CULTURALLY RELEVANT GENDER BASED ANALYSIS: A TOOL

Aboriginal Experiences in Aging Symposium

Saskatoon, SK SEPT2008

What is GBA?

Gender Based Analysis identifies the differential impacts of policy on gender, and provides options to create more equitable outcomes

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Equity vs. Equality

Gender Equality means that women and men are treated equally and enjoy the same status

Gender Equity moves beyond the importance of equal treatment to focus on equality of results.

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Why Cultural Relevance?

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There is a need to move beyond gender and conventional GBA to incorporate Indigenous worldview and promote cultural continuity

There is a need to examine gendered Aboriginal identity and how the dominant culture’s imposed beliefs have shaped gender, and our cultural, economic, social, and political status in society

There is a need to look at the underlying factors behind Aboriginal women’s consistently poor health

Impacts

Poverty Educational barriers Violence against Aboriginal women Lack of accountability Environment and connections to the land Loss of Identity

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How are the Impacts Perpetuated?

Social exclusion as a social determinant of health

• Systemic Discrimination• Gendered Racism• Lateral Violence

How do we overcome the impacts of social exclusion?

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CRGBA: Principle #1

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Revitalize the value of Aboriginal women’s roles within Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal society and reconnect race and gender to positively impact health and healing

“It is not solely my gender through which I first experience the world; it is my culture that precedes my gender. Actually if I am the object of some form of discrimination, it is very difficult for me to separate what happens to me because of my gender and what happens to me because of my race and culture. My world is not experienced in a linear and compartmentalized way. I experience the world simultaneously as Mohawk and as woman. To artificially separate my gender from my race and culture forces me to deny the way I experience the world. Such denial has devastating effects on Aboriginal constructions of reality.”

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CRGBA: Principle #2

Embrace Aboriginal culture and the principles of balance and equilibrium, with gender being one component of balance.

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CRGBA: Principle #3

Comply with the laws of the Creator and Aboriginal world view and law, inherent right, Constitution, and International law

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CRGBA: Principle #4

Capture diversity and different circumstances of Aboriginal women based on their distinctive cultures and cultural practices

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THANK YOU.

Native Women’s Association of Canada