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Here’s why being a woman in politics can suck

Top 10 ways politics can be pretty ugly for women

This election saw historic levels of Indigenous and Muslim MPs elected, but women’s representation in the House of Commons barely budged

Twenty-six per cent of the MPs elected were women, up only 1% from 2011 results — a figure putting Canada at 48th in the world for women in Parliament.

And how about the political environment into which they get elected? Well, it can suck. 

Here are 10 reasons why:

1. It’s lose/lose. You’re either considered “too bossy” to lead, as newly re-elected Conservative MP Michelle Rempel spells out in a Twitter essay…

 

…Or someone’s pawn, as Alberta Premier Rachel Notley has discovered:

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2. People call you the c-word.

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3. … And the b-word.


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4. They make sexual and violent threats

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5. Seriously, so many sexist and violent threats that’s it’s actually become considered “totally normal” and “not unusual in any way.” 

6. They go after you for what you look like, rather than what you say.

7…. Like telling you that you look like a “hooker.”

8. And saying you’ve gotten “chubbier.”

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9. Washed-up rappers make comments that a woman shouldn’t lead a country because “women make rash decisions emotionally,” and that the Loch Ness monster has a better chance of winning. 

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10. And when you complain about the unfair double standard, you get called “self-entitled.”

 

 

 

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