Empower

The?Sustainable Development Agenda, adopted by UN Member States in 2015, set a 2030 deadline for the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.

Sustainable Development Goal 5

Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls

?While Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are not common to see in the not-for-profit world, they are a key development in corporations. When corporations require investment funds necessary to grow their business, they are finding that more and more investors are looking for places to invest their funds where SDGs make up a prime factor in their operations. They call this the new green in the investment world. These corporations need to share these developments in their portfolios. ?

So it is with great interest that I find Michael House being a key part of SDGs and I look to corporations to start to notice our work in keeping with this goal - how we empower women.

?A UNWomen article noted that progress in this area has not only failed to move forward but has begun to reverse. With a waiting list, in 2022, of between 10 -15 women, Michael House is asking the corporate world to take note and step forward in not making this a fact in Wellington County. We do not want to see women’s rights being threatened nor the well-established freedoms and protections.?The time to act and invest in women is now.

This SDG acknowledges the interconnection between women’s empowerment and a better future for all.

It is here, that Michael House, a few years ago changed the word in our Vision Statement from ‘fostering resilient women’ to ‘empowering resilient women.’

It was interesting to me to read that Michael Kimmel, Executive Director of the?Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities, believes that the model for the centre lies in this one sentence – we cannot fully empower women without also engaging men.?Therefore, I loved one of our goals for this year’s capital campaign – how can we offer mental health counselling to our women’s partners as well as to them? Can we walk with them both and engage them together so they can face the future with the same tools?

“The world has changed, and these changes are impacting women. Poverty has deepened, the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women are under attack, climate change is upon us, and changes in technology are also disproportionately impacting women,” says Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, chair at Women Deliver and former United Nations under-secretary-general.

The Zonta Club of Guelph has come alongside Michael House for this very reason. It is their goal to empower women through service and advocacy and they see that in us – we are thankful for their partnership.