Monday, December 20, 2010

XX vs. XY

In today's SP (Dec. 20/10) MLA Chartier raises the question of the lack of female candidates for elected office. Too bad the question wasn't publicly asked prior to the majority of candidates being nominated for the next provincial election.

I can think of a couple of reasons off the top why women do not seek public office.

I suspect that most, but not all, women feel uneasy about leaving their families for the extended periods of time necessary to perform public service. Although today's husbands/fathers tend to share household and parenting duties, not many are willing to give up and/or slow down their own careers to fulfill the role of mainstay parent while their significant other takes a leave of absence.

Many qualified women have spent decades slamming their heads against the glass ceiling trying to increase their presence in the professional and business world. They have worked long and hard to attain career positions and are unwilling to jeopardize that work, or their futures, for a stint in public service. Although corporate employers may be required to hold career positions for an indeterminate length of time while an employee runs for public office, these women know they will not be considered for future advancement if they have expressed an interest in another line of work.

I don't know how you fix this problem. Appointing female candidates doesn't work as witnessed by Chretien's efforts with Georgette Sheridan. Although she won one election on a Liberal sweep that appointment dogged her throughout her term and came back to bite her on the second go round.

Maybe bright women are just smart enough to stay out of the increasingly comedic debacle billed as government.

22 comments:

  1. Interesting perspective from a woman who has run for public office.

    If they smart career minded women won't run there are always the uneducated Safeway cashiers to fill the ranks ;) (sorry, couldn't resist)

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  2. MLA Chartier is the daughter of Rusty Chartier and was a ally of Lenore to save the Gathercole where she was hoping to open a mothering center. Yep she's infinitely qualified to be in government!

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  3. Chartier seems to be more qualified for office compared to anon 8:45 am

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  4. Anon 7:45

    Way to slander another NDP without even doing your research. Chartier is an educated woman and I doubt she ever worked at Safeway (and if she did so, was probably as a highschooler).

    If you are going to take shots at HONEST, HARD WORKING MLAs at least get some credible material.

    How is that

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  5. what exactly makes one "qualified for government"? I thought the only qualification was accumulating more votes on election day then your opponents....

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  6. We could always have another driver trainer come in and fix our health care problems ....

    "He graduated from Milestone High School and ran the driver education program for Prairie View School Division for many years"

    Oh wait! He has not fixed anything. Maybe they should try a Safeway cashier it could not be any worse than the driver trainer.

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  7. Anon 9:28,

    I believe the original comment was aimed at Deb Higgins and not Chartier.

    Higgins who was a cashier with no education became leader of the union.....which under NDP government meant she was qualified to be the Minister of Labour, which meant she could hand out nice cushy contracts to all her union brothers and sisters, which meant the province is now faced with extremely union friendly contracts which in turn is holding up negotiations on actual contracts because Higgins' union pals expect her competent replacement to simply keep handing the public tax payer money.

    So yes the uneducated incompetent Safeway cashier is Higgins, not Chartier.

    Chartier is the one, as mentioned above, who wants the government to now full fund all child care.

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  8. At no time should the election of a candidate for any elected position be based on gender, sexual orientation, religion, race or any of the other knee jerk factors floated out there. It's bad enough it is base on party affiliation, it's really to bad we couldn't just elect the right person and not worry about the other baggage!

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  10. I am totally appalled by the low level mean spirited comments regarding Deb Higgens. I am not an NDP supporter but I admire any individual who works as hard as she has had to to achieve her goals. Since when is working as a cashier a demaning occupation and what makes you people assume she is any less intellegent then any other so called professional? I wonder if she were married to someone in your superior social circle you'd be more accepting of her 'menial' occupation? Perhaps it would be more acceptable if she achieved her status by virtue of her husband's occupation? Your pettiness speaks volumes about your own level of intellegence.

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  12. I am absolutely disgusted by some of the comments above. How a discussion about WHY women are reticent to enter into political life can bottom out to this lowest of levels is startling. Perhaps I should have inclued petty and personal attacks as one of the reasons.

    To the individual who seems to think that if you are a clerk at Safeway that you lack ability to hold public office, give me a contact name or number. I want to introduce you to a couple of PHDs that can't figure out how to operate a pay toilet or balance their personal cheque books.

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  13. "Since when is working as a cashier a demaning occupation and what makes you people assume she is any less intellegent then any other so called professional?"

    Anon 11:55, I think you meant 'intelligent'. Probably not the word you wanted to misspell in your rant there.

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  14. I dont particularly care if I misspelt intelligent....your making it an issue is merely another display of your childish pettiness! Do you have nothing of substance to offer??

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  15. I don't think we need to elect women to represent women any more that we need to elect men to represent men or children to represent the needs of children! Surely we have evolved far enough that we can look past the gender of a candidate and concentrate on the character of the person. I do not share political veiws with Ms Chartier nor do I share her veiws on many other things and I may never vote for her BUT she does her best to represent her constituents regardless of their politics, making her a good MLA.

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  16. Relax Anon 11:55,

    Was just having a little bit of fun and trying to lighten the mood. Are you Deb Higgins?

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  17. that is what you consider having fun? You need some serious help then. And no, Im not Deb Higgens and nor do I support the NDP. But as a woman, I certainly admire her for her achievements and her intellect !!

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  18. Haha must be that time of the month again?

    You rambled on in a post about education/intelligence in your post yet misspelled intelligent twice. Don't you find that the least bit ironic? You were pointing out factors of intelligent and misspelled the word. Lighten up, it is the Christmas season.

    For your reference:

    Irony –noun, plural -nies. 1. the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, “How nice!” when I said I had to work all weekend.

    PS- The woman who you admire is 'Higgins' not 'Higgens', I suppose admiration does require extending the simple courtesy to spell her name right.

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  19. Appears you need a life dear! Focus more on your social skills and less on other's spelling abilities or lack thereof...

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