Women, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse people are at the forefront of Canada’s pandemic response and they need to be centred in Canada’s economic recovery efforts.
The Institute for Gender and the Economyv(GATE) and the YWCA Canada have partnered to develop Together, we co-hosted a Feminist Economic Recovery Plan for Canada: Making the Economy Work for Everyone (click here to view the report) This plan maps a new path forward for Canada’s economy – one that focuses on changing structures and removing barriers that have made some groups more vulnerable to the pandemic and its fallout than others.
The underlying principle of the report is that we won’t get recovery unless we focus on equity. In our launch event for the plan, Sarah Kaplan (she/her), Distinguished Professor and Director, Institute for Gender and the Economy at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, introduced the 8 pillars for recovery outlined in the report, which include supporting the care economy, investing in social infrastructure and supporting women-owned businesses.
Maya Roy, CEO of YWCA Canada, moderated the event featuring a lineup of experts. Roy asked panelists, Margo Greenwood, Academic Leader, National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health and Adjunct Professor, University of Northern British Columbia, Fae Johnstone; Principal Consultant at Wisdom2Action; Gladys Okine Ahovi, Executive Lead, Canadian Council for Youth Prosperity; and Armine Yalnizyan, Economist and Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers, what policy interventions should be prioritized in the COVID response in order to build back better.
Panelists emphasized creating policies that acknowledge and respond to systemic discrimination, uplift marginalized groups and address deeply rooted inequalities that existed in our country prior to COVID-19. They spoke passionately about the need for more inclusive growth and how this can only be done through a collective approach.
IN THE FOLLOWING VIDEO, PANELISTS DISCUSS THE FRAMEWORKS REQUIRED TO MOVE FORWARD: