Without a doubt, this is a male-dominated sector. Without a doubt, it is harder for women, racialized women, young women and women with disabilities and exceptionalities to get into politics, to get their name on a ballot, and then to win and stay once they get here.
Representation matters. Minister Qualtrough talked about the considerations that were taken into account in very short order in the development of, say, the CERB. The fact that we have people around the cabinet table who had been homeless, the fact that we had people who had lived in poverty and different backgrounds, allowed us to make those calculations very quickly. Representation matters.
When little girls and boys and gender-diverse people see us women around these tables, they begin to see themselves in those fields as well.
Every time there has been movement forward for equality for women's rights, there has been push-back. There was push-back when we got the right to vote. There was push-back when we entered the workforce, and there's certainly push-back now that we are in politics. Just look at any one of our Twitter feeds to see just how harsh and how toxic that push-back is. Certainly, we play a role in supporting one another to show that women can work together and do politics differently. Certainly, our allies, particularly male colleagues, play a role.