Queen's hosts first annual workshop on women's fiscal equality

Photo by Greg Black

Professor Louise Langevin of Laval University, the Claire-Bonenfant Research Chair on the Status of Women, delivers a talk on "Gender Analysis and the Proposed Gender Equality Law for Canada" at Queen's Law's first annual workshop on women's fiscal equality.

Academics, policy-makers, economists, lawyers and students gathered on March 7, 2009, at Queen's to discuss fiscal equality for women at a workshop entitled "Women, Equality, and Fiscal Policy: Gender Analysis of Taxes, Spending, and Budgets."  The conference was the first of what will be an annual event organized by Feminist Legal Studies Queen's, a research group coordinated by Professors Kathleen Lahey and Bita Amani.

"We set out to bring the leading Canadian experts on interdisciplinary fiscal gender analysis together to present their cutting-edge work to those most likely to find it useful," said Lahey, "and build institutional academic capacity to develop this work going forward."

Attendees listened to lectures and presentations on gendered analyses of fiscal policies, as well as participated in discussions throughout the day-long event.    By including participants from government organizations and non-governmental organizations, the conference made connections between various groups to ensure as many people as possible were exposed to the issue of women's fiscal equality.

Professor Louise Langevin of Laval University and Claire-Bonenfant Chair on the Status of Women spoke about the Canadian government's obligation to carry out gender budget analysis -- a complex, but useful, tool for developing policy cognizant of gender differences and for contributing to substantive equality.  Langevin stressed, however, that gender budget analysis is only one tool and that above all there needs to be political will if social change is to occur in Canada.

"Above all there needs to be political will in the [senior] departments [and] central agencies," said Langevin. "I think that requirement is unanimously accepted all over the planet, that if there is no political will there will be no change and that political will needs to come from the top and not from the bottom."

Photo by Greg Black

Armine Yalnizyan, senior economist for the Canadian Center for Policy Initiatives, makes a presentation at the workshop on "Why Budgets and Taxes are not Gender-Neutral, and What They Cost Women.

Armine Yalnizyan, Senior Economist for the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, gave a stirring speech explaining how budgets and taxes are not gender-neutral and outlined the costs they impose on women.  She focused her criticisms on the federal government, claiming that it not only sets the national tone of the country but is also the primary facilitator of social goals.

 "It has long been said that the deficit is fought on the backs of the poor, but I have to contend that it is in fact fought on the backs of women," said Yalnizyan, who went on to decry the continual scaling back of federal spending that began in the 90s and the lack of investment in public goods such as transit.  According to her, such scaling back in effect harms women more than men.

In addition to Langevin and Yalnizyan, experts from across the country contributed presentations on various topics including the gender impact of tax and spending laws, and the gender effects of carbon taxes and pension legislation. Given the success of the conference, plans for an expanded second workshop are in place for March 6, 2010. "All the presentations were received with excitement," said Lahey, "[and] the experts were able to interact on a wide variety of issues in an intensive way."

"I thought the panel was very diverse and introduced me to ideas and approaches to feminism I never knew existed," said Lara Fitzgerald-Husek, Law '11.  "It was an informative day well spent."

For more photos of the workshop, see http://law.queensu.ca/events/recentConferences/feministEqualityWorkshopPhotos.html