City needs a women’s bureau

Ottawa has liaison roles for veterans, sports. Why not us? write Erin Gee and Amy Kishek.

Earlier this week, Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans said she would be lobbying her council colleagues, including Mayor Jim Watson, to support the creation of a women’s bureau (and a women’s liaison position) at city hall. Deans is one of just four women councillors in Ottawa out of 24 — which, at 18 per cent of council positions, is roughly 10 percentage points lower than the national and Ontario averages for city councils.

Watson, however, doesn’t support Deans’ proposal, saying that he would “rather see dollars go into resolving issues of gender equality” and is “not interested in creating a big bureaucracy.”

While putting money toward issues that support women and promote equality (and equity!) is very important, the City of Ottawa is simply not up to the task. A separate women’s bureau and women’s liaison would change that.

Addressing gender equity and inclusion in policy-making is not straightforward, but it is necessary.

Taking on the task means applying a gender and equity lens to all areas of the city’s work. There are women who are differently abled, who live in rural communities, who are old, who are newly immigrated, who are poor, who are racialized and who don’t speak English or French. There is no singular women’s issue and no one place to direct funds for gender-equity initiatives.

This is why we need a women’s bureau: to address the specific needs of women and other marginalized genders, such as transgender and non-binary. With gender equity forming a cornerstone of the federal budget, heavily influencing British Columbia’s recent budget and informing Ontario’s new strategy to combat genderbased violence, Ottawans should be concerned that their city council is not seeking to specifically address women’s issues.

Yes, the city spends money to provide services to mothers, seniors, new Canadians and the disabled, but are those services being created in the most efficient and effective manner to address the different accessibility needs of Ottawa residents? Could a little more work and time be spent designing and building the service so that it works for everyone right out of the gate instead of having to correct course halfway through the building process or during implementation?

Let’s not forget that the city has in fact already created a robust bureaucracy and has developed additional liaison roles to support veterans, refugees, sports, housing and the like. To assume that Watson can address gender equity and inclusion out of pure goodwill alone is laughable given the arduous task ahead.

Watson speaks of gender equality, but seems to do very little about it. With only four women councillors and key senior city positions held by men, you would think that he would jump at the opportunity to show just how important gender equality is to him. Given his online persona, the mayor seems very conscious of how he’s viewed by the public; adding a bureau, creating jobs for women and other marginalized groups, and taking the issue seriously would have a positive impact, be ambitious and show real leadership.

If the mayor wants to empower women and promote equality, perhaps he should start with the ones on council; he ought to encourage council colleagues to place them in leadership roles so women are not only seen to be at the table, but also given the opportunity to meaningfully influence policy and programs.

Yet of the 11 committees chaired by councillors, only two are chaired by women — planning and community and protective services — completing the trope that women should only work on “softer” issues. What about those extra liaison roles created to support other communities in the city, such as sports, refugees, housing and veterans? Women councillors hold those roles, right?

No. Not one.

So for those who think a women’s bureau would be a waste of money, that women are already equal, the proof is there. The mayor and by extension the city do not value the contributions of women.

There are 480,365 women who call Ottawa home.

Don’t we deserve better?