[lg policy] Canada: The language of policy: Why focusing on gender matters

Thu Feb 4 15:41:18 UTC 2016

The language of policy: Why focusing on gender matters
[image: 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]
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

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.

“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.

Quality of life for women has been in the political headlines this week —
from the NDP call for equal pay
<https://ipolitics.ca/2016/02/01/ndp-urge-liberal-government-to-tackle-pay-equity/>
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 gender differences
<http://ipolitics.ca/2016/02/02/gender-impact-analysis-largely-ignored-by-departments-ferguson/>
when
crafting policy.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised during the election campaign that
his party would address violence against women
<http://www.metronews.ca/news/ottawa/2015/09/01/trudeau-says-liberals-committed-to-addressing-violence-against-w.html>,
so it’s no surprise that it’s now on the books.

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.”

According to an October 2014 Centre for Policy Alternatives report, *Progress
on Women’s Rights: Missing in Action: A Shadow Report on Canada’s
Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
<https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2014/11/Progress_Women_Beijing20.pdf>,
*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.

Under the *National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, *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.”

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.

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: *An
Estimation of the Economic Impact of Spousal Violence in Canada.*

“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.

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.

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.”

“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.

Martin agreed with Dugal, adding the issue of violence against women must
be addressed through the overarching structure of how societies function.

In October 2013, the Canadian Network of Women’s Shelters & Transition
Homes started to develop a blueprint to end violence against women. The
network brought 23 organizations across the country together and
tabled the Blueprint
for Canada’s National Action Plan on Violence Against Women and Girls
<http://endvaw.ca/our-work/blueprint-for-canadas-national-action-plan-on-violence-against-women>.
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 the
Liberal Party did.

“We were pleased to see it reflected in the mandate letter
<http://pm.gc.ca/eng/minister-status-women-mandate-letter>,” said Lise
Martin, the executive director of the Canadian Network of Women’s Shelters
& Transition Homes.

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.

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.
“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

https://ipolitics.ca/2016/02/03/the-language-of-policy-why-focusing-on-gender-matters/

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