N.B. Women's Council hopes for cabinet parity

While more women were elected to serve as members of New Brunswick's Legislative Assembly in Monday's provincial election, Beth Lyons, the executive director of the New Brunswick Women's Council says they still only make up less than 30 per cent of the total number of elected MLAs.

"It's always great to see that there are more women elected, that's a number that we definitely want to see trend upward," said Lyons about the 14 women who were chosen to represent their respective ridings..

The women electedinclude nine with the Progressive Conservative Party, three with the Liberal Party and one each for the People's Alliance and the Green Party.

"It's important to frame that. Yes, these are gainsbut it's also still nowhere near seeing women at maybe that 50 per cent mark, which it would reflect the proportion of society that they make up."

But Lyons said she hopes having more women in government will help change things.

"Perhaps things will be more collaborative, less combative, but also what issues are being talked about, what's being prioritized."

Lyons said she wonders if the femaleMLAswill bring attention to issues like child care, pay equity, violence against women, and access to reproductive health services.

"Are we going to see more of a discussion of whether or not things like gender based analysis is being used in the public policy process?"

Lyons said there is no guarantee those issues will be brought up just because there are more female MLAselected and added people have to remain vigilant to bring attention to theissues they're worried about.

Lyons said itwas refreshing to hear Hearing thatPremier Blaine Higgswas committed and keen to having parity in cabinet, and hoped it wasn't a 'quippy' answer on his part. .

"I mean, oftentimes when we start talking about parity, folks even if not said they hear the word quota and then immediately there's concern about, well, you know, only if folks are qualified.

"It's still heartening to hear."

Lyons said with 30 per cent of the government MLAs elected being women, it will be interesting to see howthat changes things on the government side..

"Is it going to result in gender parity in cabinet? How is that going to shape government priorities?"

Lyons said she hopes more women will be involved at high levels of decision making in such things as the all-party cabinetcommittee that has been dealing with the pandemic response.