The

42nd Canadian Parliament The 42nd Canadian Parliament was in session from December 3, 2015, to September 11, 2019, with the membership of its lower chamber, the House of Commons of Canada, having been determined by the results of the 2015 federal election held on Octob ...

includes a record number of female

Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

, with 88 women elected to the 338-member

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

(26%) in the 2015 election. This represents a gain of twelve seats over the previous record of 76 women in the

41st Canadian Parliament The 41st Canadian Parliament was in session from June 2, 2011 to August 2, 2015, with the membership of its House of Commons having been determined by the results of the 2011 federal election held on May 2, 2011. Parliament convened on June 2, 2 ...

. By contrast, the

114th United States Congress The 114th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States of America federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from Jan ...

had 105 women sitting in the 435-seat

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

. Of those 88 women, 54 were elected for the first time in the 2015 election. In his first speech following the election, Prime Minister-designate

Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...

indicated that for the first time in Canadian history, he planned to appoint a fully gender-balanced

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

."Justin Trudeau to appoint new cabinet with equal gender balance"

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, October 20, 2015. On November 4, he announced a cabinet which included 15 men and 15 women. The longest-serving woman in the 42nd Parliament is Hedy Fry, who was first elected in the 1993 election. On April 3, 2017 four women were elected in by-elections. As of December 2017, there are 92 women currently serving in parliament, representing 27.2 per cent of elected Members of Parliament.

Party standings

Female Members

† denotes women who were newly elected in the 2015 election and are serving their first term in office. †† denotes women who were not members of the 41st parliament, but previously served in another parliament. ††† denotes women who were newly elected in byelections since the 2015 election.

References

{{Women in Canadian politics * 42nd Canadian Parliament Parliament, 42

Party standings

Female Members

See also

References