Alexa’s legacy: Gender parity falls short 42 years after McDonough’s election
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It’s an experience that Claudia Chender, an MLA and the status of women spokesperson for the Nova Scotia NDP, has dealt with firsthand.
“We still live in a very patriarchal society,” she said. “It’s always more challenging for women to run. They have to answer externally and internally those questions of what they prioritize in ways that men don’t.”
Nova Scotia’s NDP has risen to the challenge. In the 2021 election, 35 of their 55 candidates did not identify as male, the highest percentage of any party in the province. And of the five seats they secured, four are occupied by female or non-binary MLAs.
According to Chender, this outcome is a facet of the party’s philosophy.
“We have a candidate search structure that emphasizes the need for diversity. From the very beginning, when we start to think about candidates for a given election, we have systems in place that ensure that kind of parity.”
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Claudia Chender said the efforts of Alexa McDonough have played a big part in this move toward a Nova Scotian government with gender parity.
“I think that we’ve come a long way,” Chender said. “Alexa was an incredible person and an incredible politician who left a mark we’re only beginning to feel.”
The “mark” left by Alexa includes serving as inspiration for many Nova Scotian women including Chender, as well as Halifax Regional Municipality Coun. Lisa Blackburn.
“Alexa was the first woman politician that I really took notice of because she was local,” Blackburn said. “She was somebody that you would bump into at the grocery store. To me it meant a lot. It meant that (being a woman in government) was attainable. It was something I could do.”
And while Chender said she hopes to see others inspired by Alexa’s actions, she added that Alexa’s legacy can best be remembered by continuing to support women in government.
“When Alexa McDonough was elected there was no women’s washroom. When I was elected there was no maternity leave,” she said. “We’ve successfully changed that but there’s so much more that needs to be done. We need to keep asking the question of ‘are we using a gender lens?’”