The lone woman on the 10-member procedure and House affairs committee is 30-year old Alexandrine Latendresse, NDP MP for the Quebec City area riding of Louis Saint Laurent. An environmentalist and teacher, Latendresse was swept into office in the 2011 Orange Wave and serves as vice-chair of the committee.
In fact, only two committees have a higher ratio of men to women than the procedure and House affairs committee, which is chaired by Conservative MP Joe Preston. The veteran’s affairs committee and the influential finance committee are composed entirely of men.
As the committee grapples with new rules to govern harassment, Latendresse is expected to be the sole female voice around the table unless other women are substituted onto the committee for the study of harassment rules.
Procedure and House affairs is one of five committees that have a single female member. The others are canadian heritage, environment and sustainable development, fisheries and oceans and public accounts.
On six committees women are outnumbered eight to two – agriculture and agri-food, citizenship and immigration, government operations and estimates, justice and human Rights, public safety and national security and transport, infrastructure and communities.
Women have stronger representation on a couple of key economic committees. The natural resources committee is the only House of Commons committee to have an equal balance of men and women – five each while on the industry, science and technology committee there are six men serving alongside four women.
Female MPs form the majority on only one of the House of Commons’ 23 committees: The status of women committee. Conservative MP Terence Young from Oakville is the sole man on that ten-member committee.
The decision to send the question of sexual harassment to the procedure and house affairs committee was made by the board of internal economy, which is composed of two women and five men.
Original Article
Source: ipolitics.ca/
Author: Elizabeth Thompson
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