Paulette Senior, President and CEO, Canadian Women's Foundation

Paulette Senior, President and CEO, Canadian Women's Foundation

Like you, I’m contemplating this new year we find ourselves in. What challenges will 2023 bring for women, girls, and gender-diverse people in Canada? What can we do to meet those challenges? Here are my thoughts.

Challenge 1: Uncertain economic outlook

In the wake of the pandemic, people called what we were going through a “She-cession”. Women were disproportionately impacted by job loss, care work burdens, and health gaps. For those in the most precarious situations such as Black, Indigenous, and racialized women, women with low incomes, and women in remote and rural areas, the outlook was worse. In 2023, rising inflation and interest rates means more gendered implications on quality of life, well-being, and access to basic needs like safe housing and food.

Opportunities

The gender justice grants our supporters enable for every province and territory through the Canadian Women’s Foundation are essential. Our most recent grant calls focus on meeting urgent Community Needs and Investment Readiness for innovative entrepreneurship with social good goals. Strong support and stimulus are the objectives here.

Challenge 2: Increased gender-based violence

Canada’s already high rates of femicide, family violence, and sexual assault have gone up. I think about women with disabilities, Indigenous women, women in the North, and others at elevated risk – it is stunning to imagine the reverberating implications of this increased trauma. I also think about the rise in online harassment and hate against women and equity-seeking people, particularly those with platforms. This has a chilling effect on anyone who wants to challenge gender injustice.

Opportunities

We’re thrilled that over 40,000 people like you have signed on to be Signal for Help Responders to end abuse. This learning opportunity will continue into 2023, along with systemic change efforts. Public safety plans typically don’t include abuse prevention, which is a gap in times of crisis when violence tends to spike. Our partners will join us to explore what it takes to shockproof our communities against gendered violence. And when it comes to hate and harassment, check out our recent Alright, Now What? podcast conversations and stay tuned for more impactful movement on these matters.

Challenge 3: Lesser urgency for advancement

It’s an irony of crisis moments. Diverse women and Two Spirit, trans, and non-binary people – who represent more than 50 per cent of the population – can get relegated to a position of lesser priority in public imagination because “we’ve got bigger problems to deal with”. That’s how things can play out: we take the needs and safety of those most marginalized for granted. It can become harder to push for feminist policy reform and investments.

Opportunities

It’s time to get louder and more insistent. Let’s keep up the efforts to end gender injustice and share the word on what we can all do about it. Let’s keep prioritizing our support for women, girls, and gender-diverse people to move out of poverty, out of violence, and into confidence and leadership.

In short? The bind of 2023 is that our goal of a gender equal Canada is more necessary than ever, but it can get easily sidetracked.

This is why gender justice change-making is so important. The challenges are significant. But I believe we can find our way together. I’m thankful to our donors, supporters, and partners for their tireless efforts, for the way they amplify the solutions, and for following the Canadian Women’s Foundation every step of the way.

If you’re able, please consider becoming a donor today. And stay close by following us on social media or email and subscribing to our Alright, Now What? podcast wherever you get your podcast content.