0:03 Peggy Nash is a distinguished visiting professor at the Ryerson Faculty of Arts. Nash has been a longtime advocate for encouraging more women to aspire towards holding positions of power and influence. With a history of leadership at many levels. Nash is just the woman for the job. 0:17 Well, I was part of a Canadian Auto Workers Union. I was a senior negotiator and in my union, it was very, very male dominated. I'm here representing the CAW. I know one of the big fights we have right now and to CAW is to protect pensions. At the time I was there, I was the only woman in that position. So I have very often been the only woman in the room. So I began promoting programs and structures for women within the labor movement and eventually I took that perspective into partisan politics. 0:56 Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'd like to thank my colleagues for that very generous and warm welcome. 1:02 During her time as MP for Parkdale High Park, Nash saw firsthand that woman, the legislature were few and far between. Not alone in this observation, she, along with other female MPs, journalists and other activists founded equal voice. 1:17 It was based on a kind of a feeling of being fed up and saying, enough is enough. How do we get more representation of women in all our political structures, but especially in federal politics? Even in our municipal politics, which is the closest to home ought to have the best representation, it's still very unrepresentative. 1:42 Here inToronto, only 31% positions in our civic government are filled by women. This comes despite the fact that the most recent city census reported that women represent over 50% of the population. 1:55 I think there's just been a lot of frustration. How long is it going to take before women's voices are really heard in a representative way? 2:05 Nash says one factor her work has focused on is combating the so called ambition gap. 2:11 Women, they often don't think they can do it. They feel that they need a training course or, you know, more more experience. Will they be a good candidate? They they're often less secure. 2:25 Studies in Canada and the United States have linked the ambition gap all the way back to childhood. Women and other people who don't fit the standard image of a leader are not as often encouraged to seek out positions of power. 2:38 It does make an incredible change and it changes how decisions get made. The change is what decisions get made. 2:45 Nash says that even when women are asked to run, the effects of the ambition gap can still be seen. 2:52 Men, especially young men, basically say Sure, I can do that. You know, yes, I'm willing to run and they don't wait to be asked. They just decide they're going to run. Women often wait to be asked. They often need to be asked several times before they actually agree to run. 3:13 Equal voice has grown from one small group of women to national organization with branches across Canada. Nash is now working with Ryerson Professor Tracy Rainey on a program called Woman in the House. During their inaugural trip in November, women in the house sent 12 Ryerson women to Ottawa, one of the students involved with Sameera Orsamee a master's student in immigration and settlement studies. 3:36 I don't like saying that I'm interested in politics because it kind of connotes that I want to run for office. It just sounds like you know you want to be a politician someday. And I have been interested more in the sense of understanding how to be engaged in the system. 3:53 Orsamee shadowed Iqra Khalid, the member for Mississauga, Erin Mills, and chair of the liberal Women's Caucus. 4:00 But I think the parts where I was speaking one on one with my MP where what stood out to me because it wasn't her as an MP speaking to me it was her as a Muslim woman speaking to me. It struck a chord because I was like, Okay, this is how you're living, that you're not the only one living this way. It was just nice having the identity to share and the experiences to share with her. 4:22 Nash says that racialized women are even less likely to see people they identify with in the public sphere. 4:28 For racialized women, women who maybe represent different communities who don't see themselves that often in politics, it does change things because I think when you see that diversity reflected in positions of power, I think it shows others what's possible. 4:52 I never really thought of myself as someone who was going to go into politics, but you don't have to run as an MP to be in politics. For me personally, I think the first step or the next step that I want to take is to be involved in a campaign. And I think that in itself is something that I that changed in me, because I never wanted to, like do anything like that. 5:14 Part of the role of equal voice and part of the role of our women in the house program is to say to young women, they can do it. They can run. They can debate. They can win and they can be amazing electoral representatives, but we need to get them to the starting gate. 5:36 For RSJ Radio, I'm Julie Mutis.