THE DYNAMICS OF WOMENS REPRESENTATION IN THE CANADIAN PROVINCES - 1975-1994

This article presents evidence concerning women's representation in Ca nada's provincial legislative assemblies over a 20-year period (1975-1 994). Data from 3,755 elections and over 11,000 candidates are analyze d to inspect trends in representation. The authors find there has been a gradual increase in both female candidates and legislators. The New Democratic party has clearly been the leader in putting women on the ballot and into legislatures at the provincial level. In addition, hyp otheses are tested to see if there are differences across provinces in parties' willingness to nominate and elect women, and whether women a re more likely to be nominated primarily in districts where a party do es not expect to win. The study finds that the Atlantic provinces lagg ed behind the rest of Canada as representation increased markedly ever ywhere else in the late 1980s and the 1990s. There is also evidence th at the major parties nominated female challengers in ridings that were inferior to the ridings where the party's male challengers ran in the mid- to late-1970s. By the mid-1980s, however, evidence that women we re treated as sacrificial lambs had disappeared.