The Executive Director of the St. John’s Status of Women Council believes women’s issues do not get addressed with the same scrutiny and seriousness as some other issues in society.

Federal party leaders are being asked to step up to the podium and have a full debate on women’s issues ahead of next month’s election. The demand is coming from the “Up for Debate Alliance,” and would be the first debate on women’s issues in 35 years.

Laura Winters says women want to see themselves represented in politics and issues they know are important to them and their communities being addressed in concrete ways.

She says at the provincial leadership debate a few years ago, she found that politicians came in and said how much they love women and gave lots of examples of how much they interact with women in the workplace.

But when we have debates around the economy, she says you never see politicians show up and say “I love money.”