New research showing that the federal workplace is the site of violence against women in the form of sexual harassment and assault will be discussed during “Equity in Canadian Parliament,” a lecture by Cheryl Collier on Thursday, January 18, at 4 p.m. in Vanier Hall’s Katzman Lounge.

Dr. Collier, a UWindsor political science professor and co-director of the Health Research Centre for the Study of Violence Against Women, will give the talk as part of the Humanities Research Group’s Martin Wesley Lecture Series.

Collier says that barriers to women entering elected office have remained stubbornly strong in spite of a federal cabinet currently boasting equal numbers of female and male ministers — a milestone first achieved in 2015 and one that was protected through a recent cabinet shuffle.

In fact, the percentage of elected female MPs (26 per cent) is far from equal and places Canada 63rd in the International Parliamentary Union’s rankings of gender representation in national parliaments, behind Rwanda, Mexico, and Vietnam.

The lecture will take stock of women’s place in elected federal politics in 2018, paying particular attention to new research on violence against women in Parliament.