Columbia Institute

Published purpose

Through this 33-month systemic change project, the Columbia Institute will partner with the Feminist Campaign School to scale The Barriers for Retention of Progressive Women in Municipal Elected Offices Project to advance women’s representation in leadership and decision-making roles. It will scale activities in British Columbia (BC) and Alberta (AB) to implement recommendations from the original project, including providing education and policy support to local governments. In BC, AB, Saskatchewan (SK), Prince Edward Island (PEI) and Nova Scotia (NS), it will expand the values-based campaign school through a train-the-trainer model to help prepare women and gender minorities to run for local government offices. The project will also collect and analyze data in three new jurisdictions (SK, PEI and NS) based on learnings from the original research. The project will address the systemic barriers that women and gender minorities disproportionately face when running for, and serving in, municipally-held elected office, with a particular focus on those with intersecting identities of oppression. To do so, the project will produce a report detailing the research and evaluation of the impact of the workshops, and measure the reach of convening opportunities, and policy development sessions across these five provinces, and monitor the concrete changes to the wellbeing and safety of women and gender minorities in municipally elected government roles. With the supplemental funds and extension provided in early 2026, the Columbia Institute, in partnership with the Feminist Campaign School, will operationalize the systemic recommendations developed under the original Barriers Project. It will do so by developing five applied governance reform toolkits, establishing a publicly accessible Municipal Gender-Equity Policy Library, delivering implementation-focused workshops, and convening structured peer support networks for women and gender minorities in municipal office. Through this we will further advance Gender Equality.