On this page you'll find:
Statistics
show that women experience higher rates and deeper depths
of poverty than men. Census figures indicate that Canadian
women had a poverty rate almost 20% higher than men in 2000,
earned on average 80% of their salary, and experienced higher
levels of unemployment. They also experienced substantially
higher levels of home violence, worked longer hours and were
more likely to suffer stress-related illnesses such as depression.
Gender analysis offers an opportunity to
explore why women and men are affected differently by the
social, economic and political systems in which we live. It
can provide new and often deeper insights into what needs
to be done to ensure that men and women share equitably in
the kind of world we want to build.
Back to top.
The
Gender and Poverty project provides communities participating
in Vibrant Communities with support to build on their capacity
to create inclusive communities through engagement in gender
related analysis, strategies, and action at the local and
national levels. The project is funded by Status
of Women Canada.
The project's objectives are to:
- Establish a national Working Group on Women and Poverty
as part of Vibrant Communities in order to direct, reflect
on, and sustain the project outcomes.
- Develop and adapt tools and processes for:
- profiling (identifying the characteristics, assets,
and challenges) of low income women in communities
- understanding the gender dimensions of poverty
- creating strategies and actions to reduce women’s’
poverty in communities
- replicating gender specific approaches for broader
inclusion related analysis and action
- Mobilize a network of women living in poverty through
the Women and Poverty working group and through a series
of local workshops on gender and poverty.
- Write a follow up report on outcomes, insights, and
recommendations, including policy recommendations, arising
from the initiative.
While the project is specifically designed
to focus on the issues of gender and poverty, it will also
strengthen the ability of the communities and sponsors involved
in Vibrant Communities to adopt a more rigorous approach to
understanding and responding to other dimensions of poverty
(e.g. race, age).
Back to top.
Six of the fourteen communities participating
in Vibrant Communities are involved in the Gender and Poverty
project:
In each community, a lead organization supports
the work or a working group and local researcher(s) to carry
out a community profile of women’s’ poverty, to
coordinate the design and delivery of a local gender and analysis
workshop, and to identify strategies and actions to address
gender related poverty issues. Representatives from each working
group also participate in the National Working Group teleconference
calls and face-to-face meetings.
Cathy Lang and Toby Goldberg-Leong coordinate
the project and provide extra support to communities in preparing
research and carrying out workshops.
The Caledon
Institute of Social Policy provides overall administrative
support for the project and links its findings to the Vibrant
Communities policy dialogue, while Tamarack explores ways to encourage
and support organizations participating in the initiative
to integrate the work of the local Gender and Poverty working
groups into their community-wide efforts to reduce poverty.
Back to top.
The
heart of the local gender and poverty project is a participatory
and practical workshop that can help make the task of understanding
the complex economic, political and social forces underlying
the marginalization of many women a little easier.
The workshop is designed to tap into women’s
own experiences and provide them with a way to map out how
they are affected by trends and changes in the workplace,
home and community, as well as identify actions they –
and their community – can take to address the inter-related
root causes underlying women’s poverty. The visual picture
workshop participants create of the economy and the root causes
of poverty – the “Wall” – is a powerful
way to represent and share the reality of many women. The
Wall also illustrates how men and women are affected differently
by poverty.
The Wall was created by popular
educators Suzanne Doerge and Beverley Burke. Their manual
is entitled: "Starting with Women's Lives, Changing Today's
Economy: a facilitator's guide to a visual workshop methodology."
Access The Wall Workshop here!
Back to top.
In
the relatively short time since the Gender and Poverty project
got off the ground, the participants of the project have accomplished
a great deal.
June 2003-December 2003
Participants of the National Working Group
on Poverty have met almost monthly on teleconference calls,
to explore and better understand the essence of gender analysis,
to review key resources, and to work through issues of mobilizing
local residents and organizations to participate in the project.
September 21, 2003
Two members from each participating communities,
Project Managers-Coaches, and Vibrant Communities sponsors
met in Guelph Ontario to be introduced to, experience and
prepare to deliver the Gender and Poverty “Wall”
workshop in their community.
Two
days later, approximately a dozen people attending the second
Vibrant Communities Face-to-Face Forum had an opportunity
to roll up their sleeves and experience some of the power
of the Wall exercise themselves.
November 2003-January 2004
Working groups and researcher-facilitators
– with the support of Project Managers-Coaches –
facilitated workshops in each participating community that
involved over 175 people from a variety of backgrounds. 
January - April 2004
From January 2004, local working groups and
researchers finalized reports that profile low income women
in their communities, describe findings generated thorough
their local workshops, and identify strategies and actions
their communities might undertake to reduce women's poverty
and enhance inclusion.
Though their reports are finished, each community
will continue to find ways to use the gender lens in their
poverty reduction work.
Read community reports by clicking on the
links below:
Back to top.
The Pan-Canadian Vibrant Communities Gender
and Poverty Project was a unique partnership with and between
six local communities, Vibrant Communities sponsors, and project
facilitators to apply gender analysis to community-based,
comprehensive poverty reduction work.
The final report reflects upon this partnership
and articulates learnings and findings and also makes recommendations
for future direction. The final report for the Gender and
Poverty Project is now complete and is available for downloading
below, along with appendices and the three components of a
toolkit for gender analysis.
| Gender Analysis in Community-Based Poverty
Reduction: A Report on the Gender and Poverty Project
(Final Report) |
 |
| Appendix 1 - Pan-Canadian Gender and Poverty
Working Group Terms of Reference |
|
| Appendix 2 - Phases of Local Research |
|
| Appendix 3 - Thinking Behind “The
Wall” |
|
| Appendix 4 - Gender and Poverty Workshop
Summaries |
|
| Gender Analysis Toolkit: Tools |
|
| Gender Analysis Toolkit: Resource Review |
|
| Gender Analysis Toolkit: Case Studies |
|
Back to top.
Back to top.
