A Mixed Record: Gender and Saskatchewan Social Democracy

Journal of Canadian Studies, Winter 2008 by McGrane, David

By examining the case of Saskatchewan, this article contributes to the debate over whether social democratic governments increase women's representation in legislatures and enact policies that are favourable to women. Despite initial openness to women's concerns in early agrarian protest organizations, Saskatchewan social democracy has never moved past liberal feminist ideology. All three Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and New Democratic Party (NDP) governments in Saskatchewan, however, had better records on women's issues than the Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments that preceded them, who eschewed any form of feminist thinking and did little to address women's issues. Women's participation within the provincial economy, the militancy of women within social democratic organizations and non-partisan women's organizations, the perseverance of patriarchal political culture, and the persistence of male-dominated political institutions are critical factors in explaining the evolution of the relationship between gender and social democracy in Saskatchewan.

En examinant le cas de la Saskatchewan, cet article aborde le débat suivant : les gouvernements sociaux-démocrates contribuent-ils à augmenter la représentation des femmes dans les assemblées législatives et à édicter des politiques qui sont avantageuses pour les femmes? En dépit de l'ouverture initiale aux problèmes des femmes au sein des premiers mouvements de protestation agricole, la social-démocratie de la Saskatchewan n'est jamais allée au-delà de l'idéologie féministe libérale. Toutefois, les gouvernements de la Fédération du Commonwealth coopératif (CCF) et du Nouveau Parti démocratique (NDP) de la Saskatchewan avaient de meilleurs résultats sur les questions féminines que les gouvernements libéral et progressiste conservateur qui les ont précédés, qui fuyaient toutes les formes de pensée féministe et qui ont fait peu pour aborder les questions féminines. On soutient que la participation des femmes à l'économie provinciale, le militantisme des femmes au sein d'organisations socio-démocrates et d'organisations féminines neutres, la persévérance de la culture politique patriarche et la persistance d'institutions politiques à dominance masculine sont des facteurs critiques lorsqu'il s'agit d'expliquer l'évolution de la relation entre les sexes et la social-démocratie en Saskatchewan.

During the 1980s, European scholars argued that, compared to those led by non-social democratic parties, governments controlled by social democratic parties unproved women's representation in legislatures and produced policy outcomes that were friendly to women (Lovenduski 1986; Katzenstein and Mueller 198?). Similarly, in Canada, research has emphasized the positive effects that New Democratic Party (NDP) governments have had on increasing women's representation in provincial legislatures and adopting women-friendly policies (Arscott and Trimble 1997, 7-14; Matland and Studiar 1998). More recently, researchers have been critical of the reforms introduced by Third Way social democratic parties in both Canada and Europe, and have argued that they have not significantly ifnproved the position of women compared to the policies of previous neo-con$ervative governments (McRobbie 2000; Bashevkin 2002; Ward 2002; Teghtsoonian 2003; Grace 2005). Only Cheryl Collier, in her examination of child care arid anti-violence-against-women policies in Ontario and British Columbia, has contended that NDP provincial governments have enacted more progressive policies towards women than non-NDP government during the 1990s (Collier 2006).

This article seeks to contribute to the debate over whether social democratic governments enact policies that are favourable to women and increase women's representation in legislature by examining the case of Saskatchewan, which is the province with the longest history of social democratic government in Canada. The scholarly work done on women and the Saskatchewan Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and Saskatchewan NDP has either focussed on the paucity of CCF-NDP women candidates in Saskatchewan provincial elections and the subordination of women within CCF-NDP party structures, or has painted a sympathetic portrait of the policy victories achieved by female CCF-NDP members of the Legislative Asserribly (MLA) (Taylor 1985, 1986, 1987; Sangster 1989, Carbert 1997; Fenwick 2002). The overarching weakness of existing literatare on women and the Saskatchewan CCF-NDP is that there has been no systematic attempt to evaluate the place of gender and women's activism within the entire Saskatchewan social democratic tradition of the twentieth century. Further, there has been little attempt to evaluate the Romanow government's policies towards women in the context of Third Way social democratic governance.

This article seeks to correct these deficiencies by dividing the history of women and Saskatchewan social democracy into four distinct periods: agrarian protest movements from 1900 to 1933, the CCF from 1933 to 1964, the NDP from 1964 to 1982, and the NDP from 1982 to 2000.1 argue that explanations regarding the relationship between gender and social democracy within Saskatchewan throughout these four historical periods, should concentrate on the interlocking factors of women's participation within the provincial economy, the ideas and militancy of women within social democratic organizations and non-partisan women's organizations, the persistence of male-dominated political institutions, and the perseverance of a patriarchal political culture that sees women as subjects occupying traditional roles of mother and wife and that discourages women's participation in the political sphere. The patriarchal nature of the political culture of Saskatchewan can be evaluated by examining the ideas of dominant political parties or political groups concerning women, the number of women elected, the strength of women's groups, and the timid or radical natare of the ideas of women's groups.