VANCOUVER—More women need to run for – and win  – elected office, says New York State’s youngest assemblywoman Nily Rozic. She is in Vancouver with her campaign manager, Sally Frank, to speak at a special event showcasing the front and back room of a progressive political victory in New York City.

As is well-known, the proportion of women who are active in the paid work force has grown very rapidly since the 1970s, transforming the workplace and society as a whole in the process.  The rising participation rate of women was a major economic force over the past three decades in that it kept real family incomes afloat despite stagnant, if not falling, male wages.

Last year there was a lot of discussion of Hanna Rosin’s best-selling book, The End of Men and the Rise of Women. The author was prominently interviewed in a Saturday issue of The Globe and Mail, prefaced by the words: “Women are ahead in academics. They’re jumping up the corporate ladder. And increasingly they’re the family breadwinners.”

Ms. Rosin’s basic thesis is that changes in the economy and the educational system play to the strengths of women, and that power is decisively shifting away from men in the job market. This, in turn, is profoundly changing traditional gender roles.

Yesterday, Toronto Star journalist Ashley Csanady reacted on Twitter to a controversial U.K. study that found that women around the world, including Canada, are less knowledgeable about current affairs and politics than men are:

I all too often find my female friends (outside of journalism circles) far far less engaged and informed about current affairs

— Ashley Csanady (@AshleyCsanady) July 3, 2013