What is the Gender Equity Commission?
MISSION & VISION
The mission of the Gender Equity Commission is to achieve equity for women and girls in the City of Pittsburgh. Our vision is a future in which everyone in the City of Pittsburgh, regardless of gender identity or expression, is safe in all spaces, empowered to achieve their full potential, and no longer faces structural or institutional barriers to economic, social, and political equality.
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About the GEC
Ordinance No. 34 Chapter 177C, passed by the Mayor and City Council in December 2016, created the Gender Equity Commission (GEC). The GEC is responsible for identifying how and to what extent discrimination manifests against all women and girls, including trans women and gender fluid individuals, in the City of Pittsburgh. The GEC was created based upon the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Watch the brief 2017 TEDx presentation below to learn more about CEDAW and making the global local.
Gender Equity Commissioners collaborate most closely with the Executive Director, a staff person in the Mayor's Office of Equity, to oversee analyses of existing gender inequity and create recommendations for overcoming these barriers. The recommendations will be used to inform City policies and practices to uphold the principles of CEDAW locally.
The Commission will conduct a multi-year, multi-phase city-wide Gender Analysis. A CEDAW tool, gender analyses focus on using disaggregated data to address intersectional gender discrimination, including identity, expression, sexuality, race and ethnicity, diverse abilities, education, income, and other factors. Based upon the equity disparities identified in the local gender analyses, the GEC will work with the Mayor's Office and City Council to create action plans, then monitor and guide their implementation.
The plans will focus on areas the gender analysis deems crucial to women and girls. These areas may include but are not limited to:
- Education, including free or affordable early childhood education; support for high-quality public education; equitable out-of-school educational programs; and developed youth employment or internship opportunities.
- Economic development, comprised of employment opportunities, promotion, job security, and all benefits and conditions of service; safe and affordable housing and transportation; and access to financial services.
- Violence against women and girls, in such areas as rehabilitation; police enforcement of penalties against perpetrators; support services for victims; and gender sensitive training for City employees.
- Delivery of city services, so that gender equity permeates every level of City operations, and City services are considered and deployed using a gender equity lens.
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