Equality Matters newsletter: May 2024

Pride Season is nearly here! From June to September each year, 2SLGBTQI+ communities and allies come together to spotlight the resilience, celebrate the talent, and recognize the contributions of 2SLGBTQI+ communities.
It’s an important time to show your support and get involved – and Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) wears our Pride proudly.
Read on to learn more about Pride Season and ideas of how to celebrate over the summer. You’ll also find a new tool with answers to Canada’s most searched gender-based violence (GBV) questions, resources to brush up on your Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) skills, Mothers Matter Centre’s work to redefine masculinity, and more.

Happy Pride Season!
With the start of Pride Season around the corner, we’re gearing up to celebrate with you!
Take a look back on 50 years of activism for 2SLGBTQI+ rights in Canada, read the Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, download Pride-themed backgrounds for your next virtual meeting, support 2SLGBTQI+ owned businesses, and consider donating to or volunteering with a 2SLGBTQI+ organization in your community.

Refresh your GBA Plus skills
You’ve asked for more GBA Plus content, so let’s brush up on your GBA Plus knowledge!
GBA Plus is a tool that helps you assess how different women, men and gender diverse people may experience policies, programs and initiatives. In fact, the Government of Canada recently used GBA Plus to better understand the impacts of the Budget 2024 measures. Read about it in the Budget 2024 Impacts Report.
Take the course and learn how you can apply GBA Plus to your own work.

It’s not just you searching...
🔍 How can I tell if I’m in an abusive relationship? (41,000 searches)
🔍 I was groped in public. How can I get help? (26,000 searches)
🔍 My partner insults and yells at me when they’re angry. How can I deal with verbal abuse? (16,000 searches)
Each month, thousands of Canadians are searching for help dealing with GBV. Get advice from youth leaders on the most prevalent GBV issues young Canadians are facing today, based on real searches from across the country.

Redefining masculinity
The Mothers Matter Centre is working to help newcomer men and boys build community around positive masculinities.
By creating a safe environment for men to talk and explore what masculinity means to them, the project hopes to break down stereotypes and prevent GBV for the benefit of all.

Dive into GBA Plus with the Canadian Coast Guard
Feeling lost at sea about how GBA Plus is used? Watch this video from the Canadian Coast Guard as they chart a new course and use GBA Plus to assess how diverse groups of women, men and gender diverse people experience the Canadian Coast Guard’s services.
GBA Plus in action at the Canadian Coast Guard
Transcript of the video
There's a good chance that most of what you own—your clothes, watch, phone, and even your cup of coffee—came to Canada through the shipping lanes the Canadian Coast Guard manages and protects. In fact, on an average day the Coast Guard saves 13 lives, responds to 43 calls for assistance, responds to 3 reported pollution incidents, performs 11 scientific surveys, 11 fisheries patrols, 3 hydrographic missions, surveys 3.5 kilometres of channel bottom, and manages 1,233 ship movements and Canadian waters.
But have you ever considered whether all of these activities impact people in the same way?
The Canadian Coast Guard uses gender-based analysis plus (or GBA+) to assess how diverse groups of women, men, and gender-diverse people might experience its initiatives and services differently. GBA+ is an intersectional gender lens that takes into account sex and gender, and other identity factors such as geography, ethnicity, income, age, and disability.
So how is Canadian Coast Guard applying GBA+?
Did you know that women represent only 2% of the world's 1.25 million seafarers? And most of them work as cooks, reporters, or waitresses in the cruise industry. However, 12% of seafarers in the Canadian Coast Guard are women. While significantly higher than the international average, we still have some challenges to overcome.
Like what?
Consider gender. Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, expressions, and identities of individuals. Traditional gender roles are learned behaviors determined by predominant cultural norms. Gender roles determine how males and females are expected to think, speak, dress, and interact. They are adopted during childhood and often continue into adulthood. At work they can lead to presumptions about power, labour, position, and organizational structures.
Next consider unconscious bias.
Unconscious biases happen when our brains make quick and unconscious judgments and assessments of people and situations. These biases are shaped by culture, family, and personal experience. They influence how we view and evaluate others. Yet because they lurk below the surface, we rarely recognize how they inform our view of the world and our actions in it. Consider how traditional gender roles and unconscious biases can intersect, creating further challenges for seafaring women. By using a GBA+ lens, the Coast Guard is working to tailor career paths to today’s realities, including the identification of potential barriers in recruiting and retaining not only female personnel, but also other underrepresented groups including indigenous peoples.
So, what does this actually look like?
Indigenous communities are often the first to respond to marine emergencies. They have been seeking a greater role in prevention, preparedness, and response for many years. Through the Oceans Protection Plan, the Government of Canada is building and strengthening local Indigenous emergency response capacity, and is creating partnerships that are improving marine safety.
GBA+ is helping to ensure that the significant marine expertise in Indigenous communities, including traditional knowledge, helps inform emergency response. With GBA+, the Government of Canada is also bringing a diverse cast of people together to participate in the policy development process. For example, when designing the fleet of the future, the Coast Guard is working to ensure that ship designs and the physical work environment are not barriers. Equal participation by anyone who can serve.
Considering factors such as accessibility and ergonomics has allowed the Canadian Coast Guard to assess sightlines on its newest class of search-and-rescue lifeboats. Console layouts, seating arrangements, and wide screen construction were configured to ensure the physical conditions necessary for a wide range of operators. The Canadian Coast Guard also celebrates inclusion and diversity by participating in pride parades across the country. In 2017 and 2018, members marched across Canada demonstrating support for those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and two-spirit.
The Canadian Coast Guard will continue to consider gender and other intersecting identity factors in how we do business and in how we interact with partners and Canadians alike, use GBA+ to examine the intersecting identity factors of diverse groups of people so that our programs and initiatives are effective and inclusive.
Visit status of women Canada and check out the demystifying GBA+ job aid on GCpedia.
Information is available upon request for those outside the Government of Canada.
Did you know
Sex or gender?
Definitions of sex and gender are often incorrectly used interchangeably. Not all people identify with a binary concept of sex or gender categories of male and female, masculine and feminine. Explore the terminologies around sex and gender.
In case you missed it...
- Minister Ien’s statement on the International Day of Pink
- Minister Ien’s statement on the International Transgender Day of Visibility
- Canada’s statement to the UN Commission on the Status of Women
- Minister Ien’s video for International Women’s Day
- Government of Canada supports young women to build self-esteem and reach their full potential
- New federal law helps ensure families will benefit from affordable early learning and child care for generations to come
Have ideas for a topic in a future newsletter?
Share your thoughts with WAGE at FEGC.Intervenants-Stakeholders.WAGE@fegc-wage.gc.ca
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