International Women’s Day Conference
Queen’s University, Kingston Ontario
March 10-11, 2017
Gender-based Analysis and Gender Budgeting for Equality, Inclusion, Development, and Democracy
The Canadian government has recently rejoined the global trend toward using gender-based analysis of laws, policies, and practices to improve the status of women, and it may even be on the verge of adopting gender budget analysis to accelerate change. This is already increasing federal and provincial/territorial government and agency demands for gender specialists who can use gender-based analysis to help them in these efforts.
In fact, there are large numbers of highly knowledgeable gender experts in virtually every walk of life in Canada who already use many forms of gender-based and/or gender equality analysis in their ongoing work. Feminist Legal Studies Queen’s is convening this International Women’s Day Conference to bring gender equality advocates together with Yamini Mishra, Gender Budget Specialist for the AsiaPacific UN Women office, to support a wide-ranging discussion of how gender equality issues fit into the broad legal and analytic frameworks set out in the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action and now integrated into the 2015-2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
Gender-based analysis (GBA) draws on law, gender studies, sociology, feminist economics, political science, and development studies to identify laws and practices that perpetuate gender inequalities. At the same time, it can be used to design new and better policies that are capable of promoting gender equality. GBA is now used in over 90 countries, and is a growing area of applied international law and governance used not just by national governments but also by UN agencies, international and regional human rights and civil rights organizations such as Oxfam and ActionAid, as well as by financial organizations like the World Bank, the IMF, the OECD, and the World Economic Forum.
This call for oral presentations or written papers is for anyone in academic, civil society, government, or other contexts who want to or have already used various forms of gender equality analysis in their own work, and are eager to work collaboratively in expanding their use of GBA or gender budget techniques. Of particular interest are presentations that demonstrate how intersecting inequalities affecting Aboriginal women, single parents, refugees, disabled persons, care workers, or sexual minorities, and also how functional issues such as reproductive rights, healthcare, childcare, under-employment, poverty, climate change, and violence can be examined using gender-based analysis or as issues that have budgetary implications for women.
FLSQ invites students in any disciplines, community members, researchers and academics, lawyers and other professionals, policy analysts, economists, and those involved in governance to submit proposals for presentations on how better policies can help eradicate gender discrimination in Canada and elsewhere. Here are sample topics – but it is not a closed list!
- Gender equality gaps in Canada – at any level of society or government;
- Links among gender income gaps, unequal pay, and unequal unpaid work responsibilities
- What policies are still needed to close gender gaps?
- Examples of gender-based analysis of laws or policies
- International human rights and gender – how are those issues addressed?
- How and why are youth, graduates, and entry-level workers losing out, and what role does gender play?
- Where are women in corporate ownership, management, employment, and how does their placement affect gender equality?
- How do employment contracts, workplace regulations, and/or union involvement affect the status of women in paid work? Do current policies meet current needs?
- Climate change, gender, and location – who is at risk? What are some solutions?
- Do governments have enough revenue, or is it best to leave most wealth in private hands? What is the gender impact of wealth?
- Low income countries are now expected to increase their own domestic revenues – is there a gender dimension to this? Is the concept and means for “development” gendered?
- How can government and institutional budgets be monitored by academics and civil society groups for gender impact?
- What kinds of submissions to the UN Committee on the Status of Women can help women in their own countries?
- How can GBA and gender budgeting be mainstream?
This conference is being presented in collaboration with the Faculty of Law, Global Development Studies, the Department of Sociology, the Graduate Program in Cultural Studies, and Political Studies, Queen’s University.
Call for presentations or papers:
Presentations can be oral or written, and can draw from virtually any policy area, can be grounded in community organizational issues, domestic or international law, economics, public policy, social anthropology, history, sociology, geography, philosophy, women’s/gender studies, human rights, finance, or political studies.
Date and Location:
The conference will be held in the Robert Sutherland Hall, the Policy Studies building, on the ground floor (room 202), located at 138 Union St., Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario on Friday and Saturday, March 10-11, 2017.
Submitting proposals for presentations or papers:
If you are interested making an individual presentation, organizing a panel, or submitting a written paper, please email a one paragraph outline to Kathleen Lahey (at kal2@queensu.ca) by Feb. 20, 2017. Acceptances will be issued on a rolling basis beginning Jan. 25, 2017.
Travel funding:
When submitting a discussion proposal, please indicate whether you would be able to obtain organizational or institutional support to attend, or whether you could attend only if you receive funding from Feminist Legal Studies Queen’s.
Registration:
Attendance for the purpose of participating in open group discussions throughout this event is welcome, because the goal of this event is to discuss a wide variety of equality and justice issues and formulate as many creative ideas for research, equality analysis, and advocacy as possible. Contact the organizers to indicate interest and obtain registration information. Some funding is available to assist students to attend. Formal registration will open on Feb. 1, 2017.
Accommodation and childcare:
We have secured a block and a group rate at the Four Points Sheraton. Please visit: https://www.starwoodmeeting.com/events/start.action?id=1612065891&key=5EA806B
Anyone wanting childcare should mention this request so appropriate arrangements can be made.
Accessibility:
The venue is fully accessible; please contact the coordinators with any questions.
For further information please contact:
Prof. Kathleen Lahey
Co-Director
Feminist Legal Studies Queen’s
Faculty of Law, Queen’s University
Kingston, Ontario
kal2@queensu.ca
Prof. Bita Amani
Co-Director
Feminist Legal Studies Queen’s
Faculty of Law, Queen’s University
Kingston, Ontario