Corporate information

Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do

Raison d’être

The Department for Women and Gender Equality works to advance gender equality through an intersectional gendered lens. Working in partnership with key stakeholders, including civil society organizations, labour groups, the private sector, other orders of government, and First Nations, Inuit and Metis Peoples, the Department actively promotes the inclusion of all people in Canada’s economic, social, and political life. The Department for Women and Gender Equality works to uphold its mandate to advance gender equality by performing a central coordination function within the Government of Canada by developing and implementing policies, providing grants and contributions, delivering programs, investing in research, and providing advice to achieve equality for people of all genders, including women.

Mandate and role

The mandate of the Department is to advance equality with respect to sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression through the inclusion of people of all genders, including women, in Canada’s economic, social, and political life. This application of a gender and diversity lens will help us to understand better the intersection of sex and gender with other identity factors. These factors include – but are not limited to – race, national and ethnic origin, Indigenous origin or identity, age, sexual orientation, socio-economic condition, place of residence and disability.

WAGE works within the context of a number of federal and international instruments that support the principle of gender equality such as: the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Canadian Human Rights Act, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

WAGE’s responsibilities include the following:

• supporting the development of a National Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence;
• leading the implementation of Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) across the federal government and working to improve the quality and scope of GBA+ in future budgets;
• implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ Calls for Justice in partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples;
• providing expert advice and strategic support to federal departments and agencies in the development of policies, programs and legislation related to gender equality;
• sharing research and policy expertise with the organizations and other levels of governments that have the levers to address gender equality issues;
• providing funding to Canadian women’s organizations and equality-seeking groups, including supporting community action to tackle systemic barriers that perpetuate gender inequality;
• supporting the creation of more accessible and affordable childcare and access to housing that is affordable and meets the needs of Canadian women and girls;
• supporting Canada’s efforts to meet international obligations on promoting gender equality abroad; and,
• promoting commemorative dates related to gender equality.

Operating context

In December 2018, new legislation created Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE), transforming the former Status of Women Canada into an official department of the Government of Canada. WAGE’s mandate establishes the department as a center of expertise that leads and mobilizes federal activities to advance equality with respect to sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, recognizing intersections between sex, gender, and other identity factors. This mandate has been strengthened with the move of the LGBTQ2 secretariat from Department of Canadian Heritage to WAGE in October 2021 to advance gender equality in a holistic way.

The #MeToo, #TimesUp and #BLM Black Lives Matters movements, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ Calls for Justice have drawn greater public attention to the challenges faced by women and gender diverse people, including: LGBTQ2, Indigenous peoples, youth, immigrant, black, and racialized persons, those living in rural areas and persons with disabilities. Sustained and heightened attention to gender equality issues has resulted in higher demands on the organization to assist and provide guidance and feedback to other departments on their priorities, as well as address new and emerging departmental priorities.

Canada continues to make significant progress on gender equality; however, gaps remain. Women continue to be under-represented in politics and leadership roles and earn less – on average – than men. Women and other equality seeking groups are also more likely to experience gender-based violence including sexual assaults and intimate partner violence, in particular, and are disproportionately affected by these types of violence.

Leadership

• In 2021, 103 women were elected to the 338-member House of Commons (30.5%), a gain of three seats from the previous high of 100.
• In 2019, 27% of First Nations council members were women and 19% of Chiefs in First Nations communities were women.

• As of December 31, 2021, there are over 1760 people currently appointed to administrative tribunals, agencies, boards, commissions, international organizations, and Crown corporations. Of these appointees:
  • 5% identify as women,
  • 6% as visible minorities,
  • 9% as Indigenous peoples, and
  • 8% as persons with a disability.

Economic participation and Gender Wage Gap

• When comparing median hourly wages of women and men (aged 15+) working full-time in 2021, women earned 88 cents for every dollar earned by men. Intersectional factors demonstrate even wider wage gaps. When comparing median hourly wages of full-time employees, Indigenous women earned 0.82$ for every dollar earned by men (Indigenous or not Indigenous) in 2018.
• The employment rate of Black women (aged 15+) was 0% in 2016, compared to 63.0% for Black men, compared to 56.7 for overall women in Canada
• In 2018, a significantly higher proportion of LGBTQ2+ Canadians (41%) had a total personal income of less than $20,000 per year compared with their non-LGBTQ2+ counterparts (26%). The average personal incomes of LGBTQ2+ income earners were also significantly lower ($39,000) than those of non-LGBTQ2+ ($54,000) people in Canada.

Gender-Based Violence

• In 2019, according to police-reported data, women were five times more likely than men to be a victim of sexual assault (50 versus nine per 1,000). Among those who were 15 to 24, the rate of sexual assault was seven times higher among women (187 per 1,000) than men (27 per 1,000).
• Women are more likely than men to experience intimate partner violence (IPV): In 2018, 44% of women reported having experienced IPV at least once in their lifetime (since age 15) compared to 36% of men.
• In 2018, the additional following groups of women and LGBTQ2 people were more likely than their respective counterparts to report experiencing IPV since age 15: women living with disabilities (55%), LGB+ women (67%), Indigenous women (61%), and women with a household income of less than $20,000 (57%).
• Indigenous women are overrepresented in intimate partner homicide: they accounted for 22% of all women killed by an intimate partner between 2014 and 2020 while representing 5% of women and girls in Canada.
• Self-reported data collected in 2018 indicates that women living with disabilities were significantly more likely than women with no disabilities to have experienced online harassment at least once in the year preceding the survey (27% versus 13%, respectively).

Poverty Reduction, Health and Wellbeing

• In 2017, 28% of persons with severe disabilities aged 25 to 64 were more likely to be living in poverty than people with milder disabilities (14%) and those without disabilities (10%).
• In 2018, 33% of LGBTQ2+ Canadians found it difficult or very difficult to meet their needs in terms of transportation, housing, food, clothing, participation in some social activities and other necessary expenses, compared to 27% among non-LGBTQ2+ Canadians.
• In 2019, compared to the general population, transgender and gender non-conforming people in Canada are 2 times as likely to experience severe poverty and homelessness.

Important data gaps remain which limit our understanding of gender inequalities and their disproportionate impact vulnerable groups. To address this knowledge and research gap, WAGE is funding and sharing important research on issues relevant to gender equality, which in turn will help support policymakers and service providers at all levels to use evidence to inform their decisions and practices.

Gender equality and the COVID-19 pandemic

The impacts of COVID-19 continue to be experienced disproportionately by different groups of people in Canada as it magnifies persistent gendered and other inequalities. The pandemic’s impacts are being felt most severely among women and LGBTQ2 communities in Canada and, in particular, racialized, newcomer and immigrant women, women with disabilities, women living in poverty, and women who are experiencing gender-based violence.

The pandemic’s economic impacts are felt especially by women, particularly those from marginalized communities, who are generally earning less, saving less, living closer to poverty, and holding more precarious jobs or jobs in industries that continue to be most significantly impacted by COVID-19, including accommodation, food services, and educational services. Frequently, these are women doing essential work for low wages and are often young women, Indigenous, racialized, newcomers and immigrant women. Some impacts to highlight include:

• Because of the disproportionate economic effects that COVID-19 is having on women, economists have called it a "she-cession". While total employment in Canada recovered to pre-pandemic levels by September 2021 women were frequently hit harder and recovered more slowly from job losses throughout the pandemic. With the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in January 2022 many jurisdictions implemented stricter public health measures. Core-aged women saw their employment decrease 4.3%, while employment among core-aged men held steady.
• The continued uncertainty around access to safe schools and classrooms as well as safe and affordable daycare centers impacts women’s ability to return to the labour force as they have historically been more likely to care for children and other dependents. During the pandemic, Statistics Canada found that women were more likely than men to report performing most parental tasks. Specifically, 64% of women were primarily responsible for home schooling and helping with homework, an additional task for parents during the pandemic, versus 19% of men.
• 38% of self-employed Canadians are women and 16% of Canadian businesses are majority-owned by women. These businesses tend to be smaller, even “micro”, employing fewer people. Challenges for women-owned businesses were amplified during the pandemic, as many found themselves ineligible for business supports due to their smaller size and working in sectors most heavily impacted by public health restrictions (e.g., care economy, retail and services), as well as bearing child care responsibilities that disproportionately affected them. Women, and other equity-deserving individuals and communities have also experienced notable mental health challenges during the pandemic, with women (57%), gender-diverse people (70%), youth (64%), Indigenous peoples (60%), persons with long-term conditions or disabilities (57%) and recent immigrants (52%) reporting worsening mental health.
• People in Canada have been asked to stay home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, yet home is not a safe place for everyone. We have seen a “shadow pandemic” emerge for those isolated at home with their abusers. Many organizations providing gender-based violence-related supports and services in Canada have reported increased demand since the beginning of the pandemic. In December 2020, Women’s Shelters Canada released the results of its seventh national survey of transition houses and shelters. The survey found that, while initially shelters experienced a decrease in calls during the first three months of the pandemic, call and requests for admittance increased once lockdown measures were eased. More concerning, half of shelters surveyed reported an increase in the severity of violence being experienced.

Organization context

In order to deliver on Government priorities, WAGE continues to establish itself as a centre of expertise on gender equality. In particular, WAGE is focusing on stabilizing its organizational structure, as well as strengthening governance and processes, in order to effectively deliver on priorities and to coordinate gender equality initiatives across federal departments and agencies. This includes ensuring a proper reporting structure to better advance priorities; developing and implementing a departmental Diversity and Inclusion Strategy; attracting and retaining a diverse, inclusive and highly qualified workforce; and implementing commitments to a safe and healthy workplace. These changes will create more effective business processes and enhance the operations of the department, allowing it to better identify and deliver on government priorities.