Informed Opinions

Published purpose

This 31-month project will support a feminist response and recovery from the current impacts of COVID-19, through systemic change. Informed Opinions will achieve this by advocating for policies and practices to increase women’s leadership in democratic, civic, public or private sectors while addressing discriminatory legislation, policies, and/or practices that prevent women and/or girls from fully participating in the social, political and economic spheres. At the end of the project, the organization will have contributed to addressing systemic barriers by advancing inclusive policies and practices, increasing networks and collaboration to accelerate systemic change and supporting positive distribution of authority, voices, and decision-making power to support women’s equality. This project will help advance women’s post-pandemic recovery by addressing systemic barriers to women’s political participation identified in the Elect Her report, creating conditions conducive to change by Reviewing Canadian political parties' existing policies and practices related to recruiting and running women in winnable ridings, and identifying persistent sources of resistance, while assembling research (Canadian, international) to challenge that resistance. This will result in a coordinated thought leadership campaign, mobilizing and supporting political scientists and advocates in making clear the indefensibility of the status quo and profiling practical approaches to remedy it. This project will be amplifying this news commentary through additional earned media (broadcast and podcast interviews, press gallery briefings, coordinated social media campaigns featuring arresting infographics and compelling videos) and by creating an SEO-optimized accessible and dynamic online portal to house all related materials and solicit ongoing engagement. Public opinion research will be conducted following the amplified thought leadership efforts to reflect and leverage evolving public sentiment on related issues and research-supported tools, in collaboration with newsrooms and journalists to overcome sexist news coverage.