Access to housing, transportation and economic independence are the key to equality for rural women and girls, say two Northern women who attended the United Nation's Commission on the Status of Women.
“Even though we are so globally expanded, our challenges are really the same in that gender inequities have halted women's progress in the workforce, in child care and in being free from violence,” said YWCA NWT child recovery coordinator Amanda Kanbari.
As part of the Canadian delegation, Kanbari presented the YWCA NWT's work on preventing gender-based violence to the commission.
Factors like inaccessible transportation, low socioeconomic opportunity, unaffordable housing and racialized violence put rural women and girls at greater risk, said Kanbari.
Economic barriers to equality “cannot be understated,” because women with precarious employment or childcare responsibilities are hindered from leaving violence, she said.
“It's an issue of access. If we're going to fundamentally change our society we need an affordable and safe housing policy that needs to be focused around women's access in the territory,” Kanbari.
Spotty transportation to and from rural communities means “rural women and girls are at risk of violence of being kidnapped” and trafficked, she said.
In larger communities, there are few bus systems connecting the North to bigger city hubs. Limited connections from communities mean women are driven to hitchhiking. Hitchhiking also puts women and girls at risk of human trafficking.
In Indigenous communities, resources like transportation, child care and access to clean water are more limited. Hotter and longer dryer summers fueled by climate change mean that women have limited access to land transportation, which is making women's escape windows to flee violence via ice road or land shorter, she said.
“We've had women arrive to our shelters on snowmobiles, especially the five family violence shelters in the NWT. When they're trying to escape abusive relationships and access childcare and work free from violence, we should also note that climate change is affecting that as well.”
Educating youth about healthy relationships will improve outcomes for women and girls.
Improving outcomes for women and girls will take a culture shift through education and promoting men's leadership in the fight for equality. Education initiatives should be taken up by like-minded organizations collaborating, said Kanbari.
“We have to be working together because often our goals are going to be quite similar to each other and there is strength in numbers. Right now we're often working in silos and that's because of how non-profits get their funding.”
“The intent is to help boys navigate a very difficult upbringing and talking about gender equity so they can look at situations with a gender-based lens. It helps them learn about healthy relationships, consent and gender equity,” she said.
Kanbari plans to collaborate with the Dudes Club, the Young Women's Leadership Council, Girl Space and other organizations to make a unified push for equality.
“Girls empowerment programming is fantastic. Don't get me wrong. But we can't have healthy strong girls until we have healthy strong boys who understand healthy relationships and who understand consent.”
In isolated communities, precarious housing forces women into dependent situations, said Delorme-Buggins, who left Canada for the first time to attend the UN Commission.
“The highest pay amounts usually go to non-indigenous males in Canada. If you are an Indigenous woman, you're offered 55 per cent less pay. You basically can't afford to live in Canada on your own,” she said.
She met with delegates from Mexico and attended talks about how violence is affecting rural women and girls. A common thread is that harmful attitudes encourage men and women to put women down.
Tough conversations around sexual violence, residential schools and LGBTQ issues are needed to reverse harmful attitudes, said Delorme-Buggins.
Early exposure to violence, child welfare apprehensions and difficult early upbringings create additional challenges for women's well-being, she said.
Shelter space, culturally relevant social work and professional training opportunities will help women achieve greater equality, she said.
“As Indigenous women we're done waiting, and were going to start doing it ourselves to make sure it happens,” she said.
“One of the biggest challenges is living in Northern and rural communities, when women are in violent or abusive relationships and they live in small communities and they have nowhere to go and no money to go and the only way out is to fly.”
Economic independence, she said, is just one solution.
“It's a culture of inequality, we need to be equal in every area, including the workforce,” she said.