabinet members are women and Alberta is the only province with a woman premier.
National Representation
Although 2021 was a historic year for the number of female members of parliament, they still make up only 30% of Canada’s Parliament. Almost half (48.7%) of the federal cabinet is women. Globally, women represent 23.3% of Cabinet members heading ministries. There are only 15 countries in which women hold 50% or more of the positions of cabinet members leading policy areas.
The Bottom Line
While we have seen some considerable progress in the representation of women in government across the board over the past five years, we saw some of the most historic shifts municipally. The 2025 election cycle is a chance to achieve parity in Calgary and maintain it in Edmonton. We know the barriers that women often face when choosing to run that their male counterparts do not, including safety and harassment concerns, issues finding childcare, and more difficulty fundraising.
As 2025 approaches, we are reinvigorating our commitment to addressing these barriers where we can. Ask Her will continue to offer programming that provides women and gender-diverse folks with the skills, acumen and leadership to run successful campaigns (as a candidate or on a team!). Our programs and resources are linked below.