Canadian Arab Women's Association (CAWA)

Published purpose

This 30-month project will support a feminist response and recovery from the current impacts of COVID-19, through systemic change. Canadian Arab Women Association (CAWA) will achieve this by preparing Arab women (with zero or little work experience in Canada) for the Canadian job market, providing information sessions for their male partners to increase support, performing an employer-level gender gap analysis, and connecting with Waterloo Region employers to break stereotypes, remove barriers, and facilitate introductions. At the end of the project, the organization will have contributed to addressing systemic barriers by advancing inclusive policies and practices, encouraging more equitable and effective sharing of resources, increasing networks and collaboration to accelerate systemic change, and addressing persistent harmful gender norms and attitudes to support women’s equality. The organization is ensuring they are culturally relevant by ensuring the project will be engaging a professional Arab Canadian woman with international work experience and exposure to the Arab culture as a specialist on resume writing with access to the job market, and a specialist on gender equality with exposure to the Arab culture and the Canadian workforce.