Overcoming Barriers Through Leadership | Tinashe Mafukidze | March 8, 2013 SfCarchive
Channel: SkillsforchangeArchive SfC
Date: 16/03/2013

Tinashe is the first Leader-in-Residence for Immigrant Women in Leadership. Her involvement with Skills for Change is focused on the gender-based analysis. We rely on Tinashe to make deep connections with other people and organizations to scale recommendations of the project while also supporting  the project by working closely with the Gender Lens Specialist and External Evaluator. Tinashe will be tasked with identifying an emerging issue from the GBA project findings and develop it into her own initiative that will harness the potential of immigrant women in leadership.

Friday, March 8th was International Women's Day, a day when Canadians join the world in a celebration of women, peace and human rights.

According to Status of Women Canada, Canada's theme for International Women's Day 2013 is Working Together: Engaging Men to End Violence against Women. This theme is designed to remind us that violence against women affects us all, and everyone must be part of the solution.

We believe that immigrant women are key to vibrant communities and a prosperous economy and that Skills for Change, and all service agencies, have a responsibility to ensure our programs are designed to support maximum engagement by female clients. We have spent the last year looking at our service provision through a gender lens to evaluate how we  support immigrant women in achieving their career goals, and gaining the confidence and economic independence crucial to allowing women to leave violent situations. 

Our 3-year gender-based analysis project, funded by Status of Women Canada, is a foundational stepping stone to understanding how settlement organizations like Skills for Change can unearth the systemic barriers facing immigrant women, how they can be overcome and how organizations can undergo transformational change to assist people of all genders in their entirety. 

On Friday, March 8, 2013 we shared our first white paper, born out of discussions with immigrant women and analysis of our services. The findings will inform how we  work to ensure better and more just service provision for women clients. Please join us. 

A sample of what our research uncovered: 

While women site freedom, safety and security, equal rights for women and better opportunities as the best parts of being an immigrant to Canada, language barriers and loneliness (including lack of family support and not fitting in) were noted as the worst barriers to full engagement. 

Single mothers interviewed as part of our focus groups particularly valued Canada's safety and freedom indicating they felt "respected" here and citing a very different treatment of single mothers in their home countries with many stating no government support and cultural shunning.