Addressing the Democratic Deficit: Women and Political Culture in Atlantic Canada

Authors

  • Margaret Conrad

Keywords:

Democracy, Women politicians, Poltiical marginalization, Atlantic Canada

Abstract

This paper questions the notion that women in the Atlantic region are uniquely hobbled by conservatism and traditionalism in their political choices, arguing instead that resistence to women's full participation in formal political structures is a national phenomenon and that Atlantic Canada's political marginalization within the federal framework serves as the context for women's political marginalization in the region. It also argues that the failure to address the exclusivity of our political structures constitutes a "democratic deficit," a serious loss of talent that we can ill-afford at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

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Author Biography

Margaret Conrad

Margaret Conrad, a member of the History Department of Acadia University from 1969 to 2002, was awarded a Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canada Studies at the University of New Brunswick in 2002. She also served as an adjunct professor of History at Dalhousie from 1992 to 2002. In 1995 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and, from 1996 to 1998, held Nancy's Chair in Women's Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University. A founding member of the editorial Board of Atlantis, she has written widely in the fields of Atlantic Canada and Women's history.

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Published

2003-04-01

Issue

Vol. 27 No. 2 (2003): Health Panic and Women's Health

Section

Special Collection: Women's Exercise of Political Power: Building Leaderships in Atlantic Canada

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