For many years the severe under-representation of women in the institutions that forge Canadian public policy has been the subject of widespread discussion and debate, as have the various manifestations of inequality on the laws and policies themselves. MacIvor surveys this situation and the extent to which it is changing but offers as well a much broader approach to the subject, recognizing the impossibility of separating the roles played by women in politics from their part in Canadian society generally, MacIvor looks also at such topics as the structure of the economy, of the family and of popular culture.

Women and Politics in Canada sets the stage for a discussion of the Canadian situation by exploring ideas about women in Western thought and the various feminist approaches that have arisen in response.