COMING SOON: Young Feminist Economy Report
WE WILL BE LAUNCHING THE REPORT IN JANUARY 2024.
What is the Young Feminist Economy Report?
“I have bigger dreams every day to be able to afford what I want and live a life of being able to afford everything - not just the bare minimum, but also future dreams goals.”
Young women and anyone who experiences gender-based discrimination have been disproportionately affected by the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
*We want to acknowledge that further research is needed to specifically understand how the pandemic has affected non-binary youth and young trans women.
Supported by the Federal Department for Women and Gender Equality, our Young Feminist Economy research project looks beyond recovering from the pandemic, understanding that the cracks in our socio-economic structures and systems pre-date COVID-19, to ask and begin answering the next question: What must the economy do beyond recover?
Why this research matters.
“A young feminist economy ultimately places young leaders facing discrimination on the basis of their gender not as an appendix or footnote, but the heart of its analysis and policy planning.”
At Fora, we strive to ensure all spaces of power feel incomplete without gender-marginalized youth in the room.
While the COVID-19 pandemic remains a destabilizing factor for people and economies, gaps in recovery policies leave its impact on young leaders emerging or settling into the Canadian workforce unaddressed. We can’t address these gaps, or the root causes and barriers that prevent young leaders from fully and meaningfully participating in spaces of power, without hearing from them directly.
Through extensive conversation and consultation with young leaders navigating gender-based discrimination across Canada, this report puts forth youth-informed recommendations on addressing everything from the housing crisis, degree inflation, underpaid and unpaid labour, workplace discrimination, the singles tax, and more. This report and the recommendations therein are directly informed by the voices and experiences of young women and gender-marginalized leaders, recognizing them as agents of change capable of advancing Canadian society and economy.
In our analysis we apply the capabilities approach and intersectional feminism frameworks to understand the web of issues affecting gender-marginalized youth and how barriers they face in building capacity for stable and meaningful engagement in the economies and societies of the future can be dismantled.
As one research participant summarized perfectly:
“At the heart of the capabilities approach is the respect for individuals’ starting points as varied and valid, and the need to empower them to reach a space where they can make decisions for themselves to live a life they value without encroaching the rights of others.”
Stay tuned for the launch of the full report in January 2024.