Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
By Lauren Hamill (General member, The Young Canadians Roundtable on Health)
Content Warning: sensitive topics including gender-based violence and sexual abuse
As we reach the end of Women’s History Month, it is important to consider what we can learn from the history of women’s rights and health to ensure that future generations of girls and women can realize their right to health. In order for this to be a reality, girls’ health must be a priority in Canada’s post-pandemic recovery plan. Since the pandemic began in Canada, the impacts have exposed gaps in our systems and highlighted existing inequalities for women and girls.
Even before the pandemic, girls faced many additional challenges and barriers. When girls start school they are generally more likely to do well in reading, writing, and forming friendships, yet as girls approach adolescence, things begin to change. Indigenous girls in Canada are especially at risk and experience even higher levels of mental illness, suicide, gender-based violence, and poverty. Other girls who are systemically disadvantaged include those of lower socioeconomic status, racialized and immigrant girls, and those that live in rural areas.
Girls experience high levels of sexual assault and other forms of violence, with over 11,000 sexual assaults of girls under the age of 18 being reported to police in Canada in 2016. This number is likely much higher, due to the underreporting of such offences. Girls also experience sexual assault at much higher rates than boys, with 83% of all sexual assault victims under the age of 18 being female in 2016.
Girls also experience serious declines in mental health and wellness when entering adolescence, with 36% of girls saying they are self-confident in Grade 6, but only 14% saying the same in Grade 10 according to a Public Health Agency of Canada report. More girls aged 10-17 are hospitalized for mental disorders than boys the same age, and Canadian girls are 15 times more likely to be hospitalized for an eating disorder than males. Alarmingly, suicide remains the third-leading cause of death for girls aged 10-14, and the second-leading cause of death for girls aged 15-19 in Canada.
Photo by Jeffrey F Lin on Unsplash
Women and girls also participate in sport and recreation less than men and boys as athletes, coaches, and leaders in Canada across all demographic categories. Period stigma and period poverty can also further limit participation of girls in activities. Plan Canada’s 2019 Gender Study found that 68 per cent of women in Canada felt that their period prevented them from full participation in an activity, with the number even higher for women and girls under 25 years of age. A third of women under 25 also reported struggling to afford menstrual products for themselves or others.
The COVID-19 pandemic has added an additional layer to the barriers girls and women face, due to lockdowns, school closures and unequal access to virtual learning. While the impacts of the pandemic on women are being highlighted, these impacts are less known for girls. Women have seen increased job losses, reduced hours of work, and are responsible for the majority of unpaid care responsibilities at home. There have also been higher reports of intimate partner violence and other forms of gender-based violence. These impacts have been increased for Indigenous women, racialized women and other underrepresented groups of women.
These challenges and barriers have long existed for women, but were made far worse due to the pandemic, resulting in more attention. It can then be expected that the inequalities girls face will also be exacerbated. Let’s not wait until these impacts are at their worst and most obvious before we bring attention to them and respond.
Photo by Omar Lopez on Unsplash
We must act now to ensure that the girls of today and women of tomorrow do not face the same inequalities of the women of history and today. Through highlighting these gaps, the pandemic has given us a unique opportunity to ensure that the next generation of women will not face the same challenges and will come out stronger in the progress towards gender equality. This will require systemic change that looks at the unique needs of diverse girls across the country.
This requires us to ask questions and learn about the plight of girls in Canada, and to bring awareness to these issues, sign petitions, and advocate to government for change. We must demand more data related to the impacts of the pandemic on girls so that we can respond effectively. We must ensure girls are involved in the recovery and are encouraged in leadership and decision-making positions. This must act as the catalyst for systemic change that improves women’s and girls’ economic security and prosperity.
We must also address the other hidden pandemic that has long plagued our country: gender-based violence. This can only be done through the erasure of stigma and attitudes in our society that prevent girls from reporting and that protect perpetrators. We must also demand improved supports and services for victims.
We cannot address these issues in isolation. The pandemic has shown us that these various inequalities are interconnected – when one worsens, others will also magnify. We need intersectional approaches that recognize the diverse needs of different groups of women and girls and the intersecting barriers they may face.
No matter what we do, we must start now. We cannot let a whole generation of girls fall behind, or else repeat the plights women have faced throughout history and lose progress gained in the fight for gender equality.
Lauren Hamill is a Master of Public Health student at the University of Toronto. She is currently specializing in women’s health and global health and hopes to pursue medicine or to work in maternal and child health programming. She has various experience with non-profits, and in the global health field especially in regard to women’s health programs and monitoring. In her free time, she runs BloomiBox, an organization working to provide vulnerable mothers and babies with essentials.