I would be happy to.
Evidence of meeting #4 for Status of Women in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was violence.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #4 for Status of Women in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was violence.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:50 p.m.
Director General, Policy and External Relations, Status of Women Canada
I would be happy to.
4:50 p.m.
NDP
Annick Papillon NDP Québec, QC
Is there a deadline to see the results of this analysis? You said that it is a work in progress...
4:50 p.m.
Director General, Policy and External Relations, Status of Women Canada
I think there is some misunderstanding about gender-based analysis. It is an analytical process used to look at various files. It can be applied to research projects or to...
4:50 p.m.
Director General, Policy and External Relations, Status of Women Canada
Pardon?
4:50 p.m.
NDP
Annick Papillon NDP Québec, QC
When exactly will we see the next update report on what you are doing?
4:50 p.m.
Director General, Policy and External Relations, Status of Women Canada
I do not have an answer on a report. Bear in mind that using gender-based analysis is an iterative process. It is used to develop federal government programming, legislation and policies.
The progress that we have noted is in the way in which the policies are evolving. What I mean is that many federal organizations that we work with take this matter very seriously and are doing very serious work on the ground.
4:50 p.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP Hélène LeBlanc
Thank you very much, Mr. Goupil.
I will now give the floor to Mr. Young for seven minutes.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Terence Young Conservative Oakville, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
First I would like to say something for the record. I don't think any men in business ever overestimate their abilities. That sounds wildly fictitious.
4:50 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Terence Young Conservative Oakville, ON
I wanted to say that for the record. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't know.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Terence Young Conservative Oakville, ON
Thank you to the officials for being here today.
Part of the mission of Status of Women Canada is to help educate the public about the issues facing women and girls in this country. Could you please inform the committee of the public resources that you provide in order to achieve this goal? If this could be a long answer, that would be helpful: the resources you provide, where they can be found, and how Canadians and those of us in Parliament can make use of them.
4:50 p.m.
Director General, Policy and External Relations, Status of Women Canada
I can start, and I'll let my colleague complete it if she wants to.
We try to make our resources available through our website. I just mentioned the course on gender-based analysis. One of the goals was to make it universally accessible so that it can be used not only by federal officials, but also by NGOs and colleagues from the provinces and territories. It's a well-designed bilingual product available on the website. As well, there are other key documents that inform the practice of gender-based analysis.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Terence Young Conservative Oakville, ON
Would that be available to high school students, for example?
4:50 p.m.
Director General, Policy and External Relations, Status of Women Canada
It would be accessible. I think that as a practice it would be geared more to university students interested in this type of analysis, but yes, it's on the Status of Women Canada website.
The minister mentioned this when she appeared, but we've developed a website that addresses the issue of violence against women and girls. That provides a different type of information on the issue and its impact, on where people can go for support, and on how various groups, parents, friends, and family can help.
Over the years we've developed a number of issues briefs. One that is important, as I think there haven't been many, is a brief around those issues of engaging men and boys. It's available on the website.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Terence Young Conservative Oakville, ON
That's very interesting to me. You mean that it's available to men and boys and it's available to anyone. Is there a section that discusses that or leads to that? Is there a section that says if you're a male student, this is where you can learn or...?
4:55 p.m.
Director General, Policy and External Relations, Status of Women Canada
Are you talking about the website?
4:55 p.m.
Director General, Policy and External Relations, Status of Women Canada
Yes. Different types of information are available for different target groups, so if you're a coach, there's information on the website that you can access.
Apart from these, over the years we've supported very important data-gathering projects. We know that in order to support the practice of gender-based analysis, having the right type of sex-disaggregated data is instrumental. We've had a chance to talk here about women in Canada. We've also developed, in collaboration with our provincial and territorial counterparts, a compendium called “Measuring violence against women: Statistical trends”, which looks at different types of indicators on the issue of violence against women.
In support of the work we've done on establishing the International Day of the Girl Child, there also has been an issues brief on issues facing girls in Canada, in order to inform some of the thinking and the policy development moving forward.
November 26th, 2013 / 4:55 p.m.
Linda Savoie Director General, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Status of Women Canada
In terms of possibly some other angles, when it comes to women in non-traditional employment, we've put a lot of focus on public education on that specific topic this year. For instance, we had a series of YouTube videos during Women's History Month profiling women in non-traditional employment. We use a very broad range of mechanisms to get the information out there.
Another mechanism we use, for instance, is through the funding of projects to groups. We will at times be developing resources with these groups. I'll give you an example. We're funding the Canadian Red Cross to develop online modules to promote healthy and respectful relationships among teens, the ultimate role obviously being to reduce violence against young girls. These modules that we're funding the Red Cross to develop are also part of the publicly available documents and tools.
There is a very broad range of tools that we use. We use the opportunities given to us by commemorative events such as International Women's Day and the International Day of the Girl Child. We use these events to promote the issues that are important to our mandate.
I hope this gives you a flavour of what we do. I wouldn't say by any extent that this is exhaustive, but it gives you a flavour.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Terence Young Conservative Oakville, ON
Do you have any resources for our community colleges or universities, for example, to assist them in attracting women into either non-traditional apprenticeship work or trades?
4:55 p.m.
Director General, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Status of Women Canada
Not specifically. That tends to be with the responsibility that lies with our provincial colleagues. We do fund a number of projects that will identify the barriers to the interest and entry of young girls into these types of employment.
