50% of the world’s population include women, however, women continue to be underrepresented as citizens, leaders and elected officials. Despite economic prosperity and political stability as a first world country, Canada’s underrepresentation of women in politics is less than in many underdeveloped countries and thus, brings forth inequality in society as well.
Statistics Canada shows that majority of students graduating from post-secondary are women, and this indicates that women should have equal opportunities that men do. Women are accounted for 56.3% of total enrolments in Universities in Canada, which is compared with 43.7% for men. These numbers have remained relatively stable over the past decade with female graduates representing 58% of the total number of graduates in 2012 as well. This is a continuing long trend in which female graduates have highly outnumbered the male graduates. This alone gives evidence as to how important the participation of women in politics and government is essential as to building and sustaining democracy.
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Under Stephen Harpers government in 2011, women held ¼ of the seats in the house of common. The 2011 election included 452 women candidates out of 1587 in total in which people were running for. The representation of women in politics is not just about the numbers, but is also about the representation of women’s issues such as childcare, pay gap, and other issues that cannot directly be addressed by men. There must be equal voices for Canada to represent both men and women, and therefore, a gender balanced government is important to