<div dir="ltr"><h2 class="" itemprop="headline">The language of policy: Why focusing on gender matters</h2><div class="">
<img src="https://ipolitics.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/10193556-700x500.jpg" class="" alt="Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould(centre) and Minister of Status of Women Patricia Hajdu are seen during a news conference in the Foyer of the House of Commons Tuesday December 8, 2015 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld" height="500" width="700">
<div class="">Minister
of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Justice
and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould(centre) and
Minister of Status of Women Patricia Hajdu are seen during a news
conference in the Foyer of the House of Commons Tuesday December 8, 2015
on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</div>
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<p>Applying a gender perspective to
public policy is integral in improving the lives of women and girls —
especially in ending violence against them, say experts.</p>
<p>“I think for the last 10 years…there has been a rubbing out of
gender. It’s been made invisible,” said Anuradha Dugal, the director of
violence prevention program at the Canadian Women’s Foundation.</p>
<p>Quality of life for women has been in the political headlines this week — from the NDP call for <a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2016/02/01/ndp-urge-liberal-government-to-tackle-pay-equity/">equal pay</a> to
the Auditor General releasing his 2015 Fall Report, which found a
lacklustre effort on the part of the government to implement
gender-based analysis — a tool used to examine <a href="http://ipolitics.ca/2016/02/02/gender-impact-analysis-largely-ignored-by-departments-ferguson/">gender differences</a> when crafting policy.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised during the election campaign that his party would address <a href="http://www.metronews.ca/news/ottawa/2015/09/01/trudeau-says-liberals-committed-to-addressing-violence-against-w.html" target="_blank">violence against women</a>, so it’s no surprise that it’s now on the books.</p>
<p>In the Status of Women ministerial briefing book on the national
action plan to end violence against women, it notes “Canada does not
currently have a national action plan on violence against women and
girls. Rather, the Government of Canada has tended to take a broad,
gender-neutral approach to addressing violence, with the majority of its
initiatives focused on family violence and all victims of crime.”</p>
<p>According to an October 2014 Centre for Policy Alternatives report, <em><a href="https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2014/11/Progress_Women_Beijing20.pdf">Progress
on Women’s Rights: Missing in Action: A Shadow Report on Canada’s
Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action</a>, </em>between
2009 to 2013, the federal government provided $13 million to the
Federal Victims Strategy. Like the Family Violence Initiative, it
focused on general victims of violence — not specifically addressing
intimate partner violence or sexual assault.</p>
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<p>Under the <em>National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, </em>the
report said “while the plan addresses a crime experienced by women, it
does not address itself exclusively to gender-based violence or violence
against women.”</p>
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<p>Previously, one of the few ways the federal government addressed
violence against women was through its grant program run out of the
Status of Women department. It provided $15 million a year to non-profit
organizations “to deliver a variety of services ranging from shelters
to public education,” the report said, noting in the past five years,
there had been a focus on addressing issues of human trafficking and
honour killings.</p>
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<p>The funding seems insufficient given that the World Health
Organization says one in four Canadian women will experience sexual
violence or intimate violence in their lifetime, with the latter costing
the economy $4.8 billion per year, according to the 2009 Justice Canada
report: <em>An Estimation of the Economic Impact of Spousal Violence in Canada.</em></p>
<p>“Those programs all touched upon in some ways aspects of violence
that disproportionately affect women, but they were not designed to
concentrate on the causes and consequences of violence against women,
which is a specific kind of public safety phenomenon. The best way to
reduce violence is to understand those specificities,” said senior CCPA
researcher Kate McInturff at the CCPA.</p>
<p>The violence that women experience is not the same type of violence
experienced by either men or children. In intimate relationships it
usually includes things that make it “impossible to take it way from
being a woman,” says Dugal, which include sexual assault, spiritual
abuse — how one practices their religion, psychological abuse related to
gender roles and norms, and the abuse of power and control.</p>
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<p>Before the Harper government, Dugal said the focus was on violence
against women, so raising the issue is not new — it’s just that “someone
is willing to listen to us again.”</p>
<p>“The Conservative government was more keen on dealing with violence
with a focus on law enforcement and control. They weren’t interested in
how abusive behaviour could be stopped in the first place,” said Dugal.</p>
<p>Martin agreed with Dugal, adding the issue of violence against women
must be addressed through the overarching structure of how societies
function.</p>
<p>In October 2013, the Canadian Network of Women’s Shelters &
Transition Homes started to develop a blueprint to end violence against
women. T<span style="font-weight:400">he network brought 23 organizations across the country together and tabled the <a href="http://endvaw.ca/our-work/blueprint-for-canadas-national-action-plan-on-violence-against-women">Blueprint for Canada’s National Action Plan on Violence Against Women and Girls</a>.
During the election, they lobbied parties to have a national action
plan to end violence against women in their platforms — which both the
NDP and </span><span style="font-weight:400">the Liberal Party did. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">“We were pleased to see it reflected in the <a href="http://pm.gc.ca/eng/minister-status-women-mandate-letter">mandate letter</a>,” said Lise Martin, the executive director of the Canadian Network of Women’s Shelters & Transition Homes.</span></p>
<p>Martin will be presenting the blueprint — which aims to ensure that
women and children have access to equitable care across the country — to
Status of Women Minister Patricia Hajdu later in February.</p>
<p class="">Martin says much of what needs to be addressed is
done at the provincial and territorial level of government, but that
Ottawa should take a leadership role in addressing this issue.</p>
<span style="font-weight:400">“These are endemic problems, and they
are persistent problems. Hopefully, what we will see in this new
government is a shift in policies that address the gendered natured
forms of this violence,” said McInturff<br><br><a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2016/02/03/the-language-of-policy-why-focusing-on-gender-matters/">https://ipolitics.ca/2016/02/03/the-language-of-policy-why-focusing-on-gender-matters/</a><br clear="all"></span><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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