A practical guide to building more inclusive services, programs, and workplaces
Put Gender-based Analysis Plus to work for your organization.
When it comes to safety, your work gear should be the last thing you have to worry about. But for many women in Canada, personal protective equipment (PPE) including masks, goggles, steel-toed boots, hard hats, and ear protection, simply doesn’t measure up.
A 2022 study by the Canadian Standards Association found that nearly 40% of women had experienced an injury or incident they perceived to be related to their PPE Footnote 1 . In the survey of over 3,000 women working in Canadian industries like health care, emergency services, construction, transportation and natural resources, half said their PPE doesn’t fit and 43% said it’s uncomfortable to wearFootnote 1.
The main issue? Most PPE are designed for men’s body proportions. To make ‘PPE for women,’ manufacturers often take a “shrink it and pink it” approach, producing smaller versions of the men’s design and adding pink. This results in equipment that doesn’t fit properly and can affect how seriously women are taken on the jobFootnote 2.
This example highlights a bigger problem: when products, policies, and programs are developed without input from different groups of people, important perspectives are missed which risks creating results that don’t work for everyone. Listening to diverse experiences is essential to building better, more inclusive solutions.
If you want to ensure your services, community programs, or organization’s policies don’t leave anyone behind, there’s a powerful and practical tool you should know about: Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus).
What is GBA Plus?
GBA Plus is a tool and process that helps us understand how different people might experience services, products, programming, projects, services and more. GBA Plus is not a checklist, but rather a process for asking: “Who could be impacted by this decision, and in what ways?”
While the “gender” in Gender-based Analysis Plus ensures that the lived experiences of women, men, and gender diverse people are at the forefront of planning, GBA Plus looks at a wide range of factors - not just sex and gender. This analysis considers other factors that might impact how someone uses a service like age, disability, education, ethnicity, income, and more. It also looks at how these personal characteristics overlap, and how people’s lives are shaped by the groups they belong to, the communities they live in, and their experiences of social issues such as racism, homophobia, and colonialism.
Using a GBA Plus approach means your organization or business can identify and address barriers to create solutions that work for everyone.
GBA Plus in action
Gender-based analysis has been part of the Government of Canada’s commitment to gender equality since 1995, but it’s not just a tool for policymakers. Whether you work for a non-profit, a business, an educational institution, or a local community group, using a GBA Plus approach can help you better understand the diverse needs of the people you support, leading to more loyal clients and employees, improved products and services, and a stronger reputation in your community.
GBA Plus can be incorporated into your thinking for many aspects of your organization. For example:
- Hiring and recruitment: Use inclusive, neutral language in your job postings to attract candidates from a variety of backgrounds. Consider how requirements or qualifications may unintentionally exclude people based on their gender, disability, age, or cultural background.
- Product design and development: Ask for input from a diverse range of people when developing new products, programs, or services. Make sure your designs accommodate different needs, abilities, and cultural or religious considerations so that your offerings work for everyone.
- Plan events which consider accessibility and inclusion: Choose venues that are accessible to people with mobility needs, provide interpretation in multiple languages, offer childcare, and schedule events at times that work for people with caregiving responsibilities or shift work. Check out this inclusive event planning guide for more tips.
- Update workplace policies with equity in mind: Make sure your company policies reflect the diverse backgrounds and needs of your staff. Review your policies like parental leave or flexible work arrangements, to ensure they support a range of family structures, including single parents and sexually diverse and gender diverse couples.
- Gather and respond to feedback: Regularly ask customers and clients about barriers they may face when using or accessing your products, programs, or services. Use this feedback to make meaningful improvements that ensure everyone can benefit from what you offer.
Continue your learning journey
Want to keep learning more? Check out the online Gender-based Analysis Plus course.
It’s free, interactive, and designed for anyone to use. Whether you’re new to the concept or looking to deepen your knowledge, the course will show you how GBA Plus can make a difference in your organization.
Implementing GBA Plus isn’t just about checking a box.
It’s about re-thinking the ways we plan, design, and deliver programs and services, so they work for everyone. By adopting this inclusive approach, your organization can better respond to the needs of all people, foster greater innovation, and build lasting trust with your team and community.