Shari Graydon, head of Informed Opinions Credit: Informed Opinions
Be ready for a rollercoaster ride of an interview because today I’m in conversation with Shari Graydon, head of Informed Opinions. The non-partisan, charitable feminist organization works to amplify the voices of women and gender-diverse people so their lived experience, ideas and insights help shape a more equitable, inclusive and democratic Canada.
Graydon and I discuss the barriers that prevent women’s voices from being heard and from influencing media, government policies, government spending and ultimately democracy.
In May 2023 Informed Opinions launched the Balance the Power campaign which asked Canadians to demand gender parity at all levels of government.
Research has proven that when women are involved in making decisions, equality advances, healthcare outcomes improve, research is more reliable, and economics are more stable.
Multiple systemic barriers prevent women from entering in to, and remaining in, politics. In response, over 100 countries have set minimum targets for women’s representation and are holding political parties accountable for meeting these goals.
In Canada, federal parties already appoint 83 per cent of the candidates they run, yet only the NDP mandate gender diversity and inclusion.
The NDP deliberately implemented policies designed to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion at every level of the party. That allows the NDP to identify potential candidates who reflect the diversity of the population.
In countries where gender quotas are mandatory, all parties are incentivized to ensure that their candidate rosters are genuinely representative of the citizens they will serve. Mexico, Spain, Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Costa Rica have all implemented measures including gender quotas, parity laws, constitutional and electoral reforms as well as financial penalties.
Research has also shown that the women elected under gender equity quotas are as qualified — or more qualified — than their male counterparts.
Take Mexico’s newly elected president, Claudia Sheibaum, for example. Sheibaum is a climate scientist, academic, former mayor of Tlalpan, the first woman to head the government of Mexico City and now Mexico’s first woman president-elect who will assume office October 1, 2024.
In June 2022 Informed Opinions launched the Toxic Hush campaign with the goal of shutting down online abuse, also known as technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), targeting women and gender diverse folk.
The campaign challenged the idea that responsibility for dealing with online abuse should be shouldered by the person being targeted. Instead, Toxic Hush held social media companies and government policy to account for their failure to provide protections against online hate and cyberviolence.
The Toxic Hush campaign launched with A People’s Tribunal: Every Woman’s Right to Speak Free from Online Hate. Birgit Umaigba, Clinical Instructor at Centennial College and critical-care nurse; Brandi Morin, Cree/Iroquois journalist from Treaty 6 Alberta; Amira Elghawaby, journalist and Human Rights Advocate; and others, testified before a trio of ‘judges’ detailing horrific online experiences and attempts to silence their important work.
The judges included Senator Kim Pate; Indigenous Human Rights Advocate and Olympian, Waneek Horn Miller; and Donna Young, Dean, Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).
Toxic Hush also made available an online survey for women and gender diverse folks. The critical mass of evidence collected from the survey was then shared with the federal government with the goal of influencing online hate legislation being drafted at the time.
Informed Opinions also created the Toxic Hush Action Kit offering women and gender diverse folks ways to protect themselves from online abuse and self-care practices for when they experience it.
Which brought our discussion around to the heightened levels of intimidation and personal attacks that women in politics are experiencing today. And, what that silencing and exodus of women from all levels of government says about the state of Canadian politics and the precarity of Canadian democracy.
Of course, Graydon lays out important steps that men can take to ensure women in politics feel safe along with resources for women, 2SLGBTQIA+, as well as other marginalized segments of society to use to ensure their voices are included in important discussions at all levels of government.
Informed Opinions Gender Gap Tracker measures the ratio of women to men quoted in online news coverage across some of Canada's most influential national news media.
As Informed Opinions points out, women make up half the population, but when they are quoted less than a third of the time, it has consequences for public conversations, public policies and public spending.
To make it easier for journalists, producers, conference planners, recruiters and research collaborators to find women who can speak to a broad range of issues, Informed Opinions created an extensive list of over 1,610 experts.
The impressive list includes such wonderful women as Jeanne Sarson and Linda Macdonald who started Persons Against NST (non-State torture); Dr. Dianne Sax, President/Saxe Facts; Dr. Jean Clinton, Hamilton Child Psychiatrist; Dr. Cheryl Thompson Associate Professor in Performance at TMU and author of Uncle: Race Nostalgia, and the Politics of Loyalty; and Senator Paulette Senior, President and CEO/Canadian Women’s Foundation.
The site also contains workshops, research and even blogs that will help women and gender diverse folk become informed and comfortable sharing their opinions with a wider audience.
Reaching a balance in power may be closer than ever since Senator Donna Dasco’s Bill S-283, An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act moved to second reading in the Senate.
“Bill S-283 will strengthen our democracy by increasing the transparency of our Parliament and political parties, for the benefit of all Canadians. First, we will have more information on who is running for federal office. Second, we will have more information on what the political parties are doing to elect more women and more candidates from other diverse groups,” stated Senator Dasco during the second reading debate.
However, before we can reach true equity in power, Canadians need to substantively address the cavalier attitude social media corporations and government assume when addressing cyberviolence aimed at women and gender diverse folks.
Informed Opinions has been working to improve the portrayal and representation of women in the media and amplifying women’s voices through research, advocacy, and thought leadership for more than four decades. Founded in 1981 as MediaWatch, the organization has evolved with the times and remains the only national Canadian initiative addressing women’s engagement in public discourse, which the organization says has never been more critical.
Thanks to everyone who read today’s article and listened to my podcast. With your continued support, a little Nicoll can make a lot of change.
Music: Real Estate by UNIVERSFIELD is licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License. freemusicarchive.org.
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