PolicyWise for Children & Families is continuing to celebrate 20 years of impacting meaningful change. As part of our 20th anniversary celebrations, we are sharing stories about our successful projects, both past and present.
Closing the Employment Gender Gap
Albertans are currently facing an affordability crisis that began with the lost wages and work disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Racialized women, newcomers, mothers, young women, and gender-diverse people have been strongly affected by this crisis. Albertans need sustainable solutions to:
- Improve pay equity
- Child care
- Employment training, and
- Business investment
In response to this crisis, we recently completed the first phase of a project supported by Women and Gender Equality Canada.
This project aims to use the strengths of industry, government, and community non-profits to collaboratively support women’s employment. Applying community non-profits’ knowledge and solutions can ensure that policies and programs provide women with equitable workplace opportunities.
During the project’s first phase, we reviewed academic and practice-based publications on the gendered impact of the pandemic on labour. We also spoke with Alberta community non-profits. We asked them to provide us with their local context to better understand how to meet women’s work-related needs and develop potential solutions.
Then, we published what we learned, connecting the pandemic’s impact with recommended actions that industry, government, and community non-profits could take to support women and gender-diverse people in the workforce.
Next fiscal year, we will promote these recommended actions during Alberta’s 2023 spring election campaign. We will also be collaborating with community non-profits and government agencies to further develop policy and program tools to close the employment gender gap. We will then be hosting an event in the fall showcasing this work.
This project was sponsored by the Women and Gender Equality Canada.
To learn more about how PolicyWise is making an impact and to read similar stories, check out our 2022-2023 Annual Report.
