GENDER AND CITIES
Gender equality is good for women, but it is also good for men and for local government. Increasing the diversity of women in leadership, and keeping the needs of women in mind when developing policies and services, is essential to having quality of life in our cities. This means considering gender equality issues like family responsibility, safety, sexual violence and income levels, as well as ensuring the full diversity of women are included:
This helps the City of Ottawa to fulfill its aim of inclusivity (Ottawa 20/20) and “establish a framework that requires all departments within the City to embrace the spirit of equity and diversity in the development of their policies and programs that impact the delivery of City services…”(Equity and Diversity Policy).
Women and men experience cities differently.
Gender role are changing and men are increasingly assuming responsibility in caring for home and family. However, differences and inequalities between women and men still persist. Women are more likely to live in poverty, still earn only on average 63.4 % (2004) of what men earn and do more unpaid work in home and community. To see how this impacts women’s lives in all its facets visit a recent report by Statistics Canada, “Women in Canada – A Gender-based Statistical Report”. The City of Ottawa, women’s groups and community organizations have worked in partnership to begin to address these inequities.
The result is that women and men experience cities differently. Women’s have specific concerns when it comes to aspects of city life such as housing, employment, public transit, violence and safety, childcare and access to decision making.
Fewer Women in Decision Making Roles
Women are less likely to become City managers or Councillors. In Canada, women are only 13% of Mayors, and 23% of City Councillors. With 21.7% women elected in local government over-all, Canada falls behind many countries: Costa Rica (73%), Chile (48%), Sweden (42%), Bolivia (34%), Finland (31%), Ghana (30%), South Africa (29%), United Kingdom (27%).
(Source: IULA database)
Representation on Canadian municipal councils by women from diverse groups shows a more serious deficit: Overall 1% of elected women are visible minorities, less that 1% are disabled, and less than 1% are immigrant women. Higher numbers of women participate on Advisory Committees, but women from diverse groups (visible minorities, disabled, immigrant, other) are very poorly represented. (Source: FCM Survey, May 2004)
Cities have a role to play in fulfilling United Nation’s Convention:
The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) (view PDF) is an “international bill of rights” for women. This document was signed by the UN in 1979 and by Canada in 1980 and ratified in 1981. Yet, when the UN Committee reviewed Canada’s compliance to CEDAW in January 2003, it emphasized that the federal government must take urgent action to remedy the profoundly unequal status of Aboriginal and First Nations women, the systematic discrimination confronted by immigrant and refugee women, as well as women who come to Canada under the Live-in caregiver program, the scarce resources for legal aid for family and civil law, women’s increasing poverty, and the downloading of care-giving onto women due to cuts in social programs.
For more information on women and cities, review these articles:
- Gendered Cities: Built and Physical Environments, Toronto Women's City Alliance, by Prabha Khosla
(View English PDF) (View French PDF) - Gender Mainstreaming in Local Governments, Toronto Women's City Alliance, by Sonja Greckol
(View English PDF) (View French PDF) - Racialized and Immigrant Women in Cities, Toronto Women's City Alliance, by Kamlyn Ng-See-Quan
(View English PDF) (View French PDF) - Women's Poverty in Cities, Toronto Women's City Alliance, by Prabha Khosla
(View English PDF) (View French PDF) - Women with Disabilities in the Urban Environment, Toronto Women's City Alliance, by Rafia Haniff-Cleofas and Rabia Khedr
(View English PDF) (View French PDF)
For assistance in using a Gender Equality Lens in designing services and programs, see Gender Equality Lens (You may print this guide to assist you in using a Gender Equality Lens. However, prior to using any part of this guide in another publication, contact us for permission).
For assistance in designing a consultation process that takes into account the insights of the full diversity of women, see Planning an Effective Consultation: A guide for considering the full diversity of women. (You may print this guide to assist you in including the full diversity of women in a consultation. However, prior to using any part of this guide in another publication, contact us for permission)
