The first woman elected to the National Assembly in 1961, Marie-Claire Kirkland-Casgrain felt like an intruder in this world of men. Placed under close surveillance by her male colleagues, she had given herself the mission of never making the slightest misstep. The honor of all women was at stake.
“At the Council of Ministers, I had to watch myself closely. Because there, a woman who speaks lightly would be judged a hundred times more poorly than a man, it would be said that she is “too emotional”. You have to be ultra-diplomatic and hide your feelings. It was all the harder since my family had stayed in Montreal and I knew that I would not be forgiven for the slightest absence, not the slightest delay… I always said to myself: “If I fail, it will harm all women”. I had the impression of having a terrible responsibility on my shoulders,” she confided to the journalist Lysiane Gagnon, after her departure from political life.
Former parliamentary correspondent Jocelyne Richer reports this testimony in a powerful essay, The sex of power. Feminine politics: elected and former elected officials break the silencewhich is appearing these days. More than half a century after the election of a first woman, “we should not make the mistake of believing that this episode from the distant past has no echo today,” she writes. The elected officials currently in office essentially feel the same thing.”
Yes, even in 2024, elected officials still feel like intruders in the National Assembly. Despite the near parity on the benches of Parliament. And even if Quebec is one of the societies “among the most progressive in terms of the status and rights of women”, recognizes the author.
Jocelyne Richer has been simmering this speech on women in politics for years. The journalist with 40 years of experience, half of which as a correspondent at the National Assembly, has seen the countless obstacles that stand in the way of female politicians.
His well-researched essay goes behind the scenes of Parliament. She conducted in-depth interviews with around sixty elected and former elected officials, who also responded to an exhaustive questionnaire on their experience. She drew major conclusions about women’s discomfort as well as anecdotes that illustrate the ups and downs of women’s political life.
“Toé, we love you, but it’s not true that we’re going to vote for a plotter! » A voter made this remark to Isabelle Melançon when she was campaigning to become an MP. Once elected, another surprise awaited her: “Your sweater is beautiful,” said a colleague, staring at her chest.
For her part, MP Chantal Soucy, vice-president of the National Assembly, could not believe her ears when she heard a minister (whom she does not name) mention women in the Legault government: “It’s is not strong, strong, the little ones in the Council of Ministers! »
A hostile environment
The remarks of “monuncles” appear rather trivial compared to the systemic difficulties described by elected and former elected officials. Recruiting women is difficult, because they doubt themselves and there are very few measures to facilitate work-family balance – which represents the main obstacle to the arrival of candidates, noted the author.
“When women arrive in Parliament, they are often surprised. They find that it is an environment that is hostile to them,” says Jocelyne Richer in an interview.
MPs have neither parental leave nor daycare, apart from a pilot project of ten childcare places in a building adjacent to the National Assembly. Remote voting, demanded for years to help parents of young children, remains “science fiction”, even if the majority of elected officials live hundreds of kilometers from Quebec.
This disconnect between today’s reality and the parliamentary institution risks discouraging elected officials. Marwah Rizqy, considered one of the most gifted politicians of her generation – and who has given birth twice since her election in 2018 – told the journalist that “the day she feels that she can no longer adequately play the role of both her role as chosen one and her role as mother, she will choose her family. Without hesitation.”
The exodus of women seems to have already begun. Among the 35 elected officials from the first term of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) who chose to step down in 2022 (or in 2023 in the case of former MP Joëlle Boutin), two-thirds are women, even if they occupied only 44% of the seats. Among the CAQ elected officials who chose to bow out, three out of four were women.
Émilie Foster is one of them. The MP could no longer stand the harsh debates in Parliament. The elected officials surveyed by Jocelyne Richer deplore the hyperpartisan tone which reigns in the National Assembly, comparable to a “boxing ring”.
Shadow workers
The elected officials do not hesitate to ignore partisan rules to work hand in hand on concrete solutions: the liberal Isabelle Melançon, the solidarity Christine Labrie and the PQ Véronique Hivon joined forces to encourage Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette to create a specialized court for sexual violence and domestic violence.
Despite their effectiveness, women are too often relegated to secondary roles, notably the honorary positions of governor general or lieutenant governor. “The first woman appointed governor general of Canada was Quebecer Jeanne Sauvé, in 1984. Of the 7 people appointed to this position since that date, 5 are women. Canada also has 10 lieutenant governors and 3 territorial commissioners. In 2024, 11 of these 13 representatives of King Charles III are women (84.6%),” we read in The sex of power.
The position of vice-premier of Quebec most of the time goes to women. Since the first elected official to hold the office, Lise Bacon, in 1985, 9 of the 12 deputy prime ministers have been women, including the current one, Geneviève Guilbault. “The position carries a certain prestige, because it gives the impression that the person who occupies it becomes “number 2” in the government. But this is all an illusion. In reality, the title does not give any additional power to the designated person,” writes the author.
Nathalie Normandeau, Jean Charest’s vice-premier for five years, found that her role was limited to acting as spokesperson for the prime minister when the latter was not available. He was asked to deliver messages thought and written by others. “She’s a bit like the government press secretary,” summarizes the woman who became a radio presenter after her retirement from politics. She adds that she was never part of the Prime Minister’s inner circle.
“Transplanting balls”
True power is found in boys’ club who surrounds the head of government, recalls Jocelyne Richer. She evokes the title of the book written by Lise Payette after she left politics in the early 1980s, which has retained its full meaning four decades later: Power? Don’t know!
It is no coincidence that Valérie Plante’s slogan, during the Montreal mayoral campaign in 2017, was “The man for the job”. As early as 1976, after the historic victory of the Parti Québécois, René Lévesque also presented the new MP for Hull, Jocelyne Ouellette, in this way: “He is the best man on our team! »
In The sex of powerelected officials say they are criticized for laughing, smiling, having a voice that is too high, looking tired or being dressed too sexy. Former minister Lise Thériault made the supreme mistake during a press conference on the mistreatment of indigenous women in 2015: she cried. Quebec radio host Sylvain Bouchard found a solution to this problem: “Would there be a way to transplant her balls? That’s what quotas for women are! »