September 13, 2018
Fredericton – The New Brunswick Women’s Council has released its first report back on findings from a public engagement initiative, Resonate, that it held in the fall of 2017 and winter of 2018.
“Through Resonate we heard from over 1 300 women on the challenges that affect their daily lives, what they would do to change things, and what they feel government doesn’t understand about these issues,” said Jennifer Richard, council co-chair. “We want to thank the women who participated in Resonate, as well as organizations that promoted the initiative to the women they serve and advocate with, for trusting us with their stories.”
Over five months the council gathered data from more than 1 400 New Brunswickers (over 1 300 participated in a survey or discussion group for women and almost 100 in a survey for individuals belonging to gender minorities – e.g. trans, non-binary, and two-spirit individuals) and over 35 organizations and initiatives. Today’s release will be followed by the findings related to individuals belonging to gender minorities and organizations in October.
“Women clearly identified five priority issues: health care; access to and provision of care; employment and economic security; safety and violence; and inequality and discrimination,” said Jody Dallaire, council co-chair. “They told us that these issues needed to be addressed to improve the lives of women in New Brunswick as a group and that they’d faced challenges in these areas in their own lives in the last year.”
The findings of Resonate are being shared through a microsite that provides additional information on the top issues as well as stories and commentary directly from women. Demographic data is also provided on participants along with information on how some groups of women answered questions differently than others.
The top issues identified through Resonate will serve as the basis for questions in a forum with political party leaders to discuss issues related to women’s equality that the council is hosting in Fredericton on September 17th at 6:30pm. The forum will be livestreamed to Facebook, as well as recorded and posted to YouTube after the event.
The New Brunswick Women’s Council is an independent advisory body on women’s equality issues.
09-13-18
Media contact: Beth Lyons, Executive Director, New Brunswick Women’s Council, 506-462-5142 [email protected]
