In historic moment for Ottawa, women now outnumber men on city council

When Ottawa's new council is sworn in here at City Hall, there will be 13 women and 12 men representing the city. That means we've reached greater than gender parity, and that's something that hasn't happened since amalgamation. In municipal elections between 2006 and 2022, between four and nine women were voted to council. That got upped to 10 when Isabel Skalski won a by-election in 2025. Three women around the table this time will be new to the role. Speaking Tuesday on Ottawa Morning, all were excited by the flip, but say it's only a start. I do think it's important that our city council reflects the community that it actually represents. And so half women, a little more than half women, that actually represents our community. So that's really important to me. Having women around the council table brings a different perspective. And, you know, I did encounter a little bit of sexism during the campaign that I had to challenge. would I like to see some more diversity? Absolutely. But we'll start, I guess we'll start with more women and then we'll build from there. But they say for the numbers to improve more, women need to be encouraged to run and help to get beyond barriers. That's something Councillor Teresa Cavanaugh agrees with. She was the first council liaison for women and gender equity, a position created in 2018. She says since then, the role has been working on getting more women throughout City Hall, not just at the council table. And I have to say the city has done very well itself. A good number, I'd say a good percentage of our managers are women in key roles and that includes engineers and you know top accountants and just a variety of positions. So that's impressive right there. We've led by example at the city level, and of course it's up to people to elect women, and they have. Councillor Marty Carr is welcoming the change because she says the reality has been getting to gender parity has meant female councillors doing more work. And I consistently heard from my male colleagues, we need to make sure that The committees are balanced, that there's gender parity, that there's gender equity, that we have an equal amount of women. And I've looked over the last term of council at the committee makeup, and yeah, we definitely have the same amount of women, but we've been a little bit overworked. And Ottawa isn't the only place that is improving its gender gap. Last night, the Eastern Ontario municipality of Merrickville-Wolford elected an all-female council, including the mayor, Natalia Goodwin. CBC News, Ottawa.