BarbaraMacLellan
Ms.MacLellan
CFUW
Gender Justice at the Local Level
The Coalition to Empower Gender Equality and Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE)
Women in power and decision-making, Women and the economy, Education and training of women, Women and poverty, Institutional mechanisms
SDG4 – Quality Education, SDG5 – Gender Equality, SDG 10 – Reduced Inequality, SDG17 – Partnerships to achieve the Goal
Bullying (2016), Young Members (2016), Sexual Harassment in Workplace (2019)
This session dealt with the many systemic barriers and obstacles to gender equality. At the local level CFUW clubs are always looking for ways to help women overcome barriers to their success and leadership. Nationally some of our resolutions relate to this issue. Access of women to higher education, academic leadership positions, equitable pay and public positions of leadership – appointed or elected have been central to CFUW for over 100 years. It was pointed out that education is the key and this has always been and remains our priority at every level.
History and background of gender inequality
Need for structured changes that can remove systems that were originally built to favour the builders. The system is not build for the success of women. The more female leaders we have and see the more it will encourage our girls to become leaders. We need to work to normalize equality. Collaboration with other organizations with compatible goals is important. Poverty and lack of resources is a big barrier and we need to continue to work on this. We need to know how to approach decision makers and work with allies.
All of the strategies and areas to work on are valid to GWI members on every level. The emphasis on collaboration is important and impact can be heightened by putting this into practise at every level.
Collaboration obviously. We need to look for these possibilities at every level and pursue them. in the case of CFUW we have nearly 100 clubs all across the country and more club to club cooperation is certainly possible. CFUW could also look for more opportunities to collaborate with other NFAs within GWI. There are also many organizations at all levels that we could work with. We need to seek them out and make the approach.
