Re-Writing Feminism and Advancing Gender Equity

by Michela Cascioli

As we reflect on Women’s History Month, we wanted to feature some of our clients who are making efforts to advance gender equity in their workplaces and beyond.

Pay Up for Progress by Unbounce

The 2021 Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum states that North America has only closed 76.4% of their gender pay gap and estimates it would take approximately 61.5 years to close the pay gap in our region. 

At Unbounce, a Vancouver-based marketing tech company, they recognize the opportunity that businesses have to address and close their own gender based pay gaps and to work alongside non profits, experts, government and like-minded companies  to drive greater social impact by advancing equal pay. 

Erika Finlay from Unbounce explains, “We know that most companies know this gap exists—and want to be part of closing it—however figuring out where to start and how to prioritize the work can be difficult. To help solve this problem, in the fall of 2020, Unbounce rallied non profits and like minded companies and urged them to make equal pay a business priority by taking the Pay Up for Progress pledge. Having reached gender pay parity at Unbounce in 2019, we launched Pay Up for Progress wanting to share our story and lessons and then encourage other companies to join us. The #PayUpForProgress initiative provides participating companies with the resources, expertise, peer support, and community to help them begin to take actionable steps (via our downloadable toolkit) towards reaching equal pay.”

As of March 2022, there are 68 companies from 6 regions across North America BC, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Washington state and California) who have pledged, with over 8,000 employees who have had their pay analyzed. 

Erika highlights that “with the 2022 campaign, our main goal is to expand the number of pledgees across North America, growing the community of companies and individuals who are standing up against discriminatory pay and go beyond gender. We are asking companies to also consider other self-identifying factors (Gender identity, Sexual orientation, Caregiver status, Race/Ethnicity, Newcomer/refugee/immigrant, Disability) when analysizing and discussing equal pay.” 

If you are interested in taking the pledge head to their landing page Pay Up for Progress, or for more information please contact socialimpact@unbounce.ca.

ReWrite Feminism by YWCA Metro Vancouver

YWCA Metro Vancouver's #RewriteFeminism campaign updates familiar feminist quotes to be more inclusive.

Amy Juschka explains, “We know that mainstream feminism hasn’t always been inclusive of Black, Indigenous and racialized people, or the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. As a way to build on feminist movements of the past while welcoming those people who have historically been left out, the YWCA's #RewriteFeminism campaign updates familiar feminist quotes to be more inclusive.” 

#RewriteFeminism marks the YWCA's commitment to honouring the different identities, experiences and perspectives of women, Two-Spirit and gender diverse people. As part of the campaign, the YWCA also invited community members to contribute feminist sayings in their languages. #RewriteFeminism includes print and digital advertising across Metro Vancouver in English, French, Spanish, Traditional and Simplified Chinese and Punjabi. 

You can learn more at www.ywcavan.org/rewrite-feminism