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Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+)
Institutional Gender-Based Analysis Plus Capacity
Gender-Based Analysis Plus: governance and capacity
In 20192020, Elections Canada focused on delivering a general election that was accessible to all. This election resulted in a minority government, which required the agency to remain focused on both reporting and election preparedness in the second half of the fiscal year. In the context of this strong operational focus, efforts were made to implement the policy direction on gender-inclusive services and to ensure that electors who face particular obstacles to exercising their right to vote and to be a candidate received accessible services. In 2019, groups with documented barriers to voting and running as a candidate included youth (aged 1824), new Canadians who were eligible to vote for the first time, electors with disabilities, and First Nations, Mιtis and Inuit electors. Note that women as a whole are not part of these groups and vote in greater numbers than do men, except in very old age (see turnout numbers below).
In October 2019, the Executive Director of Public Affairs and Civic Education was nominated as Elections Canada's Champion for the Gender-inclusive Services Policy Direction. In November, she gave a presentation on it to senior management and established a gender-inclusion working group with participants from each sector of the agency. The working group's priority is to ensure that all of the forms created by the agency become gender-inclusive through the addition of a third gender option. While Elections Canada updated its forms for voter registration in 2018, work remains to be done to update all of its other forms and applications. This initiative was paused in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Working group members and other agency staff undertook capacity-building efforts, including, but not limited to, a two-day training session on Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+), which was facilitated by Infonex in February, and online training, which is provided by Status of Women Canada for all civil servants.
Data collection for program evaluation
As part of its evaluation of the 2019 general election, Elections Canada collected both administrative and public opinion research (POR) data. The POR data includes the National Electors Study (NES) 2019, a multi-wave, multi-mode longitudinal survey that reached 50,000 respondents in its first wave. The NES 2019 was designed to allow GBA+ in two key ways, as it included:
- a large sample size to ensure sufficient sub-samples of key groups;
- refined measures for some socio-demographic characteristics such as Indigenous identity, functional disability and disability self-identification, and immigration status.
Results from the NES are used to inform the agency on the experience of voters, the views of electors, and the success of the Voter Information Campaign (VIC). Reports on the NES systematically looked at differences between sub-groups, including:
- men, women and transgender/non-binary respondents;
- Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians;
- different age groups (for example, youth aged 1824 versus adults aged 2554 versus seniors aged 55+);
- respondents with no disability compared with those with a mild or moderate disability and those with a severe or very severe disability;
- immigrants who were newly eligible to vote in October 2019, compared with established immigrants and electors born in Canada;
- youth with different occupations, including youth attending school, youth working full time or part time, and youth not employed, in education or in training (NEET).
Analyses that look at intersectional identities, for example, Indigenous women or men with little education, will be considered in the agency's 20202025 research agenda to better understand political engagement, barriers to voting, and services to electors.
For the first time in 2019, the Survey of Candidates and the Survey of Election Officers asked for detailed socio-demographic information, including about gender (with an inclusive question), ethnic or cultural background, disability, and immigration status. Further, election officers were asked about harassment in the workplace, which will allow the agency to document and address any problems in this area (see below).
Highlights of GBA+ Results by Program
| Electoral Information and Awareness | Elections Canada's Electoral Information and Awareness program includes subprograms such as Civic Education, which targets pre-voters; Stakeholder Mobilization, which targets populations known to face barriers to participating; and the 2019 Voter Information Campaign (VIC). This program is evaluated primarily through the NES. Stakeholder Mobilization subprogramThe Stakeholder Mobilization subprogram works with stakeholders who help meet the needs of electors who face barriers to participating in federal elections. Elections Canada significantly expanded its network of national and regional stakeholder organizations that share information with electors who face barriers to voting such as Indigenous electors, new electors and people with disabilities. When working with these organizations, Elections Canada leveraged its new online learning modules and event toolkits developed for the Inspire Democracy program. These tools explained the steps and options related to registration, voting and other ways to participate in elections such as working at an election and running for office. An evaluation of this subprogram is underway, and the results will be published when finalized. Feedback from 2019 has already led to an increased focus on the obstacles faced by women running for office. The agency worked with community groups to include on its website a specific set of frequently asked questions about identification guidelines for transgender electors. Despite these efforts, some issues still surfaced in the 2019 general election: for instance, due to processing timeframes, voter information cards displayed the previous names of transgender electors. Elections Canada will continue to update its data collection practices and work with the community to ensure it is using gender-inclusive practices in all aspects of the electoral process. 2019 Voter Information Campaign (VIC)The NES found very few differences between men, women and non-binary/transgender electors in terms of the evaluation of the 2019 Voter Information Campaign. For example, there were no gender-based differences when it came to knowledge of the main voting methods, recall of any Elections Canada ads, or satisfaction with the information provided by Elections Canada. However, the NES did find differences in terms of the knowledge and awareness of other subgroups, especially Indigenous electors, youth aged 1824 and electors with disabilities. For example, the likelihood of:
The following groups were less likely to say it was very easy to find the information they needed on voting:
In the post-election survey, the following groups were more likely to say they did not know of any of the ways to register or update their voter registration information:
Further analyses of specific subgroups may be done in preparation for the next voter information campaign. Civic Education subprogramTo increase understanding of the electoral process by future electors, Elections Canada offers a multi-faceted Civic Education subprogram for the elementary and secondary levels. The program includes the development and distribution of learning resources, professional development activities for teachers, teacher engagement, and direct delivery of programs to national student groups such as Encounters with Canada. In 2019, a special activity, Student Vote Canada 2019, offered a parallel election program for students in all electoral districts. The Civic Education subprogram reached an estimated 1.4 million students in 2019. The gender breakdown of this number is unknown, but there is no reason to think that either girls or boys were more likely to have been reached. The program also reached over 24,000 teachers. Given the predominance of women in the teaching profession (as of 2014, 68% of teachers and professors in Canada are women, according to Statistics Canada), it is likely that more women than men were reached. In 2021, the Civic Education subprogram will be evaluated and a GBA+ component will be included in the evaluation. |
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| National Register of Electors and Electoral Geography | The agency uses data from the National Register of Electors (NRoE) to calculate several key metrics. Electors who register or update their registration can choose to indicate male, female or other as their gender; this field is not mandatory, and electors can leave it blank. Between the introduction of the third gender option in 2018 and the 2019 general election, about 1,000 electors in the NRoE had selected the third gender. Results from the NES show that non-binary/transgender electors were less likely to be registered (79%) than both male (89%) and female (90%) electors. Data from the NRoE are used to calculate two key measures of participation:
Estimates of voter turnout are disaggregated by sex, age and province in a detailed chart on Elections Canada's website. At the national level, the results are:
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| Voting Services Delivery and Field Management | StaffingFor the 43rd general election, returning officers hired about 232,000 workers, including about 18,000 office staff for Elections Canada offices and about 214,000 election workers for polling sites. Returning officers were encouraged to increase the representation among election workers of people with disabilities, new Canadians, Indigenous people, linguistic minorities, and youth. The Survey of Election Officers was used to evaluate the experience of poll workers during the 2019 general election. Results reveal few differences between men and women. Among all groups of workers, women as a whole:
Results show that harassment is uncommon, affecting 5% of both male and female survey respondents. Overall, half of those who experienced harassment were harassed by electors, while the rest experienced harassment at the hands of a superior or colleague in equal proportion. However, these proportions vary by gender: men were more likely to report harassment by electors (74% of men who experienced harassment versus 44% of women) while women were more likely to experience harassment from their superiors (29% of women who experienced harassment versus 11% of men). Regionally, poll workers in British Columbia (7%), Alberta (7%) and Ontario (6%) were more likely to have experienced harassment. Differences by type of polling station and age were not noteworthy. Further analyses may look at the experience of specific subgroups of workers. |
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| Electoral Integrity and Regulatory Compliance | Perception of the administration of electionsA key goal of the Electoral Integrity and Regulatory Compliance program is for Canadians to know and trust their electoral system. Results from the NES 2019 indicate several differences related to gender and other identities with regard to knowledge of and trust in Canadian elections.
It must be noted that women are less likely to be very interested in politics (28%) compared with men (43%) and that this lower interest may affect women's answers about electoral trust. More research is needed to understand the interplay between gender, interest in politics and the intensity of trust in the electoral system. |