Without a Yard

Since there’s plenty of time to browbeat, spam & harangue y’all into voting for our South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) panel about passionate people (please do vote early’n'often here, seriously), I wanted to riff on the theme of a spot-on proposal, discovered thanks to Rad Campaign‘s founder Allyson Kapin twitterstream (@womenwhotech).

Sarah Granger of WomenCount has an awesome lineup of women speakers on board to discuss ‘The Silent Majority: Women in Politics Online.’ Regardless of whether or not you plan to attend SXSWi, could you please click that link, create an account & vote for this panel as a favour to me? Please?

Timing’s spot-on, with scorching-hot political discussions about proposed healthcare overhauls & infinitely blog-able nutbars attending local townhall sessions.  Countering the divisive & anger-fueled ‘discussions’ occurring on this subject is an online space launched today, built by BlogHer & the Sunlight Foundation for women to share their thoughts on the healthcare debate. Users are encouraged to employ Sunlight Foundation’s roster of online tools, such as OpenCongress, to efficiently search & read the healthcare bill’s contents.  It’s telling that the first space online for public policy conversations by/for women is on the subject of healthcare, a public policy and private sector subject area that is in dire need of more estrogen after hundreds of years of male-only pharma trials & medical studies.

Hopefully by March this space‘ll serve as a case study for the ‘Silent Majority’ panelists to demonstrate that a large female audience will eagerly contribute to serious policy discussions when offered a space & encouragement; & this space‘ll also contrast sharply with mainstream media coverage of screaming match soundbites, insult-slinging & fear-mongering.

While it might seem ‘kumbya’ to state that these policy discussions would be more civil had they been shepherded by women, having worked for two whip-smart, balanced, strong & self-effacing female politicos, I truly believe that this is true & look optimistically to Kathleen Sebelius‘ ‘tenacious d’ throughout her career to deliver real reforms from the Health & Human Services Department in the months to come.

The clearest authoritative communicator on the touchy subject of lower participation rates of women in politics is Dee Dee Myers.  In her 2008 ‘Why Women Should Rule the World’, Myers devotes an entire chapter to ‘Closing the Confidence Gap,’ where she specifically lists verbal tics (starting phrases with ‘I think..’) & self-discouraging mental patterns that eroded her confidence while working in the West Wing. (More recently a Canadian expert scholar on this subject, Sylvia Bashevkin, published ‘Women, Power & Politics,’ which I’d highly recommend if you want a maple-glazed variety).

As Myers recounts her personal experience in one of the most coveted staffer roles interacting directly with news media, she supports her heartening &/or cringe-inducing anecdotes with research & interview quotes from biologists, sociologists & politicos (including Sebelius .  What made me think of this chapter within the context of BlogHer/Sunlight/SilentMajority was this quote from Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, which merges gendered discussion participation, voices online & confidence perfectly:

“There is no talent difference that I can see.  There is sometimes a difference between the men and women in the willingness to claim airtime in class.  The men seem to feel that they can start talking and eventually they’ll have a point to make.  The women are more likely to feel that they ought to have something valuable to say before they say it.”

We’re definitely lucky to have wry commentary coming frequently from bloggers such as Kadi O’Malley, as well as the many sharp female print jounalists from Canadian dailies extending conversations from their columns online, but we are unfortunately still at a loss when it comes to quantity & choice for viewing the political landscape through a women writer’s lens, professional or amateur.

Blogging about this at all means entering a loaded & delicate subject matter (landmines include ‘tokenism,’ ‘quotas,’ ‘man-bashing,’ etc.), but I feel the same as I did when I blogged in the winter to mark The Churchill Society‘s support of women in politics.  What’s changed is that with more collaboration between female writers online & the tools to synthesise information to suit a searcher’s specific policy interests, in the months ahead we’ll hopefully see more safe spaces built for informed female users to discuss specific policy issues, flesh out their views, disagree honestly & openly – without descending into name-calling.

Wintertime & the living is slushy.  Despite the brutal barren wilderness & chill Canuckistan climate, hearts are warm in the centre of the universe for all things governmental/transparent/politicin’…

First things first – Event Plugs:

Wednesday, January 21st – The Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy is hosting a free Citizen Forum called “Parliament 2009:  What Kind of Country Will We Have?” at the University of Toronto Munk Centre.  Event details can be found here (on Facebook, natch) & here (on our org’s website).  The panel is stellar, the conversation will be oh-so-timely & a grand time will be had by all.  I’m encouraged to see many, many newbies already RSVPing – many from TO’s lively tech scene.  Cross-pollenation of these communities is vital & shows a genuine enthusiasm brewing to discuss our parliamentary processes, public  policies & – most importantly – developing solutions to increase citizen engagement.

The timing of the CSAPD event couldn’t be better, serving as the bass-heavy-rumbling thunder before the eye-catching-crackly lightening of ChangeCamp.  Originally assembled via Twitter, word-of-mouth & email blasts, we’ve now settled nicely into a GoogleGroup nest & would love to have you on board as a volunteer, donor or participant. 

Saturday, January 24th – ChangeCamp will be rockin’ the MaRS Centre across from Queen’s Park in crunchy unconference style.  Please do join us for a full day of positive, creative & thoughtful chats about Government & Governance in the age of Participation.

Tomorrow I hope to have a more content-y piece on the trends & activities behind the creation & popularity of these events…hopefully…darn it all to heck it’s been a lil’busy up in here.

Sad outcome of trip timing is missing the biggest event for an NGO near & dear for the past three years.  Tonight at the Four Seasons a group gathers to celebrate parliamentary democracy.   Every year the event grows significantly, presents inspiring speakers and recognizes outstanding public servants.  Here’s my contribution to the programme about our silver anniversary theme:

The Twenty-Fifth Annual Churchill Society Dinner theme – Women in Politics – was selected to recognize the leadership of women in parliamentary democracy in Ontario and in Canada.

Our award winners, the Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell, and Keynote Speaker Celia Sandys represent the breadth and depth of women’s evolving role in the political realm.  In Canada, women gradually won the right to vote and run for office, yet remain underrepresented federally and provincially.  As Canada’s nineteenth and first female Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell’s Parliamentary career demonstrates that women have gained significant ground since 1921, which marked our first federal election with women voting and running as candidates.  Following in the footsteps of Agnes Campbell MacPhail, the first woman elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1921, female politicians in Canada gain ground and seats with each election.  This year’s federal election had 68 winning candidates (22%) that were women, which resulted in a record number and percentage of MPs in Parliament.  Across the country, almost 81% of ridings had at least one woman on the ballot.

Although challenges remain for achieving parity – such as securing nominations, cultural expectations for familial responsibilities, Parliamentarians’ travel demands, and unbalanced media scrutiny of politicians’ appearance – the greatest challenge bridges the gender gap:  re-establishing respect for the profession of public service.

The Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy is honoured to host a roster of impressive female Parliamentarians at our Silver Anniversary Dinner, and looks forward to recognizing politics as an important profession worthy of Canadians’ respect.  Hopefully, once we demonstrate a greater appreciation for the dedicated citizens choosing to earn public office, regardless of gender, we will encourage the cultural shifts necessary to attract and retain a greater number of women in politics.