Glossary

A

Assumptions: Beliefs or ideas that individuals hold to be true - often with little or no evidence required.

B

Beijing Platform for Action: At the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, this Platform of Action marked the first global commitment to gender mainstreaming as a way to accelerate women's empowerment and end gender discrimination. International progress on the Platform is reviewed at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women every five years.

C

Central agencies: For the purposes of this course, the central agencies are defined as the Privy Council Office (PCO), the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) and the Department of Finance.

The central agencies play a challenge function for GBA+ - that is to say they may request evidence of your GBA+ when you are submitting a Cabinet document, such as a Memorandum to Cabinet (MC) or Treasury Board Submission, for approval.

The central agencies will also provide departments with guidance on how they might include the findings of their GBA+ in Cabinet documents. The Guide to Preparing Treasury Board Submissions defines the requirement for Treasury Board Submissions to include gender considerations. The MC template illustrates some areas where gender considerations can be included.

D

Departmental Action Plan: The Departmental Action Plan on GBA was prepared by SWC and the central agencies as a response to the Spring 2009 Report of the Auditor General. Chapter 1 of this report included the finding of the audit conducted by the Office of the Auditor General on the implementation of gender-based analysis in the federal government. The Action Plan lays out the commitments made by the government in response to the recommendations in the Report. Overall the Action Plan focuses on building accountability for GBA, clarifying roles and enhancing implementation within departments.

Disaggregated data: Data broken down by age, race, ethnicity, income, education, etc. This is sometimes referred to as gender-disaggregated data.esegregated data.

Diverse groups of women and men: Women and men are not homogeneous groups. A variety of factors such as ethnicity, socio-economic status, ability, sexual orientation, migration status, age, faith, gender identity and geography interact with sex and gender to contribute to different lived experiences.

Diversity: The conditions, expressions and experiences of different groups such as age, culture, ethnicity, education, gender, disability, sexual orientation, migration status, geography, language and religious beliefs.

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G

GBA+: Gender-based analysis+ (GBA+) is a method for examining a policy, program or initiative for its varying impacts on diverse groups of women and men, girls and boys.

GBA+ specific: Recognizing and including the differences in diverse groups of women's and men's lives in an integrated and systematic approach to policy and program development and analysis.

GBA+ integrated: This kind of option provides the flexibility to respond simultaneously to the needs of diverse population groups.

Gender: The socially constructed roles and relationships, personality traits, attitudes, behaviours, values, relative power and influence that a particular society considers appropriate for men and women.

Gender bias

Is at the root of gender inequalities and falls into three broad problem types.

Overgeneralization – adopting the perspective or experience of one sex and applying it to both sexes;
Gender insensitivity – ignoring sex and gender as important variables; and,
Double standards – assessing the same or essentially the same situation, trait or behaviour differently on the basis of sex.

Gender equality: The equal valuing of society of both the similarities and differences between women and men, and the varying roles that they play. Gender equality does not mean that men and women become the same; only that access to opportunities and life changes are neither dependent on, nor constrained by, their sex.

Gender mainstreaming: Gender mainstreaming is about putting women and men and considerations of gender at the centre of planning, programming and policy making as both actors and beneficiaries.

Gender roles: Learned behaviours in a given society/community that determine which activities, tasks and responsibilities are perceived as male and female. Gender roles are affected by age, class, race, ethnicity, religion or other ideologies and by the geographical, economical and political environment. Changes in gender roles often occur in response to changing economic or political circumstances. Gender roles within a given social context may be flexible or rigid, similar or different and complementary or conflicting.

Gender sensitive: Being aware that there are both biological and gender differences between diverse groups of women and men and including sex and gender as socially important variables.

H

Historical disadvantage: Throughout history diverse groups of women and men have faced barriers and disadvantages because of their gendered roles in particular societies, their ethnicity, religion, age, geography and so on.

Homogeneous: of the same kind or nature; essentially alike.

I

Impact: The influence or effect of public policy.

Indicators: The types of results that a policy, program or service wants to achieve. Indicators explain how you are going to measure and monitor the achievements of the desired changes, quantitatively or qualitatively.

Intersecting factors: People are members of more than one community at the same time and live multiple, layered identities. For example, a woman who is also a new immigrant and a senior can be viewed as belonging to three separate identity groups. Intersecting factors refers to the point where these ‘conditions’ overlap or intersect to create opportunities and/or barriers.

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M

Marginalized: People and/or groups who are relegated to an unimportant or powerless position within a society.

N

Natural disasters: Environmental events, not (directly) human made, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, cyclones, epidemics, drought, famine.

O

Outcomes: The results that would be necessary to achieve the operational objectives of a policy, program or service.

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S

Sex: The biological characteristics which distinguish males and females (e.g. anatomy, genetics, hormones, metabolism, physiology).

Sex-disaggregated data: Data in which sex (male, female) is a primary category of analysis. This is sometimes referred to by some as gender-disaggregated data although it is really only broken down by sex.

Social Dislocation: Being removed from a society or social group, often a result of disaster or war.

Systemic discrimination: A system-wide, yet often subtle form of discrimination. It is often a mixture of intentional and unintentional actions that will have a more serious effect (or a disproportionate impact) on one group than on others. Sometimes, these policies and practices are based on the premise of gender neutrality.

T

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V

Values: Values reflect a person’s sense of right and wrong or what “ought” to be. Personal values provide an internal reference for what is good, beneficial, important, useful, beautiful, desirable, constructive, etc.

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