There for the moment: extra-legislative windows of opportunity for women’s social movements in politics, a comparison of Canada and Northern Ireland

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article considers the role and influence of women’s groups and larger national women’s social movements during two different constitutional moments: the lead-up to the finalisation of the 1982 patriation of the Canadian Constitution and the lead-up to the 1998 Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland. We argue that while women were successful in ensuring women’s participation and consideration of women’s issues in these constitutional negotiations, those accomplishments did not lead to a significant increase of women’s representation in formal politics. In both the Canadian government-sponsored National Action Committee on the Status of Women and the political party, the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, women’s descriptive representation in formal politics did not improve dramatically as a result of women’s participation in either constitutional process which suggests the need for guarantees of greater representation, such as what women’s electoral quotas would constitute.