As Canada begins the process of restarting the economy (the phased re-opening plans), prioritization of women, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse people is needed as COVID-19 significantly impacts women, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse people, particularly those who are low-income; living with disabilities; part of the LGBTQ+, Indigenous, Black, and/or racialized communities; or newcomers, refugees, immigrants, and migrants, a recently released report, “A Feminist Economic Recovery Plan for Canada: Making the Economy Work For Everyone” details.
The report and its main message of “recovery is not possible if women, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse people are left behind”, was released earlier this week and was co-authored by the Institute for Gender and the Economy at University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and YWCA Canada.
It should be noted this report may include Two-Spirit (presumably women) in name only, as it does not define ‘Two-Spirit’ leaving it up the reader to define; hence the use of following ‘Two-Spirit (woman)’ in this story. This is not the case for the use of the term ‘woman,’ as the report emphatically states, “When we say women, we mean any person who identifies as a woman, inclusive of cis-woman and trans-women.”
Additionally, the report does not offer Two-Spirit disaggregated data and thereby no Two-Spirit analysis for impact is reported. The report nods and attempts to address this by the “We recognize the gendered impacts of many of the issues we are highlighting disproportionately affect gender-diverse people and call for more disaggregated data to fully understand the gendered experiences of people on a number of economic and social issues. Furthermore, we are committed to moving towards a truly intersectional analysis, grounded in the teachings of legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, that calls on us to examine how experiences across different dimensions of one’s identity, including but not limited to sexual orientation, race, Indigeneity, disability, and immigration status, impact how we navigate systems, including economic ones.”
“If we look at the impact from a health and economic standpoint, it is disproportionately, on those with intersecting identities. You wouldn’t be able to have an economic recovery without paying attention to who is impacted and why,” Sarah Kaplan, director of the Institute for Gender and the Economy and professor of strategic management at Rotman, told the Canadian Press. “We actually won’t get economic recovery if we don’t get to things that are holding women back.”
The report details how COVID-19 is disproportionately women, “as of July 2020, around 56% of the cases and 54% of the deaths from COVID-19 have been experienced by women. This is in part because women are on the frontlines of the pandemic. In Canada, 81% of the health care and social assistance workforce is made up of women. Fifty-six percent of women workers are concentrated in occupations known as the 5Cs: caring, cashiering, catering, cleaning and clerical functions, many of which are deemed essential occupations. In contrast, only 17% of men workers are employed in these jobs. Such jobs for the large part cannot be done remotely; while higher-income workers in sectors such as finance or professional services are able to work from home more safely.”
While many women, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse were employed in the 5C’s, the employment rate for Canadian women aged 25 to 54 declined twice as much as it did for men. Indigenous and Black communities in particular have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic due to the effects of systemic racism, such as employment inequity, high rates of poverty, and lack of access to basic needs such as housing and clean water. Women have also experience increased domestic violence due to COVID-19 lockdowns.