Two years after the program started, Ryerson Women in the House is going online, providing Ryerson women with first-hand experience of Canadian politics.
When it was originally introduced, the course involved a trip to Ottawa to shadow female MPs’ as well as participate in conversations with women leaders, activists, policy analysts and journalists.
However due to the COVID-19 pandemic, any contact the 15 students will have with women in Parliament will be done virtually.
This year, students will shadow MPs from their homes and will assist in a gender-based analysis of an issue of importance to the MP. They’ll also get to participate in virtual roundtables with politicians and journalists.
Kashfe Chowdhary, a fourth-year politics and governance student, applied for the course during the summer even though she knew it would be entirely online.
Her main reasons for joining were that she felt comforted by the prospect of the course being entirely run by women and how it moved from theory to hands-on learning.
It’s too early to know if the updated course curriculum will match the experiences that would have been gained on the trip to Ottawa, but Chowdhary is impressed with the class so far. One aspect she is impressed with is its intersectional approach of race and religion with gender.
“Hearing the voices of women that look like me has been comforting,” said Chowdhary.
One of the people responsible for the choice in speakers is Tracey Raney, an associate professor in the department of politics and public administration.
“What we're doing is bringing parliament to Ryerson students,” she said.
According to Raney, the goal of the program is to see the ways in which students can transform their interests into real political and social change as well as forge pathways into politics.
“One of the goals of the program is for Ryerson women to see themselves reflected in the political process, and to make connections between the issues that they're passionate about,” said Raney.
A record-breaking 98 of the 338 seats in Parliament are held by women right now, an increase of 10 seats from the last session of Parliament. However, that only translates to 28 per cent of the total seats.
“One class isn't going to change that overnight” said Peggy Nash, a senior advisor to the dean of arts and a former MP for Parkdale-High Park, “But so often, and I've seen this firsthand, women tend to sit back and either not personally engage as a candidate or get directly involved in politics...often they wait to be asked.”
“If you want to run for office, go for it. Don't sit back and wait for someone to notice you, you have to set a goal and go after it.”
The students enrolled in the program will have a chance to engage with all of the main political parties in Canada.
Ryerson Women in the House started two years ago as a program which was then just a trip to Ottawa, but has now turned into a full course for credit with a textbook, assignments, a midterm and an essay.
When the pandemic started, Raney, Nash, and research and program assistant Evangeline Holtz-Schramek had to scramble to transfer the rest of the winter semester’s activities online, including cancelling the annual trip to Ottawa.
But with part of a semester online under their belts, planning for the full fall 2020 semester became even more meaningful when they realized the different skills that students could learn.
“We are living in a moment of monumental change in terms of work. This is a paradigm shift,” said Holtz-Schramek. “We’re learning how to be able to connect with someone online; network with and learn from them.”
“This is the future of human interaction, at least for a period. Something I'm really proud of about the direction that this course is going is that it is teaching those future skills.”
Josel Gerardo, a senior politics and governance student says it’s a unique program. She took part in the program earlier this year.
“There's not a lot of opportunities where we as women can interact with our fellow women in leadership positions.”
Despite not being able to go to Ottawa, Gerardo says that it was an educational experience nonetheless.
After taking part in the program, she says that she’s been inspired to join politics, regardless of its predominantly male makeup.
“They really encouraged us to strive for what we want, regardless of the political sphere or the climate,” says Gerardo
“The program gave us a lot of confidence, a lot of leadership skills and it taught us how to move forward with our goals being women in politics.”
Ryerson Women in the House will be running two online events later in the semester featuring women journalists from the Canadian Parliamentary Press gallery to discuss their experiences of being a woman journalist in Canada as well as a virtual panel with elected women politicians.
Two years after the program started, Ryerson Women in the House is going online, providing Ryerson women with first-hand experience of Canadian politics.
When it was originally introduced, the course involved a trip to Ottawa to shadow female MPs’ as well as participate in conversations with women leaders, activists, policy analysts and journalists.
However due to the COVID-19 pandemic, any contact the 15 students will have with women in Parliament will be done virtually.
This year, students will shadow MPs from their homes and will assist in a gender-based analysis of an issue of importance to the MP. They’ll also get to participate in virtual roundtables with politicians and journalists.
Kashfe Chowdhary, a fourth-year politics and governance student, applied for the course during the summer even though she knew it would be entirely online.
Her main reasons for joining were that she felt comforted by the prospect of the course being entirely run by women and how it moved from theory to hands-on learning.
It’s too early to know if the updated course curriculum will match the experiences that would have been gained on the trip to Ottawa, but Chowdhary is impressed with the class so far. One aspect she is impressed with is its intersectional approach of race and religion with gender.
“Hearing the voices of women that look like me has been comforting,” said Chowdhary.
One of the people responsible for the choice in speakers is Tracey Raney, an associate professor in the department of politics and public administration.
“What we're doing is bringing parliament to Ryerson students,” she said.
According to Raney, the goal of the program is to see the ways in which students can transform their interests into real political and social change as well as forge pathways into politics.
“One of the goals of the program is for Ryerson women to see themselves reflected in the political process, and to make connections between the issues that they're passionate about,” said Raney.
A record-breaking 98 of the 338 seats in Parliament are held by women right now, an increase of 10 seats from the last session of Parliament. However, that only translates to 28 per cent of the total seats.
“One class isn't going to change that overnight” said Peggy Nash, a senior advisor to the dean of arts and a former MP for Parkdale-High Park, “But so often, and I've seen this firsthand, women tend to sit back and either not personally engage as a candidate or get directly involved in politics...often they wait to be asked.”
“If you want to run for office, go for it. Don't sit back and wait for someone to notice you, you have to set a goal and go after it.”
The students enrolled in the program will have a chance to engage with all of the main political parties in Canada.
Ryerson Women in the House started two years ago as a program which was then just a trip to Ottawa, but has now turned into a full course for credit with a textbook, assignments, a midterm and an essay.
When the pandemic started, Raney, Nash, and research and program assistant Evangeline Holtz-Schramek had to scramble to transfer the rest of the winter semester’s activities online, including cancelling the annual trip to Ottawa.
But with part of a semester online under their belts, planning for the full fall 2020 semester became even more meaningful when they realized the different skills that students could learn.
“We are living in a moment of monumental change in terms of work. This is a paradigm shift,” said Holtz-Schramek. “We’re learning how to be able to connect with someone online; network with and learn from them.”
“This is the future of human interaction, at least for a period. Something I'm really proud of about the direction that this course is going is that it is teaching those future skills.”
Josel Gerardo, a senior politics and governance student says it’s a unique program. She took part in the program earlier this year.
“There's not a lot of opportunities where we as women can interact with our fellow women in leadership positions.”
Despite not being able to go to Ottawa, Gerardo says that it was an educational experience nonetheless.
After taking part in the program, she says that she’s been inspired to join politics, regardless of its predominantly male makeup.
“They really encouraged us to strive for what we want, regardless of the political sphere or the climate,” says Gerardo
“The program gave us a lot of confidence, a lot of leadership skills and it taught us how to move forward with our goals being women in politics.”
Ryerson Women in the House will be running two online events later in the semester featuring women journalists from the Canadian Parliamentary Press gallery to discuss their experiences of being a woman journalist in Canada as well as a virtual panel with elected women politicians.
