SDG 5: Gender Equality
Learn more about UN SDG 5 and take action
Gender inequality is persistent, global, and is devastating to achieving peaceful, prosperous societies. Many of Dalhousie's successes have been because of the efforts of women students, faculty, staff members, and leaders, who have had to overcome barriers along the way. Our work towards gender equality and gender equity at the university, and more broadly, must be intentional and ongoing.
High-impact research
Shining the spotlight. Sparking action.
The vision for the Women in Research Caucus (WiRC) is to build a Dalhousie University research community that listens to, fosters and promotes all women research faculty and trainee members equally.
Strengthening systems responses to violence against women in Canadian provinces
Dr. Yakubovich and team are investigating how organizations that serve women who experience violence adapted during the pandemic. They will evaluate how well these adaptations met the needs of women to provide guidance for supporting women during future public health emergencies.
PhD candidate Martha Paynter on what overturning Roe v. Wade could mean for abortion access
Martha Paynter, a PhD candidate at Dalhousie and registered nurse in the field of reproductive health who published Abortion to Abolition: Reproductive Health and Justice in Canada shares her views on the abortion debate.
Read more in Dal News
Disenfranchising Indigenous women: The legacy of coverture in Canada
Cheryl Simon, assistant professor in Aboriginal and Indigenous law, says discussions about the source of Indigenous identity must take place with the full involvement of Indigenous women.
Read more in The Conversation
Exceptional student experience
Dal neurosurgery residency attains gender parity in promising first
One of Dal's most competitive residency programs has become the first of its kind in Canada to reach — and, in fact, exceed — gender parity among trainees. Of the 11 current trainees in the Division of Neurosurgery’s six-year postgraduate training program, six identify as female. That bucks the historical norm in Canada where males often outnumber females in such programs.
Read more in Dal News
Leadership program helps female‑identifying Computer Science students realize potential
Over the past two years, the Leacross Foundation has gifted more than $200,000 to the Faculty’s WeAreAllCS initiative to increase diversity in computer science through scholarships and programming to support the attraction and progression of female-identifying students.
Read more in Dal News
Women in Engineering aims to overcome the gender gap
The Faculty of Engineering Women in Engineering Society (WIE) facilitates the success of women students by offering a variety of services such as hands-on skills workshops, career development workshops, volunteer opportunities to gain transferable skills, sponsorship to WIE conferences, and professional networking. The society also helps current WIE students by establishing a peer-support network for women on campus, creating a sense of belonging and community between members.
Halifax's only full time gender justice centre
The South House is a student-funded, volunteer-driven resource centre that seeks to address and advocate for anti-oppression issues within a feminist framework. First and foremost a resource centre, South House provides resources and support for students, faculty, staff, and community members on such issues.
Civic university with global impact
Empowering girls and women to be passionate, informed, and confident
SuperNOVA’s free Girls Count program combines weekly educational programming with continued mentorship to target gender disparity within mathematics through an exploration of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields for girls in Grades 6-12.
Dalhousie Feminist Seminar Series returns for the 2022/23 academic year
Drawing on a rich history of feminist engagement at Dalhousie University and in post-secondary institutions across the Atlantic region the Dalhousie Feminist Seminar Series brings together faculty and students from across Dalhousie, our colleagues at other institutions in Halifax and elsewhere, and members of the community interested in feminist research and scholarship to present and engage with one another's work in a collegial and supportive environment.
States of Being: Works by contemporary Canadian women selected from the permanent collection
Selected from the Dalhousie Art Gallery permanent collection by Susan Gibson Garvey, the works in the States of Being exhibition suggest a variety of emotional or metaphysical states of being. Ranging widely in style and content, each work suggests overt or subtle conditions of desire and sublimation.
Foundation for inclusion and distinction
Talking about menopause in the workplace
Dalhousie's Menopause Support Group has been meeting monthly and typically welcome 20-30 people for open discussion or to learn from guest speakers. The group is a first step toward removing the cloak of invisibility and normalizing menopause in conversations and workplaces.
Read more in Dal News
Protecting full participation based on gender identity and expression
The Gender Affirmation Policy actively works to help support Dalhousie faculty, staff and students in expressing and affirming their gender identity. Accordingly, all members of the university community have a shared responsibility to create a living, learning, and working environment where all people may fully participate based on their gender identity and expression.
Addressing complaints of discrimination at the university
The Statement on Prohibited Discrimination sets out Dalhousie University's commitment to safeguarding its students and employees against all forms of prohibited discrimination, including sex and gender, in the course of work or study or participation in University-sponsored organizations, activities and programs.
Building a Dalhousie University community for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities
The Queer Faculty & Staff Caucus (QFSC), seeks positive change toward a society in which LGBTQ2S people can participate free of negative stereotypes and as equal members of the Dalhousie University community.