Gender and Diversity Impact Summary: An Equal Canada, For Everyone

The measures announced in this section will directly benefit women, Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities, newcomers, youth, people living with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ2 communities that face increased barriers in accessing supports and services due to systemic inequalities, such as sexism, homophobia, transphobia, racism, and poverty.

Support for Black Canadians will mostly benefit young people, especially those in urban settings. Compared to the Canadian average, Black Canadians are more likely to face financial insecurity, and they are more likely to be newcomers to Canada.

Gender equality and diversity in leadership is essential to a fair and democratic society. In 2018, only 11% of boards had one woman director and 27% had two. That number is even lower if you apply an intersectional lens.

Experiences of gender-based violence are quite common in Canada, with women reporting about 536 incidents of police-reported intimate partner violence per 100,000 population in 2019. Those at highest risk live in rural and remote areas, Indigenous women, racialized women, women with disabilities, gender diverse, and LGBTQ2 people.

In 2018, youth between 15-24 years old represented 30% of the LGBTQ2 population and one third of all same-sex couples in Canada in 2016 were married while two-thirds were living common-law, and about 12 % of same-sex couples had children living with them in 2016. We expect that the measures announced will therefore mostly benefit young LGBTQ2 Canadians living mainly in Canada’s largest metropolitan areas.

One in five Canadians aged 15 years old and over has a disability. Of those, 14.3% identify as racialized Canadians. Additionally, women (24%) are more likely to have a disability than men (20%). Income for people with disability falls short of those without disabilities and women in this group have a median income 25% lower than their male counterpart.