INSTITUTE FOR
2021
DIRECTOR'S NOTE It’s hard to believe that we are still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been a rough time for everyone, and GATE’s commitment has been to use everything that rigorous research can tell us to shape the social and economic recovery from this collective trauma. As Arundhati Roy has said, the pandemic is a “portal” through which we can see many of the fractures in society that might have gone unnoticed or unheeded in the past by people in positions of power. GATE has focused on generating game-changing guidance for corporate leaders, non profits and government policymakers on how to build back better. We did this by convening global communities of scholars, supporting innovative educational programs to engage learners at all stages of their careers, hosting dialogs on the most pressing issues, and translating the insights through creative digital storytelling. We have used cutting-edge research to bust tired myths that hold us back from creating a more equitable and sustainable economy. GATE is now celebrating its 5-year anniversary. We’ve accomplished a lot with a shoe-string budget in a few short years—but in some ways, we are just getting started. That’s why we’ve launched our $10 million capital campaign. Think of us like a startup that’s going from seed funding to Series A. We’re looking for people and organizations who want to invest in increasing our impact in the coming years and hope you will want to be part of that journey with us. In solidarity,
Sarah Kaplan Director, Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE) Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto January 1, 2022
Our Mission The Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE) is using rigorous research to change the conversation on gender equality. GATE is advancing the world’s understanding of how gender and its intersection with race, sexual orientation, Indigeneity, ethnic origin, disability, socioeconomic status and other identities shape economic outcomes and prosperity.
and we achieve our mission by…
Instigating cutting-edge academic research Mythbusting tired ideas that are holding back progress Inspiring disruptive change with game-changing guidance
Our Four Pillars Creating New Insights Training Leaders Shaping Practice Building Community
2021 In Review
Naming and framing of minority group labels
Creating New Insights convened leading research scholars
17 researchers, for a total of $44,100
Click here to see more about our 2021 Grant Recipients Naming and framing of minority group labels (Grusha Agarwal) Using behavioural tools to increase health seeking behaviour among men (Laura Derksen, Jason Kerwin, Natalia Ordaz Reynoso, & Olivier Sterck) The cost to global economies of sustained inaction on gender-based violence (Beverley Essue, Felicia Knaul, Nata Duvvury, & Michelle Remme) Gender, beliefs, and performance in entrepreneurship (Camille Hebert) Certifications for rectifications? How evaluation systems affect inequality on digital platforms (Wyatt Lee) Trade in appliances, household production, and labour force participation (Pamela Medina Quispe, Sebastian Sotelo & Daniel Velasquez) Gender norms and financial decision making (Steven J. Riddiough, Martin Ljunge, & Alexander Ljungqvist)
The cost to global economies of sustained inaction on gender-based violence Violence against women and young people persists as its own pandemic, present in every country of the world and affecting nearly 5 billion people globally. The Lancet Commission on Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Maltreatment of Young People (MYP) was launched in 2020. It focuses on mitigating the risks of exposure to violence across the continuum of care from prevention to survivorship and the lifecycle from childhood to adulthood. This project will support the Commission in the development of a framework for understanding the cost of inaction in addressing GBV and MYP. This framework will ground the Commission’s analytical work and will inform the development of an investment case for action. The output from this work will provide a future resource for researchers, policymakers, the private sector and civil society to understand and value the lost opportunities due to GBV.
Creating New Insights
5 new grants to
Racial group labels such as “BIPOC” (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour), “underrepresented minorities,” and “visible minorities” are widely used by companies, governments, policymakers, and in the popular media. Yet, there is a lack of consensus around which labels are most inclusive and “correct.” This project will survey large, nationally representative samples in the United States and Canada to investigate perceptions and attitudes related to the use of racial group labels in formal and informal contexts, with a particular emphasis on how these perceptions and attitudes are shaped by intersectional group identification across gender, racial, age, and other lines.
convened leading research scholars
Hyeun Lee examines structural changes that attenuate gender gaps in risk-taking among finance professionals. Exploiting the adoption of online information systems that allowed investors to more easily distinguish quality differences in analysts' work, she finds that men and women securities analysts take risks at similar levels when information uncertainties for those evaluating their performance are reduced.
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Researchers appointed as GATE Postdoctoral Fellows
Dr. Hyeun Lee 2020-2022
Timing of new D&I efforts at fast-growth firms
We fund salaries and research expenses for emerging researchers working on topics that are central to GATE’s mission. Dr. Victor Marsh 2021-2023
Using qualitative case study analysis of fast-growth firms, Vic Marsh is exploring the impact on employee attitudes of the sequence for introducing diversity initiatives. Comparing settings where part-time diversity task forces or employee resource groups make the first moves versus those where full-time D&I professionals are the earliest change agents, Vic is assessing the impact of D&I efforts on either cynical or positive engagement with diversity.
The impact of 3G internet on gender roles
Current Postdoctoral Fellows
Lucienne Talba is exploring the impact of the 3G internet on gender roles. Exploiting the variation in the timing of the 3G introduction across locations in Africa, Lucienne is using a quasi-experimental method to show how access to information through mobile internet changes attitudes about gender norms regarding marriage, employment, and education.
Dr. Lucienne Talba 2021-2023
Creating New Insights
Creating New Insights
Interventions that shape risk taking amongst financial professionals
Training Leaders
2021-22 MBA Fellows
inspired new ways of thinking
MBA Fellows receive a $10,000 award to work on a research project of their choosing related to the mandate of GATE.
GATE MBA Student Fellows
Aleksandra Bogatinov
Zolzaya Erdenebileg
Bilal Habib
Simone Lima
Ann Olasa
Building a startup toolkit for women entrepreneurs
Examining the impact of fintech on women's financial inclusion
Getting men to see the negative effects of gender inequality for men
Examining the impact of “toxic positivity” on inclusion
Learning how the fashion industry can break down gender stereotypes
REWIND
Click here to watch a video summary of our 2020-2021 MBA Student Fellow projects.
"My experience as a GATE MBA fellow was very refreshing. As a black woman, it was a good platform to lend my voice to promoting diversity not only related to driving gender equality, but equality across all intersections. Being a self-led project, it was easy to pour my passion for diversity into it. It was also a learning opportunity as I got to interact with other GATE fellows working on different projects with the same theme at the core." Chantal Chizea, MBA ‘21, GATE MBA Student Fellow 2021-2022
Training Leaders
5 Rotman students appointed as
"The workbook, handouts, and methodology are things I’ll reuse throughout my career, and I’ve already begun applying learnings in my professional life from this course."
Training Leaders inspired new ways of thinking
"An eye opener... A must!!!" Testimonials from learners
Want to earn your Gender Analytics Certificate? Click here to learn more.
Over 5,600 enrollments from
5 continents with a 4.9/5 stars rating.
"Gender Analytics allows practitioners to anticipate, understand and use intersectional gender-based insights to design more inclusive innovations and organizations.” Sarah Kaplan, Director, Institute for Gender and the Economy
Developed with financial support from:
Training Leaders
We celebrated the first anniversary of our 5-course Gender Analytics specialization on Coursera
How it works
Training Leaders inspired new ways of thinking
Students get points for Videos they watch Articles they read
naviGATE navi GATE We launched our new gamification platform to give Rotman's MBA students an exciting way to engage with intersectional perspectives on gender.
They compete with each other to collect badges while moving up the leaderboard and going through the 3 ranks of Gender and Equity Citizen, Gender and Equity Enthusiast, and Gender and Equity Champion.
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109 PARTICIPANTS
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Students who have successfully completed all levels receive the Gender and Equity Champion certificate from GATE.
Training Leaders
Posts they sharesive
Shaping Practice changed the conversation
What have we been up to in 2021? Policy Brief
2 Case Studies Click here to watch Yolande Strengers & Jenny Kennedy break down what a "smart wife" actually is.
"There's a big assumption that emotional caregiving, emotional labor, and women's work can be automated, which is problematic. It ties into broader issues about how we value and make visible these kinds of emotional and caregiving labours in our society." Jenny Kennedy, co-author of The Smart Wife
7 Articles for Practitioners 8 Research Briefs 10 Public Events 14 Videos
Shaping Practice
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Shaping Practice
How can we address bias in data?
An Equity Lens on Artificial Intelligence
Click here to watch our animated short video on the report.
"While such new technologies are altering the way the economy, organizations, and society function, communities across Canada continue to grapple with social, economic, and political inequality and inequities which may amplify or be amplified by the impacts of AI."
How can we assure accountability? Who decides diversity in AI teams? To read our report click here.
Shaping Practice
Artificial intelligence has the potential to either create meaningful change or reinforce underlying biases and inequity. GATE's report on Artificial Intelligence (AI) draws together cutting edge research to highlight the importance of taking an equity lens in the development and use of AI.
Shaping Practice policy impact
Shaping Practice
In our 2020 Feminist Economic Recovery Plan for Canada we highlighted affordable child care as a key recommendation.
NEWS
The GATE team was heavily consulted by Federal and Provincial governments in 2021 in shaping Canada’s new childcare policy and its implementation.
POLICY
Click here to read our Feminist Economic Recovery Plan for Canada co-authored with YWCA Canada.
In 2022, with new funding from WAGE Canada, we are focusing on the care economy and more ways for an equitable economic recovery from COVID-19.
Names, Diversity and Job Hunts:
Shaping Practice changed the conversation
Sonia Kang, GATE Faculty Research Fellow for Wired UK, Aug 2021
Shaping Practice
41 features in TV, radio, and print media
"If a hiring manager sees a name that they don’t know how to pronounce, they might think, ‘I didn’t want to say their name wrong so I skipped that one and went to the next one.' There’s sorting that happens throughout your life. Those kinds of barriers come up again and again."
10 events with over 2,000 attendees
Shaping Practice changed the conversation
Dr. Jen Gunter, author of Menopause Manifesto and The Vagina Bible
In 2021, we pivoted entirely to online events and found great success reaching a global audience in a livestream format.
LIVESTREAM
Despite COVID-19 we continue to put on virtual events for everyone. Click here to check for our upcoming events.
Click here to learn how Dr. Jen Gunter is busting myths about menopause.
Click here to watch Heather McGhee discuss how race underlies our economic systems.
Shaping Practice
"Mentorship isn't helping somebody walk the same difficult path you walked. It's walking a path, seeing how that path could be better and then helping the person that you're mentoring walk that better path."
Shaping Practice changed the conversation
Busting prominent myths around quotas, sexual harassment and the "pipeline problem" by teaming up with leading experts in the field. We uncover the origins of these myths and find out what the research actually says.
591 plays in 35 countries. Click here to listen to BUSTED. & stay tuned for more releases.
Shaping Practice
In 2021 we launched GATE audio with a new podcast limited series, BUSTED.
Building Community deepened partnerships
grew our network Partners
to advance research to co-create insights
Industry partners are a select group of organizations that are frontrunners in creating, leading, and managing change.
With our community, academic and government partnerships, we will continue to advance rigourous research. And, major news! In 2021, we received nearly $400,000 from Women and Gender Equality Canada’s Feminist Response and Recovery Fund to amplify our Gender Analytics programming, expand our behavioural research and launch a global research network on the Care Economy. Stay tuned for an exciting new report on Care Work in the Recovery Economy coming in 2022!
Building BuildingCommunity Community
Industry Partners
Building Community stories of impact
to disrupt norms
Power Circle members pledge $50,000 or more to support GATE in making disruptive change to promote gender equality.
The Mark S. Bonham Charitable Foundation
"There is an opportunity to get more leverage by overlaying or mapping GATE’s research onto other research inside the tech community. The research that GATE has done around STEM and gender inequality inside the STEM community will be particularly useful to get past the surface and find the right solutions. This is important work, and it’s continuing to create momentum. There’s a tailwind right now to a lot of these issues, which means they’re improving faster than they did in the past, although of course much work remains to be done, and GATE is a key part of that." Jonathan Lister, Investor, Board member, Advisor and former VP of Global Sales Solutions at LinkedIn
Molline Green (MBA ’98) Vanessa Serra Iarocci (B.Comm ’01, Executive in Residence) Sarah Kaplan (Distinguished Professor of Gender & the Economy) Jonathan Lister (B.A. ’94, MBA ’00) Kevin Lobo (MBA ’95) Kerrie MacPherson (B.Comm ’86, MBA ’91) Anita McGahan (George E. Connell Chair in Organizations & Society) Barry McInerney (B.Comm ’85, MBA ’87) Rosemary McInerney (B.A. ’86, B.Ed 88) Florence S. Narine (MBA ‘05) Hilary Partner (MBA ’18)
Building BuildingCommunity Community
Our new blog series highlights GATE and its stories of impact in the community.
Power Circle
Building Community deepened partnerships
The $10 Million goal
to embrace change
Individual supporters are passionate about creating, leading, and managing change.
Every contribution counts
Dilek Karasoy (MBA ’20) Bonnie Gar-Kay Lam Jennifer Lancaster and Blaine Padgett Ruth Mandel – WHO GIVES Fund Dolores Keating-Mallen Jennifer Molluso Carolyn Morris Ashley Nagi (MBA ‘20) Pablo F. Nazé (MBA ‘20) Chinedum Nwaogwugwu (MBA ‘20) Narjis Premjee (MBA ’19) Adil Sethi (MBA ’19) Kim Shannon (MBA ‘93) Camille Simardone (BCOMM ’14) Marilyn Spink Geoffrey and Kenya Thompson-Leonardelli Myha Truong-Regan Helen Vavougios (MBA ’16) Rosemary Williamson (MBA ’20) Stacy Zosky Anonymous
You can sponsor our student fellowships, policy briefs, digital storytelling, faculty fellowships. Click here to read our case for support If you would like to make a donation or have questions about how you can make a major gift to support GATE’s mission to change the conversation, please contact Lindsay Manning, Director of Development at: Lindsay.Manning@Rotman.UToronto.ca
See more at: gendereconomy.org/community
Building BuildingCommunity Community
After 5 years as a startup, GATE moves into a new era with a $10 million capital campaign.
Individual Supporters
Sarah Albo (MBA ’18) Douglas W. Andrews Cara L. Allaway Hugh J. Arnold Craig Barlow Andrea Vasquez Camargo Heather Campbell (MBA ’19) Teresa Catalano Anna Y. Chau (MBA ’17) Jillian E. Darroch Chown (MBA ’06, PhD ’16) Darlene E. Clover (BA ’94, PhD ’99) The Evangelist Family Kimberely Fletcher Delee Fromm Jingqi Guo Dr. Wei He (PhD ’01) Rocca Morra Hodge Verónica Hernandez Herrera (MBA ’19) Janet Hudgins Farah S. Huq Celeste Jalbert (MBA ’17)
What Your Support Means to Us:
Building Community grew our networks
Digital Engagement
+58% 303
Through our various projects, GATE has achieved a global reach and witnessed the growth of our community, near and far.
YouTube subscribers
+25% 2,609
LinkedIn followers
+17%
81,295
Unique website visits
+17%
12,456
Newsletter subscribers
+11% 4,406
Twitter followers
Building BuildingCommunity Community
In 2021, amidst a global pandemic the world shifted to completely virtual settings. As did we.
Meet the GATE team
Who We Are "Co-authoring the Feminist Economic Recovery Plan was fulfilling because it allowed me to contribute to GATE’s impact beyond academia. It opened up the space for me to discuss and share with others why we need an equitable recovery from COVID-19, and how society can make this happen."
click here to discover more about our team
Nouman Ashraf
Faculty Teaching Fellow
Sarah Kaplan
Lechin Lu
Director
Associate Director
Carmina Ravanera
Chanel Grenaway Advisor; Instructor
Nico Lacetera
Faculty Research Fellow
Dionne Pohler
Faculty Research Fellow
Carmina Ravanera
Salwa Iqbal
Research Associate
Digital Communications Officer
Daphné Baldassari
Kate Bezanson
Maja Djikic
PhD Research Fellow
Faculty Research Fellow
Faculty Teaching Fellow
Vanessa Serra Iarocci
Sonia K. Kang
Executive-in-Residence; Instructor
Hyeun Lee
Postdoctoral Fellow
Nika Stelman
Alumna-in-Residence; Instructor
Yongah Kim
Faculty Research Fellow
Faculty Teaching Fellow
Lindsay Manning
Victor Marsh
Director of Development (Rotman Advancement)
Lucienne Talba Postdoctoral Fellow
Postdoctoral Fellow
András Tilcsik
Faculty Research Fellow
In 2021, we said goodbye to our Associate Director, Alyson Colón, who guided us through our startup years, and welcomed Lechin Lu — a former GATE MBA Fellow and Gender Analytics project lead — who will take us to the next level in 2022 and beyond!
CHANGING
THE CONVERSATION ON GENDER EQUALITY
The Institute for Gender and the Economy operates on the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.
Join the conversation Twitter @GenderEconomy Youtube/InstituteforGenderandtheEconomy LinkedIn @Institute for Gender and The Economy Join our newsletter via www.gendereconomy.org Come to our events via www.gendereconomy.org/events Send us an email via gender.economy@rotman.utoronto.ca Find this digital report here Cover art and report designed by Salwa Iqbal Photo credits: Jeffrey Beardall, Nupur Chitalia, Victoria Heath, Mia Mala McDonald Images obtained from unsplash