1 A study carried out in 124 member countries of the United Nations demonstrates that on average 9.7 per cent of elected representatives in single and lower houses of parliaments in 1987 were women (United Nations, Women in Politics and Decision-Making in the Late Twentieth Century [Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1992], 10).Google Scholar

2 See MacManus, Susan A., “A City's First Female Officeholder: ‘Coattails’ for Future Female Officeseekers?” Western Political Quarterly 34 (1981), 88–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar; O'Connor, Karen and Segal, Jeffrey A., “Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and the Supreme Court's Reaction to Its First Female Member,” Women and Politics 10 (1990), 95–104CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Saltzstein, Grace Hall, “Female Mayors and Women in Municipal Jobs,” American Journal of Political Science 30 (1986), 140–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Tremblay, Manon, “Quand les femmes se distinguent: féminisme et représentation politique au Québec,” this Journal 25 (1992), 55–68Google Scholar; Gender and Support for Feminism: A Case Study of the 1989 Quebec General Election,” in Gingras, François-Pierre, ed., Gender anel Politics in Contemporary Canada (Toronto: Oxford University Press, forthcoming).Google Scholar

4 Among many other articles see Norris, Pippa, “Women in Congress: A Policy Difference?” Politics 6 (1986), 34–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rapoport, Ronald B., Stone, Walter J. and Abramowitz, Alan I., “Sex and the Caucus Participant: The Gender Gap and Presidential Nominations,” American Journal of Political Science 34 (1990), 725–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Saint-Germain, Michelle, “Does Their Difference Make a Difference? The Impact of Women on Public Policy in the Arizona Legislature,” Social Science Quarterly 70 (1989), 956–68Google Scholar; Thomas, Sue, “Voting Patterns in the California Assembly: The Role of Gender,” Women and Politics 9 (1989), 43–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Thomas, Sue and Welch, Susan, “The Impact of Gender on Activities and Priorities of State Legislators,” Western Political Quarterly 44 (1991), 445–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 In the US context, Carroll demonstrated how exchanges between feminist organizations, women's organizations and women legislators could favour the political representation of women. See Carroll, Susan J., “Women State Legislators, Women's Organizations, and the Representation of Women's Culture in the United States,” in Bystydzienski, Jill M., ed., Women Transforming Politics: Worldwide Strategies for Empowerment (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992), 24–40.Google Scholar

6 See Bashevkin, Sylvia B., Toeing the Lines: Women and Party Politics in English Canada (2nd ed.; Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1993)Google Scholar, and Brodie, Janine, Women and Politics in Canada (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1985)Google Scholar. For Quebec specifically see Gingras, Anne-Marie, Maillé, Chantal and Tardy, Évelyne, Sexes et militantisme (Montreal: CIDIHCA, 1989)Google Scholar, and Maillé, Chantal, Les Québécoises et la conquête du pouvoir politique (Montreal: Saint-Martin, 1990).Google Scholar

7 Eichler, Margrit, “Sex Equality and Political Participation of Women in Canada: Some Survey Results,” International Review of Sociology 15 (1979), 49–75.Google Scholar

8 Bashevkin, Sylvia B., “Political Participation, Ambition and Feminism: Women in the Ontario Party Elites,” American Review of Canadian Studies 15 (1985), 405–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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10 Whitehorn, Alan, “The Gender Gap amongst Party Activists: A Case Study of the New Democratic Party,” paper presented to the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association, Charlottetown, 1992.Google Scholar

11 Fletcher, Joseph F. and Chalmers, Marie-Christine, “Attitudes of Canadians toward Affirmative Action: Opposition, Value Pluralism, and Nonattitudes,” Political Behavior 13 (1991), 67–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Moncrief, Gary F. and Thompson, Joel A., “Urban and Rural Ridings and Women in Provincial Politics in Canada: A Research Note on Female MLAs,” this Journal 24 (1991), 831–37.Google Scholar

13 Gingras, , Maillé, and Tardy, , Sexes et militantisme, 175.Google Scholar

14 Tremblay, Manon, “Les élues du 31^e Parlement du Québec et les mouvements féministes: de quelques affinités idéologiques,” Politique 16 (1989), 87–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Maillé, , Les Québécoises et la conquête du pouvoir politique, 158–62.Google Scholar

16 Fletcher, and Chalmers, , “Attitudes of Canadians toward Affirmative Action.”Google Scholar

17 It must be mentioned that the advent of the (Lortie) Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing offered an occasion to direct attention to female candidates. Brodie's text treats the question of obstacles to electoral victory encountered by a sample of female candidates during the 1988 federal election. Young, for her part, discusses an explanation which is often advanced for the underrepresentation of women in political institutions, that is, turnover in Parliament: far from representing an obstacle, the high turnover in the Canadian House of Commons constitutes an opportunity for women to get elected. Finally, Erickson demonstrates that fund-raising still places many barriers on the road for women wishing to occupy a public function; for example, women are more likely than men to face an adversary at the nomination stage. See Megyery, Kathy, ed., Women in Canadian Politics: Toward Equity in Representation (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1991).Google Scholar

18 This definition does not pretend to encompass the whole diversity of the feminist movement of the last 15 years in Quebec, from an ideological and organizational point of view or in regard to its demands. Rather, it adopts the tone of generality, in view of satisfying the empirical demonstrative approach favoured by this text.

19 Question 23 is not analyzed here, because it has been studied in Tremblay, “Quand les femmes se distinguent.”

20 Hill, David B., “Women State Legislators and Party Voting on the ERA,” Social Science Quarterly 64 (1983), 318–26Google Scholar; Norris, , “Women in Congress: A Policy Difference?”Google Scholar; Rapoport, , Stone, and Abramowitz, , “Sex and the Caucus Participant”Google Scholar; and Thomas, , “Voting Patterns in the California Assembly.”Google Scholar

21 Bashevkin, , “Political Participation, Ambition and Feminism,”Google Scholar and Fletcher, and Chalmers, , “Attitudes of Canadians toward Affirmative Action.”Google Scholar

22 To obtain this information, it should suffice to consider the statistics which appear under party and gender variables for each of the dimensions of the family and reproduction, employment, politics and culture. At a confidence level of 95 per cent, the smallest probability (P) is the most determinant.

23 Drewry, Gavin and Brock, Jenny, “The Impact of Women on the House of Lords,” no. 112 (Glasgow: University of Strathclyde, Centre for the Study of Public Policy, 1983)Google Scholar; Gelb, Joyce, Feminism ami Politics: A Comparative Perspective (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), 149–57Google Scholar; and Hedlund, Gun, “Women's Interests in Local Politics,” in Jones, Kathleen B. and Jónas-dóttir, Anna G., eds., The Political Interests of Gender: Developing Theory and Research with a Feminist Face (Newbury Park: Sage, 1988), 79–105.Google Scholar

24 As for political party, the variables for gender and political philosophy both influence the feminist positions, but the latter is more significant in its effects than the former.

On the theme of the family and reproduction: Political philosophy: F: 27.69;

df: 1; 143; P: 0.0001; Gender: F: 5.87; df: 1; 143; P: 0.0167;

On the theme of employment: Political philosophy: F: 28.43; df: 1; 143;

P: 0.0001; Gender: F: 2.87; df: 1; 143; P: 0.0925;

On the theme of politics: Political philosophy: F: 10.12; df: 1; 143; P: 0.0018;

Gender: F: 0.11;df: 1; 143; P: 0.7368;

On the theme of culture: Political philosophy: F: 36.05; df; 1; 143; P: 0.0001;

Gender: F: 6.33; df: 1; 143; P: 0.0130.

25 Klein, Ethel, Gender Politics: From Consciousness to Mass Politics (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984), 105–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 See Carroll, , “Women State Legislators.”Google Scholar