Medium seems to cluster responses such that I can’t reply to the most recent so here it is:

A woman leader doesn’t eradicate sexism. This piece isn’t even saying that Ashton should be leader, it’s simply identifying how big the challenge is for her as a candidate. So anyone reading this that says: yeah but ladies have run the NDP before aren’t getting the central point. Structural sexism isn’t fixed with representation alone.

As for national childcare — I know how much it costs outside Quebec. The NDP plan still wasn’t universal or affordable. It was simply better than what exists in 12/13 regions of Canada. Better isn’t good enough, and clearly, the sexism I’ve seen about Ashton’s pregnancy tells me that even that platform promise did little to vanquish sexism among the party’s membership.