This text is part of the special International Women’s Day booklet
Develop educational tools on women’s sexual and reproductive health
The results of the survey on women’s sexual and reproductive health launched by four Canadian stakeholder groups last year on International Women’s Day were released this fall.
The two-phase project undertaken by the Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance, the Canadian Association of Psoriasis Patients, the Canadian Psoriasis Network and the Canadian Spondylitis Association aims to support people who identify as women who have rheumatic and psoriatic diseases and inflammatory arthritis in the different stages of their life (family planning, sexual health, parenthood and menopause).
The survey, which is the first phase, was launched to better define patient experiences and identify information gaps. The results indicate that more than 60% of respondents did not have enough information about sexual health and the effects of their disease, that less than 45% felt that their health professionals gave them adequate information about the influence of their medications on their fertility, with significant variations by region of Canada, and that less than half had received advice from a doctor about pregnancy-related risks and the safety of medications before consider pregnancy.
These findings set the stage for the second phase, which will focus on developing educational tools and improving dialogue about the experiences and needs of women with these conditions.
Provide paid leave for International Women’s Day
As part of its 2021 budget for aid to women, the Department of Finance of Canada recalled that “sex and gender disparities persist in the Canadian health system. Women are more likely to die from preventable diseases and bear a greater burden of chronic diseases”.
Faced with the growing inequalities in women’s health, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic, the company Organon and its Canadian subsidiary, which mainly focuses on offering women a variety of health care solutions, announced last February all of their employees paid leave on the occasion of International Women’s Day. She invites other leaders to do the same and adopt initiatives to prioritize the health of their workers.
Kevin Ali, President and Chief Executive Officer of Organon, wants this day to be devoted to the health of his male and female employees and the women around them, that they benefit “whether by going to the doctor, taking stock of their own well-being or thinking about how to change things”.
Recognize foreign credentials of immigrant women
Action travail des femmes (ATF), whose mission is to support socioeconomically disadvantaged women in their efforts to access decent jobs, recently launched the project “Countering the systemic effects of the non-recognition of foreign diplomas on women immigrants”.
ATF believes that greater efficiency in the recognition of prior learning and skills would make it possible to reduce the obstacles encountered by new arrivals in the labor market and to respond, moreover, to the problem of manpower, which is currently rife. .
This project, which will end in 2024, will make it possible to document the effects of an economic recovery plan on the path of immigrants, and particularly women. In collaboration with several partners, such as the Intervention Council for Women’s Access to Work, the Interuniversity and Interdisciplinary Research Group on Employment, Poverty and Social Protection, the Research Chair on Integration and the management of diversity in employment, the Action Network for the Equality of Immigrant and Racialized Women in Quebec and the Round Table of Organizations Serving Refugees and Immigrants, ATF will design a platform of demands, which will come from an analysis of the Quebec recovery plan and the frameworks for applying the recognition of prior learning.
“Several means will be put in place — committee work, strategic mobilization plan, tour of government authorities, etc. — in order to carry out actions to counter the phenomena of deskilling and professional ghettoization of which immigrants, particularly women, are victims, consequences of the non-recognition of their achievements and their diplomas”, we reveal by way of communicated.