It’s been 27 years, but Shirley Kalyniuk can still recall the comments about her decision to run for town council.
“They said: why am I running for council? I should be at home looking after my babies, feeding my husband and keeping my house clean,” Kalyniuk said.
The coffee shop chatter didn’t deter her. She won her seat in 1983 and is still involved in municipal politics, serving as mayor of Rossburn, Man., since 1993.
Yet, for many other women, comments like those Kalyniuk faced are discouraging. In 2010, only 15 percent of elected officials in municipal governments across Manitoba are women.
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The gender discrepancy in municipal politics is more striking than in provincial and federal politics. Eighteen of Manitoba’s 57 MLAs (32 percent) and five of the province’s 14 MPs (36 percent) are female.
Last year, the Association of Manitoba Municipalities formed a task force to look into reasons for the low participation rate among women.
The result was a report released this June titledBallot Box Barriers: An action plan for engaging more women in the municipal democratic process.
Kalyniuk, who chaired the task force, said the report was based on a questionnaire sent to every elected official in Manitoba, and another questionnaire sent only to elected women.
Of the 160 who responded to the general questionnaire, only 43 (25 percent) said there are barriers to women seeking elected office. But in the survey sent to women, 21 out of 26 said barriers exist.
The top barrier the report found was lack of time because of work and family responsibilities.
But Cate Watrous, who was elected mayor of Erickson, Man., four years ago, said it’s not just women who have responsibilities.
“(Some people) thought I wasn’t going to be able to do this job …
because the rest of my life was complicated,” said Watrous, who has five children aged eight to 19. “My response to that is that men have children too.”
Since becoming mayor, Watrous said she hasn’t experienced the infamous old boys club either. And, she said, municipal politics isn’t as confrontational as some women think.
“I would encourage them to go out and try it. I think they would be surprised…. It’s not the dog eat dog world they think it might be.”
Watrous has enjoyed her experience but hasn’t decided if she will run again because of her busy lifestyle. In addition to having a family with five children, she works as a communications officer for Parks Canada in Riding Mountain National Park.
“I don’t know if I want to continue with the responsibilities of being the mayor. If I’m going to do it, then I want to do it well,” she said.
Such internal conflict isn’t unusual for women in politics, Kalyniuk said. She faced a similar dilemma when her children were young.
“I used to feel guilty that I went to a meeting when my kids were small. So we as women, we put that guilt on ourselves,” she said. “We (women) all struggle with that. I don’t think it matters what position you hold in life.”
Kalyniuk and the other members of the task force recommend the AMM develop a four-year plan to engage more women in municipal politics, focusing on the target of the 2014 elections.
