FEWO Committee Report

Gender-based analysis is not an end in itself but a tool to ensure that programs and policies benefit women and men equally. The Committee recognizes that care must be taken not to prescribe actions which would result in meaningless reporting burden on departments without addressing the persisting inequalities between men and women.

There is a common misconception among the general public that gender equality has been achieved in Canada, but the Committee has heard compelling evidence to the contrary in the presentations from women’s groups and equality-seeking organizations from across the country. As Dr. Pauline Rankin told the Committee:

Given the sex equality guarantees embedded in our Charter, I think there exists the perception that Canadian women are equal enough, and therefore gender-based analysis can be dismissed — particularly in departments not typically seen as dealing with issues of direct concern to women — as an unnecessary step in policy-making that slows, complicates, and perhaps adds additional costs to an already overburdened policy process.¹⁷

The Committee commends Status of Women Canada for its work in the development of internationally recognized tools and training to help policy-makers incorporate gender considerations throughout the policy-making process. The Committee acknowledges the great efforts made in certain departments and agencies to ensure that public policies do not inadvertently disadvantage women. But it is disappointed to note that too many departments fail to understand their role in ensuring that women and men benefit equally from policies and programs.

The Committee emphasizes the importance of identifying the outstanding equality gaps, of addressing those gaps in a proactive manner, and of ensuring that there is commitment from the highest levels to considering the differential impacts of all policies, programs and laws on men and women. The following section describes the measures the Committee proposes to the Government of Canada to further the development of gender-based analysis in Canada.

We have just celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, still regarded as model to guide the nations of the world toward greater equality of opportunity for women and men. Although we have made progress in some areas over the past decade, there are many challenges remaining. The Committee trusts that the 2005-2010 action plan on gender equality and the development of meaningful gender-based analysis in Canada will provide the necessary tools to give us cause to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action with a greater level of substantive equality between women and men in Canada.