Feds give Nunavut money to build leadership among girls and women
“These projects will benefit gender equality and grow leadership capacity within all Nunavut communities”
Elisapee Sheutiapik, Nunavut’s minister for family services and the status of women, seen here in Nunavut’s legislature, says new federally funded projects to encourage leadership among Nunavut girls and women will “benefit gender equality and grow leadership capacity within all Nunavut communities.” (File photo)
A Nunavut government project to boost leadership skills among the territory’s women and girls recently received a sizeable contribution from Ottawa.
The Government of Nunavut will receive $600,000 to empower Inuit women and girls with leadership skills, federal and territorial officials announced on Aug. 8 in Yellowknife.
That’s part of more than $1 million earmarked for leadership development among girls and women in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
According to a news release, in Nunavut, the money will be used to engage community, regional and territorial stakeholders in the creation of a Women and Girls Leadership and Governance Forum, and the piloting of related workshops.
Elisapee Sheutiapik, Nunavut’s minister for family services and the status of women, welcomed the news.
“Projects focusing on the development of women and girls’ leadership and governance are much needed across our northern territory,” Sheutiapik said.
“I enthusiastically encourage women and girls of all ages to get involved, attain leadership skills, and engage with community, regional and territorial stakeholders. There is no doubt that the outcome of these projects will benefit gender equality and grow leadership capacity within all Nunavut communities.”
The Arnait Nipingita women’s leadership summit, in 2010, was an earlier attempt to collect, connect and create women’s voices in Nunavut, with the goal of advancing women’s leadership in the territory.
Its recommendations include calls for:
- More funding support for women’s groups in communities.
- Adequate, accessible and affordable childcare resources available in communities.
- Additional resources, such as midwives, to ensure that women don’t have to leave communities to give birth.
- Increased municipal and territorial recognition of the importance of supporting women in leadership positions or leadership skill development.
- Adequate counselling resources in communities.
- Community workshops through Nunavut Arctic College or in partnership with other organizations and groups on specific leadership skills.
Feds, please publish the gender-based analysis on this funding decision. Nothing like some gender inequality in the name of gender equality.
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Does anybody have any evidence that “projects focusing on the development of women and girls’ leadership and governance are much needed across our northern territory”?
OK how about this:
Women make up over 50% of the population In Canada and yet only hold 27% of the seats in house of Commons. In Nunavut women make up 49% of the population but only occupy 29% of all seats in the Legislative Assembly
Only 18.4% of businesses were majority owned by women
Only 35% of all women in the workplace are in a management position (even though they make up 61% of the labour force in Canada)
Only 20% of all leadership positions in Canada are held by women
There continues to be a 15% gender gap in hourly wages received in favour of men over women for similar work and that gap has gone up at least one percent per year since 2014
Is that enough of an analysis for you?
65% of GN workers are female, while women comprise 49% of the population. Therefore women are over represented in the GN.
Northern Guy, of your 6 statistics, only one is Nunavut specific, and that one statistic is about 21 people. So no, that’s not nearly enough of an analysis for me. I encourage you to look up statistics regarding Nunavut specifically in relation to the rest of Canada. The 2016 Census showed that, according to National Occupation Classifications, women in management occupations in Nunavut was over 26% higher than the national average.
Additionally, while women in Nunavut made up about 49.1% of the workforce, they made up 49.6% of the workforce with an after-tax income of over $80,000. Canada-wide, those numbers are 51.2% of the workforce, and 30.1% with after-tax income of over $80,000.
So, yeah, if you ask me I would say that this is not actually much of an issue in Nunavut and I think that throwing money at this political agenda is a waste of money that could go to much more needed things here.
Also, your stat about 61% of the labour force is not correct.
I also think that your statistic on the gender wage gap is inaccurate, I’d like to know your source. Because when I look for information on the adjusted gender wage gap, I find that most studies show it’s somewhere around 4-8%, generally leaning closer to the 4% mark.
I agree. From what I see across Nunavut, in a lot of families the woman is the breadwinner and wears the pants. Maybe they need more male targeted programming instead.