Women on Councils: Majorities and Lockouts

 In this blog myself and my fantastic research assistant, Leila Russell Brown (soon to be an MA student at Western University) break down the Association of Municipalities Ontario (AMO) numbers from the October 2022 Municipal Elections (check out Ontario Municipal Elections (amo.on.ca)).

Overall, according to the AMO, more women put themselves forward as candidates in 2022, 1,939 or 31% of all candidates. This is compared to 1,808 or 27% in 2018. In total, 6,325 women and men ran in 2022. Women won or were acclaimed in 32.3% of the races, an increase from 29.4% in 2018 (AMO, 2022). This puts women on local councils at just above the 30% marker set by the UN as indicative of a critical mass, the point at which government becomes more responsive to women's needs and women are able to influence key decisions.

As the AMO reports, the women who ran were slightly more successful than men in the 2022 elections. The success rate of women was 47.2% compared to 43.8% of men. In 2018, 46.4% of women were successful compared to 41.4% of men. Stealing a table from the AMO, electoral success by gender was as follows:

Electoral Results by Gender
	Women #	Women %	Men #	Men %	Total #
Acclaimed	165	8.5	388	8.8	553
Elected	750	38.7%	1,533	35.0	2,283
Unsuccessful	1,024	53.8%	2,464	56.2	3,489
Total	1,939	100%	4,385	100%	6,325

However, the overall number of women who become councillors is still a good distance from reflecting women's position as 50% of Canadian society. Men continue to dominate as councillors and as candidates. As the table below indicates women were locked out of 29 municipalities, while men were locked out of one, Algonquin Highlands. (Algonquin Highlands, it should  be noted, became a woman only council in 2018, which was continued in 2022).

Ontario Municipal Lockouts for Women 2022 Election Organized by descending population
Municipality	Population	System	Council Size	Women Candidates
Guelph-Eramosa	13,904	Ward	5	HOC 50% (1 of 2) 12.5%
Trent-Hills	13,861	Ward	7	HOC 50% (1 of 2) 21%
Tiny	12,966	At Large	5	20%
Elliot Lake	11,372	At Large	7	29%
Hamilton Township	11,059	At Large	5	DM 50% (1 of 2) 33%
Adjala-Tosoronti	10,989	Ward	7	DM 50% (1 of 2) 13%
Cavan Monaghan	10,016	Ward	5	31%
Alfred Plantagenet	9,949	Ward	5	HOC 25% (1 of 4) 20%
Renfrew	8,190	At Large	7	HOC 40% (2 of 5) 0
Drummond-North Elsmsley	8,183	At Large	5 acclaimed	0
East Zorra-Tavistock	7,841	Ward	7	0
Edwardsburgh Cardinal	7,505	Ward	5	0
Tweed	6,067	At Large	5	33%
Centre Hastings	4,801	At Large	5	57%
Iroquois Falls	4,418	At Large	7	0
Grand Valley	3,851	At Large	5	0
Warwick	3,641	At Large	5	HOC 50% (1 of 2) 11%
Powassan	3,346	At Large	5	11%
Marathon	3,138	At Large	5	36%
Magnetawan	1,753	At Large	5	22%
Deseronto	1,747	At Large	5	33%
Terrace Bay	1,528	At Large	5	13%
Laird	1,121	At Large	5	13%
Machin	1,012	At Large	5	17%
Billings	753	At Large	5	0
Baldwin	579	At Large	5	0
Moreley	493	At Large	5	18%
Dawson	399	At Large	5	0
Joly	293	At Large	5	0

HOC = Head of Council,  DM = Deputy Mayor

In fact, of the 417 elected councils in Ontario 49 can boast being majority or balanced female. This is 12% of elected councils. The remaining 88% are majority male, and 7% are completely male (as seen above). 

Ontario Majority Women Councils 2022 Election Organized by descending population
Municipality	Ratio	Population	System	Percentage of Total Candidates
Guelph	7/13	143,740	Ward	31%
Ajax	4/7	126,666	Ward	29%
Waterloo	7/10	121,436	Ward	HOC 50% (2 of 4)  37%
Woodstock	5/7	46,705	At Large	HOC 50% (2 of 4) 47%
East Gwillimbury	4/7	34,637	Ward	HOC 33% (1 of 3) 54%
Centre Wellington	4/7	31,093	Ward	35%
King	4/7	27,333	Ward	33%
Woolwich	3/6	26,999	Ward	HOC 50% (1 of 2) 30%
Wasaga Beach	4/7	24,862	At Large	HOC 25% (1 of 4) 47%
North Grenville	4/5	17,964	At Large	HOC 100% (2 of 2) 44%
Kenora	4/7	14,967	At Large	40%
Mississippi Mills	5/7	14,740	Ward	HOC 100% (1 of 1) 55%
Thames Centre	4/5	13,980	Ward & At Large	HOC 67% (2 of 3) DM 50% (1 of 2) 50%
Ingersoll	4/7	13,693		DM 50% (1 of 2) 42%
Gravenhurst	7/9	13,157	Ward & At Large	HOC 33% (1 of 3) 42%
Brock	4/7	12,567	Ward	50%
Wellington North	3/5	12,431	Ward	57%
Rideau Lakes	6/9	10,883	Ward	HOC 50% (1 of 2) 64%
The Blue Mountains	4/7	9,390	At Large	HOC 50% (2 of 4) 50%
Beckwith	3/5	9,021	At Large	55%
Stone Mills	4/7	7,826	At Large	50%
Minden Hills*	4/7	6,971	Ward	40%
Cramahe*	3/5	6,509	At Large	HOC 100% (1 of 1) 29%
Asphodel-Norwood	3/5	4,658	At Large	HOC 60% (3 of 5) 56%
Hastings Highlands	4/7	4,385	At Large	HOC 33% (1 of 3) DM 100% ( 1 of 1) 50%
Prescott*	4/7	4,078	At Large	40%
Casselman	3/5	3,960	At Large	HOC 50% (1 of 2) 43%
Mulmur	3/5	3,571	At Large	HOC 100% (1 of 1) DM 50% (1 of 2) 33%
Blind River#	4/6	3,422	At Large	HOC 100% (1 of 1) 60%
East Hawkesbury	3/5	3,418	At Large	57%
Shuniah	3/5	3,247	Ward	HOC 100% (1 of 1) 60%
Algonquin Highlands	5/5	2,588	Ward	HOC 50% (1 of 2) 83%
Carling	3/5	1,491	Ward	HOC 67% (2 of 3) 33%
Englehart	4/7	1,442	At Large	HOC 50% (1 of 2) 63%
Chisholm	3/5	1,312	At Large	HOC 100% (1 of 1) 33%
Smooth Rock Falls	3/5	1,200	At Large	HOC 33% (1 of 3) 56%
Moonbeam	3/5	1,157	At Large	HOC 50% (1 of 2) 43%
South Algonquin	4/7	1,055	Ward	HOC 33% (1 of 3) 56%
Assiginack	3/5	1,008	At Large	HOC 50% (1 of 2) 50%
Prince*	3/5	975	At Large	60%
Kearney	4/5	974	At Large	HOC 33% (1 of 3) 57%
Red Rock*	3/5	895	At Large	HOC 100% (1 of 1) 22%
Temagami*	4/7	862	At Large	44%
Val Rita-Harty	3/5	757	At Large	HOC 100% (2 of 2) 50%
Larder Lake*	3/5	745	At Large	HOC 100% (1 of 1) 40%
Charlton and Dack#	3/5	686	At Large	HOC 100% (1 of 1) 50%
Spanish	4/5	670	At Large	HOC 100% (2 of 2) 67%
McGarry	3/5	579	At Large	HOC 33% (1 of 3) 75%
Dubreuilville*	4/5	576	At Large	HOC 100% (1 of 1) 60%
Coleman*	3/5	517	At Large	57%
Limerick	3/5	436	At Large	HOC 50% (1 of 2) 50%
Latchford	4/7	355	At Large	HOC 100% (2 of 2) 40%
Chamberlain#	3/5	311	At Large	HOC 100% (1 of1) 50%
Lake of the Woods#	4/5	308	At Large	HOC 100% (1 of 1) 75%
Matachewan	3/5	268	At Large	HOC 50% (1 of 2) 70%
Head Clara & Maria*	4/5	267	At Large	HOC 50% (1 of 2) 50%
Pelee	3/5	230	At Large	HOC 50% (1 of 2) 60%

HOC = Head of Council, DM = Deputy Mayor, *= all women candidates elected, #= acclaimed

It is interesting to note in comparing the majority female councils and locked out councils that for the most part where women made up a higher percentage of the candidates the councils were more likely to be dominated by women. (I admit this is a rather crude comparison and it would be best to cover all the races. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.) There are a few exceptions, Red Rock where women were only 22% of the candidates ended up with 3 of the positions on the 5 member council filled by women. In fact, all the female candidates who ran in Red Rock won positions. On the other hand, Centre Hastings is a clear exception, where 57% of the candidates were women but none were successful. When the averages between the two tables are considered, however, it does appear the more women who run the more likely you are to have a woman majority council. The averages being 15.3% women candidates in the 29 no-women councils, and 56.9% of candidates in the races that resulted in majority-women councils. 

At the municipal level in Ontario it appears that the problem with getting women on councils is not due to the lack of success of women running, but rather the lack of numbers of women who put themselves forward to run. I will be honest, elsewhere while referring specifically to federal politics I have argued that the the problem of women's representation "does not appear to be a matter of supply, but rather women's lack of success in achieving elected office..." (NWF, 2020, p. 155). In my defence I am not the only one to make this argument, Jeanette Ashe has made similar claims based on her research of provincial elections in British Columbia (Ashe & Stewart, 2012) and the recruitment of women as Labour Party candidates (Ashe, 2017). At the federal and provincial levels, barriers can be put down to media bias, party gatekeeping, finances, and the electoral system. However, at the municipal level few if any of these factors appear to hold. This is one of the reasons why the local level is so interesting and explaining this along with the motivations of women municipal councillors is the focus of the research I am currently undertaking with Leila.

So stay tuned...

References: 

AMO Association of Municipalities Ontario. 2022. 2022 Municipal Elections -- Context. Available at: https://www.amo.on.ca/municipal-election-statistics

AMO Association of Municipalities Ontario. 2022. 2022 Municipal Elections Ontario Votes. Available at: https://elections2022.amo.on.ca/web/en/home

Ashe, Jeanette and Kennedy Stewart. 2012. 'Legislative recruitment: Using diagnostic testing to explain underrepresentation.' Party Politics. Vol. 18, No. 5, pp. 687-707

Ashe, Jeanette. 2017. 'Women's legislative under-representation: Enough come forward, (still) too few chosen.' Canadian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 50, No. 2, pp. 597-613.

Newman, Jacquetta, Linda White and Tammy Findlay. 2020. Women Politics and Public Policy: The Political Struggles of Canadian Women. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.