This time of聽year聽can be challenging for many. Days become shorter, temperatures drop, and, for聽adult learners, this can be an especially stressful time in maintaining work-life balance and continuing one鈥檚 education. We must remember too that these experiences are highly gendered. Individuals鈥櫬爂ender identity, which is socially constructed as opposed to one鈥檚 biological sex, has a significant impact on how someone can access, persist, and succeed in professional and personal development. To deliver and receive the highest quality continuing education and lifelong learning requires that we incorporate into our systems gender equity and equality from start to finish.聽聽
November has been designated as 鈥淢ovember鈥� by some to raise awareness of men鈥檚 health issues. But we also will be marking Transgender Awareness Day on November 20th聽and International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25th. And just recently we had the opportunity to reflect upon International Pronouns聽Day. When we think about these聽benchmarks, it is important to remind ourselves that simply acknowledging them is a necessary but insufficient step toward true gender equality.聽We need to remember that gender, class, race, and other socio-economic and identity characteristics interact all the time. You cannot consider one without the other as we seek equity, diversity, and inclusion.聽
Similarly, we must look beyond the numbers. A key tool for achieving true gender聽equity听补苍诲听equality聽is gender mainstreaming,聽鈥渁 strategy for making women鈥檚 as well as men鈥檚 concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes鈥澛�(UN Population Fund, 2005). By applying a gender lens to our curriculum, for example, we would take into account not only the content, the types,聽and sources of knowledge that are conveyed, but also how individuals will respond or be able to access that new knowledge and integrate it into their lived and learned experiences. This is the case even in courses and programs that seemingly have nothing to do with gender.聽聽
Have you considered how a field like聽Supply Chain Management and Logistics聽changes when you consider gender mainstreaming? How聽is聽the movement of goods, services,聽and people prioritized聽and managed?聽How do we define what is of 鈥渟trategic鈥� value?聽What differential impact do聽particular working聽or logistics聽conditions in the field have on women, men,聽transgender, two-spirit,聽or gender fluid聽individuals?聽Or consider聽data science听补苍诲听analytics, or聽cybersecurity.聽You probably have already heard about聽the聽risks of biased data coding.聽But gender can also play a role in the career options and choices聽learners make聽in these fields. Are we allowing ourselves to consider the full range of options?聽Do we shy away from hard science or math because of how we have been socialized to fear these subjects or聽presume that we cannot succeed?聽聽
A core mission of the School of Continuing Studies is to empower and support individuals along their path of professional and personal transformation. Without gender equity and equality, we cannot empower or be empowered.