Informing and advocating for policy changes

We know Alberta women and gender-diverse individuals demonstrate remarkable resilience and determination to pursue careers that match their skills and aspirations. However, they face many obstacles that hinder their career advancement and economic contribution to Alberta.

With support from Women and Gender Equality Canada for the past two years, we have sought local solutions to reduce the barriers women face and close the gender gap in Alberta employment and entrepreneurship. Before we could provide our recommended solutions, we conducted a wide-ranging research plan that involved:

• A thorough review of existing programs and policies.
• An in-depth analysis of data from Statistics Canada and other sources.
• Extensive engagement with diverse women and community non-profits across the province.

This multi-faceted approach ensured that our findings were grounded in real-world experiences, involved local collaborations, and reflected Alberta women’s diverse needs and challenges in the workforce.

In this project’s final year, our team proposed actionable steps and advocated for recommendations that community non-profits and governments could take to improve women’s experience in the workforce.

During the Alberta provincial election in May 2023, we took a significant step forward by sharing a brief with our preliminary recommendations on improving the employment gender gap. This brief, sent to candidates with experience in government, opposition, or employment in areas that affect women in the workforce, was the first of many advocacy actions.

To better understand potential solutions to reduce the barriers for women in the workforce, our project team organized the event Action Through Connection in October 2023. This event celebrated the impactful work carried out by community non-profits while acknowledging the diverse energy women bring to Alberta’s economy. It also aimed to bring different sectors together, fostering connections and collaborations so they can transform the landscape of policies and programs to ensure equitable opportunities for women. Inviting community non-profits, academics, and government officials, they spent the day discussing and workshopping solutions and hearing from several speakers and panels.

The work from this event was fruitful, with recordings of the featured speakers and panels shared on our YouTube channel. The project team also shared an impact brief in collaboration with Women Building Futures, a non-profit organization that offers free skills training and support services to women and gender-diverse individuals.

Also, resulting from our event, we collaborated with the Alberta Human Rights Commission on two webinars in March 2024. These webinars explained our new guide to help non-profits with their clients requesting workplace accommodations.

Finally, in March 2024, we shared our final findings and recommendations on closing the gender gap in Alberta employment. We sent our Policy Primer to several ministers in the Government of Alberta, advocating for our recommended actions to be implemented. We also published our final findings report, which presents impacts, trends, and priorities for action that the government can take to support women in the workforce.