HISTORY THROUGH OUR EYES

Oct. 22, 1973: Women sparsely served

On Oct. 22, 1973, with that year’s provincial election a week away, the Ligue des femmes du Québec organized a five-party debate on the role of women in politics.

As this photo by Jean Pierre Rivest indicates, attendance was sparse.

In addition to the participants and a few journalists, only 10 people turned up, we reported the following day — seven women and three men — despite the event at

St-Louis-de-France church hall having been well publicized.

Only two candidates were among the speakers: Lise Trochu, representing the Parti Québécois in Outremont, and Ginette Poirier of the Quebec Communist Party, who was running in Terrebonne. Topics discussed included daycare, equal pay for equal work, legalizing abortion, access to family planning services and maternity allowances.

In later election coverage we noted that a record number of women were running: 26.

When the results were in, it was a landslide victory for the incumbent Bourassa Liberals. However, only one woman was elected, Lise Bacon. Our Oct. 30 story about her victory in the riding of Bourassa bore the headline “Liberal lady beats an ex-Liberal.”

In the previous election, in 1970, there had been only nine female candidates, we wrote, and only one of them had won: Claire Kirkland-Casgrain, a Liberal who in 1961 had become the first woman elected to Quebec’s legislature and also the first to serve in the Quebec cabinet. She retired from politics before the 1973 election (and was to become a judge).

As for the most recent Quebec election, held Oct. 1, 2018, we reported the previous month that 375 women were running, making up 40 per cent of the field.

Currently, there are 54 female MNAs in the 125-member National Assembly.