Women’s Herstory:

THE LONG ROAD TO ELECTORAL GENDER
EQUALITY IN THE BC NDP

1933 – 1993

Women’s Equity, Part 2

1974

A manifesto is released

Women's rights button

At the provincial convention in Kamloops the WRC introduced the 12-page Women’s Rights Manifesto which was born out of discouragement and disappointment that so many of the NDP policies on women’s issues had been largely ignored by our government.

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The resolution passed with more than a 2/3 majority. Critical to the overwhelming vote was the support of Labour. The WRC also recognized that we needed more women to be elected so that we would have more support of our policies in Caucus and Cabinet. As the group of 6 women MLAs said in 1989 when encouraging more NDP women to seek nominations, “One is not enough. Several will move mountains.”

1975

Brown’s bold move

NDP MLA and MP Rosemary Brown

NDP women across the country involved in the fight for Women’s Rights decided that it was important to acknowledge this year by running a woman in the Federal NDP Leadership Race.

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With the support and encouragement of the WRC, BC MLA Rosemary Brown ran for the Federal leadership of the NDP. It was a wonderful uplifting campaign of collective action by women across the country. The Campaign budget was $7,000, $15,000 was raised mostly by small donations, and $13,000 was spent. Rosemary came second to Ed Broadbent.

1977

Safe seats

6 safe sets button

At the WRC Convention 100 women attended from 33 constituencies. Emerging from the convention was a determination to nominate and elect more feminist socialist candidates. More women were running but only in non-winnable ridings.

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It was decided to:

  1. Develop a long term strategy for getting women elected.
  2. In the short term, call on the party to initiate a campaign for “6 Safe Seats Provincial, 2 Safe Seats Federal for Women.”

A committee was to determine how we would implement this (I was a committee member) and after much research and discussion we reluctantly determined that without the approval and participation by the Party this was impossible. But this was the start of planning affirmative action!

1979

Staffing progress

A group of NDP women reviewing policy options

After hiring part-time Women’s Organizers around the province a few years earlier, the BC NDP hired its first full-time Women’s Organizer (Shelly Dillon) in 1979. This position existed until 1996.

Mid-1980s

Goals are set

Dorothy Gretchen Steeves
In the mid-80s, the WRC focused its energy on skill development workshops designed to help women be more successful within the party organization and in the electoral process.

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In 1985, the WRC produced the BC NDP Women’s Rights Handbook. The NDP Provincial Council established a provincial fund to support women candidates – the Dorothy Gretchen Steeves (above) Fund – and for the first time set the “objective that at least 50% of our elected representatives be women.”

In 1987, the BC NDP Nominations Support Committee was struck to encourage, support and develop a Provincial Plan of Action to ensure that the provincial party fielded a
demographically representative (50%) number of women in winnable ridings.


1989

Women encouraging women

Winning Nominations: a handbook for New Democrat women
The BC NDP published Winning Nominations. A Handbook for NDP Women by Jan Taylor. A letter of introduction by NDP Women MLAs (Darlene Marzari, Joan Smallwood, Anita Hagen, Lois Boone, Jan Pullinger, Anne Edwards) said…

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“We are pleased to be writing as the 6 New Democrat (women) MLAs to encourage women New Democrats to seek nomination for the upcoming election. By working within the party, women can seek and win nominations… We want to see more New Democratic women seek nominations than ever before and more New Democratic women sitting around the Caucus table.”

1991

16 NDP women elected

Newspaper with the headline: Women lead 'cabinet for change'
The WRC organized special pre-election workshops for women candidates. When the NDP won government that year 16 women were elected – 31% of a NDP caucus of 51 MLAs. This was an historic breakthrough.

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Premier Mike Harcourt named seven women to cabinet, including the First Minister of Women’s Equality (Penny Priddy) – 26 Years after the NDP Women’s Committee called for a Women’s Bureau and 19 years after the first NDP convention resolution calling for a standalone Ministry.

Also, in 1991 the BC NDP Provincial Executive established the Gender Parity Task Force in response to the continued problem of under representation of women as candidates. The Task Force’s mandate was to develop an action plan to achieve gender parity in nominations municipally, provincially, and federally.

1993

Marching forward

BC NDP Women's Rights Committee march

The WRC developed an affirmative action nominating policy for the provincial party. It was adopted as party policy in 1994/95.

Conclusion

A continuing story

BC's female legislators from 2024 when BC became the first Legislature or Parliament to elect a majority of women
The Women’s Rights Committee has been a force within the NDP because of its collective action – so with our Herstory. There is wonderfully detailed information in Ann Frost’s A Proud Herstory with Joyce Meissenheimer’s Addendum (March 1997 issue of Priorities).

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You can find many more stories and insights in Priorities (several issues of which you can now read online at Rise Up Feminist Archive and other material.

The video on Part 1 of the equity story is narrowly focused on the party and not our government’s policy, programs, actions or initiatives. That is for another story.