Inclusive internal governance policies to support women’s representation: A case study of three mid-sized municipalities in Canada

Abstract

This thesis explores the recent phenomenon of inclusive internal governance policies (IIGPs) for municipal councils. Prior research urges the adoptions of IIGPs as they may help mitigate one of the biggest barriers to women’s representation – the negative political environment on municipal councils (Federation of Canadian Municipalities [FCM], 2018; Seasonova, 2022; Seiferling, 2016). IIGPs are needed to act as safeguards enabling a safer, more respectful and inclusive council workspace environment. Municipalities only recently started to adopt IIGPs, therefore, there has not been much research about these policies. The objective of this research is to expand the knowledge of IIGPs and to analyze the patterns of how IIGPs are developed. Three mid-sized cities in different parts of Canada were chosen as case studies – Yellowknife, NWT; Kamloops, BC; and Moncton, NB. There were two stages of data collection: a documentary review of research literature, policy documents, and newspapers; and 10 semi-structured interviews with former and current mayors, councillors, city staffers, and committee members. The collected data was analyzed using the inductive outcome explaining process-tracing methodology and multiple streams theory. This research collected detailed information about different types of IIGPs, discovering several new IIGPs (e.g., online meetings, gender-neutral language use, and online parental and caregiver leave). The IIGPs were summarized into a four-category system. By studying the journey of each case, from the first to the latest IIGP developed, I traced the process that led to the creation of these IIGPs. The biggest drivers of IIGP creation were the turnover of people with different lived experiences (younger people, women, and people knowledgeable about social issues), COVID-19, public scandals, and provincial or territorial government mandates. Through data collection, I amassed important new knowledge about the little-studied area of IIGPs for council. The research results help expand the literature on methods to increase women’s political representation. The collected data will be used by municipal organizations like the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) to create resources for municipalities on the best practices for the development of IIGPs.