A Specialized Lens
GBA+ provides a specialized lens to evaluate how women, men, and non-binary individuals interact with policies, programs, and other initiatives. The term gender-based provides a foundational entry point.
The plus signifies a commitment to an intersectional approach. This approach recognizes how gender interacts with a wide array of other social locations.
Factors include socio-economic status, age, disability, ethnicity, geography, language, race, religion, and sexual orientation. Acknowledgment of these overlapping locations allows GBA+ to identify how individuals may be uniquely privileged or disadvantaged within specific systems.
Interrogating Power Structures
GBA+ functions as a vital mechanism to unveil and interrogate the invisible power structures that have shaped society.
Systemic Barriers
Government institutions, historical laws, and entrenched policies often contribute to enduring inequalities rooted in frameworks like colonialism and racism.
Indigenous Sovereignty
Explicitly centering the multi-generational impacts of colonization ensures research avoids colonial methods and respects sovereignty.
Holistic Knowledge
Honouring relational knowledge systems that have existed for millennia to deepen critical awareness of modern policy impacts.
A Transformative Lifecycle Process
Integration is essential during all phases to identify who is being left out of the conversation.
Planning & Design
Early integration to prevent structural bias.
Implementation
Using disaggregated data to track real-world impact.
Monitoring
Ongoing critical evaluation of outcomes.
Evaluation
Measuring progress toward a more just society.
This process empowers us to challenge our own deeply held biases and assumptions. It prompts the use of critical questions about existing disparities.
Outcome Distribution Model
Substantive Equity
Movement toward substantive equity requires treating people differentially to address specific structural barriers.
A one-size-fits-all approach inadvertently reproduces existing inequities by ignoring the starting point of different groups.
The ultimate goal is a future where social location no longer predicts a person’s likelihood of success, opportunity, or health.
