More feminists or more women? Descriptive and substantive representations of women in the 1997 Canadian federal elections

The debate about the underrepresentation of women in politics rests on two conceptions of political representation, namely the descriptive and the sub stantive. The descriptive perspective is that political institutions should reflect the composition of civil society, while the substantive (or femini st) conception argues that, since women offer unique perspectives, their ex clusion from political power means that their needs, demands, and interests would currently not be echoed in the political arena. However, a causal li nk is sometimes too easily established between the number of women elected and its consequences for the female population in general. This article def ines, within the context of Canadian parliamentarianism, the scope and limi ts of this equation between descriptive and substantive representation of w omen. The conclusion reached is that feminist consciousness has a more sign ificant influence than gender on opinions regarding Liberal and gender-rela ted issues. It appears the best feminist strategy to descriptively and subs tantively represent women is to promote women within political parties, and to elect women who are feminists. The names of the Canadian political parties appear in abbreviated form: Blo c Quebecois (BQ), Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), Liberal Party of Cana da (LFC), New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP), and Reform Party (RP).