Thread by @MichelleRempel

@kinsellawarren Canada has had an elected female MP who won the leadership of a political party and became PM.

Canada has not had an elected female MP who won the leadership of a political party and led said party through a general election that resulted in her party forming government.

@kinsellawarren The reasons for why the latter has never happened is where the real debate lies.

@kinsellawarren 1/ Women bear a disproportionate cost of child rearing. So unless you're from deep privilege, many women must choose not to have kids, wait until they're independent, or have a partner who load shares to have the time over years to build the networks needed for such an endeavour.

@kinsellawarren 2/ The characteristics that many perceive to be needed in the leader of a country; passion, charisma, smarts, unapologetic primacy - we still live an a society where these are tacit negatives in a woman (too pretty / ugly, bitch, hot headed, emotional, intractable)

@kinsellawarren 3/ Women don't have instant access by virtue of gender into institutional patriarchal networks needed to cultivate power

@kinsellawarren 4/ Women are sometimes selected to lead political parties at the end of a dynasty of power as a way to soften the damage caused by men, rather than being seen as a viable figure to lead a movement into power to begin with

@kinsellawarren 5/ The highest offices of power and largest institutions in our country are rife with systemic misogyny. The debacle with the Canadian Armed Forces is just one example of many.

@kinsellawarren 6/ Women are subjected to political purity tests in ways that men are not.

@kinsellawarren 7/ Female elected officials are subjected to gendered threats, abuse and violence in ways that men are not.

@kinsellawarren 8/ Female leaders must constantly fight to ensure hard win gender equality rights are not eroded. This labour / time is something that males don't have to do, and can subsequently spend that bandwidth on self promotion and power acquisition.

@kinsellawarren 9/ Male MPs rarely have their appearance and apparel routinely critiqued in the same gendered manner than women do.

@kinsellawarren 10/ Insert every intersectional issue re income inequality, gender pay equity, systemic discrimination that BIPOC and LGBTQ person face here and layer them on top of 1-9 above.

@kinsellawarren 11/ Women who do get elected are subjected to endless lazy "women in politics" victim porn interviews which steal their voice.

@kinsellawarren 12/ Female MPs are often tokenized by men in power to give cover to their perpetuation of systemically misogynistic power systems that benefit them, as opposed to being welcomed into actual positions of power. Women must fight for that themselves.

@kinsellawarren 13/ I could go on and on. But we all know 1-12 exist. Most just choose to do nothing to change their own behaviour and privilege, and so the system persists.