Research

My research focuses on parliamentary processes and their tangible effects on real-life citizens. Specifically, I am interested in how gendered institutional rules and norms produce gendered outcomes.

Scroll down to learn about my recent research and upcoming projects.

An image of a woman's hand holding a magnifying glass to a sunset landscape. Image credit: lilartsy

Dissertation Research: Who Acts for Women? An analysis of women’s substantive representation in the 41st and 42nd Canadian Parliaments

My SSHRC-funded dissertation research focused on how women’s interests are constituted and represented in the Canadian Senate. It asks whether the Senate reforms have led senators to better represent women in Canada.

A blurry photograph of the top of the Peace Tower on Canada's Parliament Hill, as seen from inside a cloister. Image credit: Senate of Canada

Recent Research

From Private Influence to Public Amendment: The Senate’s Amendment Rate in the 41st, 42nd, and 43rd Canadian Parliaments

Read the article here.

Published in the Canadian Journal of Political Science, my article finds that the recent Senate reforms have made senators’ oversight of government legislation more transparent.

Contexts and Constraints: Women’s Substantive Representation in the Canadian House of Commons and Senate - with Erica Rayment (UCalgary)

Read the article here.

Published in Representation, this article advances a theoretical explanation for why less partisan, unelected political institutions are promising sites for the representation of women’s interests.

  • I’m working on research with Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant (Queen’s) about the gendered composition of committee witnesses in the Canadian House of Commons. We find that women are underrepresented as committee witnesses, particularly on committees that focus on stereotypically masculine issues. Although women’s lives are affected by portfolios such as Finance and National Defence, their voices are not often heard during policymaking discussions in those areas.

  • With Linda Mussell (University of Canterbury), I am working on a project about the occurrence of emotional affect in Senate committees. We are focusing on the Senate’s Indigenous Peoples Committee and their report on the government’s response to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Who expresses emotion, and how is it received? Are witnesses likely to have their emotions conveyed in reports produced by parliamentary committees? Why or why not?

  • I am collaborating on a paper with Tracey Raney (TMU) based on her SSHRC-funded project about the substantive representation of women (SRW) in the Canadian Senate. We are investigating the process of substantive representation in the Senate that produced parliament’s new workplace harassment policy for staff. Who were the key players? What procedural opportunities did senators use to advance women’s interests? How were the feminist amendments by the Senate received by Canada’s first self-proclaimed feminist government?

  • I was invited to submit a contribution to an edited volume about the COVID-19 pandemic’s gendered effects in parliament by Erica Rayment, Melanee Thomas, and Susan Franceschet (all UCalgary). My chapter focuses on the gendered implications of halting of Senate committee meetings during the pandemic.

  • I am a collaborator on a SSHRC grant held by Rebecca Wallace (StFX) to investigate the longevity of women’s political careers. While a strong field of research tells us about the political recruitment process for women politicians in Canada, we are concerned about studying women’s retention rates in politics. Do women leave political careers sooner than men do? Why?

Upcoming Research