Juliana Corso is taking her seat in the House of Commons.
The Chatham native is one of 338 young women representing each of Canada's federal ridings in Ottawa for International Women's Day today. The initiative is organized by Daughters of the Vote, a program created by Equal Voice Canada to get more women involved in government.
"I'm hoping to get inspired by talking to all the different girls here and bring back their stories to Chatham-Kent," says Corso, who will be representing Chatham-Kent-Leamington in MP Dave Van Kesteren's seat.
This year, International Women's Day marks a symbolic moment in time -- 100 years since some Canadian women won the right to vote in federal elections (1940 for women in Quebec; 1960 for on-reserve Indigenous women).
Still, a century after the women's suffrage movement, being a woman in politics is hard, says Corso.
"I think a bit of it has to do with the amount of extra pressure that they're put under. Their appearance is talked about a lot," she says, adding raising campaign funds is often more difficult for women too. "They're torn down in different ways that men aren't."
Equal Voice maintains there's much left to be done in the journey to women's full political participation. In a public opinion survey released by the organization earlier this week, 58% of respondents think there are “too many” or “the right number” of women in Canadian politics, even though they overestimated that representation at just 31%. In reality, 28% of women have been elected to public office.
Corso says seeing women occupy every seat in Parliament -- even if it's just for one day -- will hopefully set the tone for the next 100 years.
"It's definitely a first ... We're striving to at least have parity in the House and it's just going to be a lot of emotions," says Corso. "It's been a long time coming to this day and to have that visual is a little hope for the future."