Political parties and women candidates in Canada: Influences on party selection of male to female candidate ratio
Master thesis
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Date
2010-12-01Metadata
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- Department of Government [482]
Abstract
The study presented below is about which variables influence the percentage of female candidates in Canadian political parties. The study is divided into two main parts: the first part being a comparison of the two main parties in Canada over 24 years in terms of the numbers of selected and elected female candidates. The second part deals with 8 variables and the amount of influence each has on the level of female candidates in Canadian political parties. The data used in my study is taken from the 2006 Canadian census on the Statistics Canada website, and election records from the official site of the Parliament of Canada. The analysis of the data was done in conjunction with analysis program called SPSS to produce cross tabulations of the 8 independent variables with the dependent variable. In the opening chapter the reader will find a discussion of the rationale for the topic and the history of women's political representation in Canada. Chapters two, three, and four describe how the methodology of my study works, the related research, and the theoretical framework. The fifth chapter contains a literature review of political parties from different nations and the state of women's representation in those nations. In the sixth chapter, the study of the elections from 1984 to 2008 to determine which party has selected and elected more female candidates is presented. The seventh chapter deals with the analysis of the data from the election study and the conclusions produced from the data. In chapter eight, the results from the electoral district survey are displayed for the reader. In chapter nine, the analysis of the results from the data from the electoral district survey is presented there. Finally, the last chapter deals with closing comments on the findings of my study and the generalizations that I think can be made from the findings.