EDIA & women's advancement

Equity work measured in who gets hired, promoted, funded, and heard.

We support organizations to move past statements and into practice: assessing where inequity is actually produced in your systems, changing the mechanisms that produce it, and tracking whether the numbers move.

Services

Where we work.

  • Assessment

    Equity assessments & climate surveys

    Confidential staff surveys, focus groups, and policy review — mapped against workforce data to show where representation and experience diverge by group.

  • Systems

    Hiring, promotion & pay practice

    Job design and posting language, structured interviewing, scoring rubrics, promotion criteria, and pay equity analysis with a remediation plan.

  • Strategy

    EDIA strategy & action plans

    A costed plan with owners, milestones, and public reporting commitments — written so a board can hold someone accountable to it.

  • Learning

    Training that changes behaviour

    Bias-interrupting practice for hiring panels and managers, inclusive facilitation, anti-racism foundations, and GBA Plus applied to your own programs.

  • Research

    Equity-centred research practice

    Inclusive study design, disaggregated data collection done safely, community co-researcher models, and reporting that avoids deficit framing.

Two women working together at laptops
Leadership cohort session
Supporting women in research and leadership

A dedicated stream, because the drop-off happens at predictable points.

Sponsorship, not just mentorship

Structured programs pairing women and gender-diverse staff with senior sponsors who are accountable for advocating in rooms they are not in.

Leadership cohorts

Twelve-week cohorts covering negotiation, budget authority, research leadership, board readiness, and navigating organizations that were not designed for you.

Return and retention

Practical support around parental leave transitions, flexible work design, and the mid-career point where attrition concentrates.

Grant and publication support

Writing clinics, internal review panels, and peer accountability groups for women researchers building an independent track record.

Recognition

We profile and amplify women-led research and community initiatives through our publications and events, with a focus on work that rarely gets a platform.

Employer diagnostics

An audit of where women stall in your organization — applications, shortlists, promotions, pay bands, exits — and the specific mechanisms behind each drop.

People placing their hands together in the middle of a group
Community advisory table
Reach and inclusion commitment

Programs and resources reach the communities that need them.

Our purposes commit us to promoting equity, inclusion, and accessibility by ensuring programs and resources are available to underserved and marginalised communities. Concretely: subsidised and funded places in every open program, materials released free and openly licensed, plain-language versions of technical publications, and delivery arrangements that account for travel, childcare, and scheduling barriers.

Where a community organization wants to run our curriculum themselves, we license it to them at no cost and train their facilitators.

Measurement

What we track, so the plan cannot quietly stall.

Equity plans fail in a predictable way: the commitments are real, and nobody measures the pipeline. These are the points where we build in counting.

  • Attraction

    Applicant composition by role level, and where in the posting or channel the pool narrows.

  • Selection

    Shortlist and offer rates by group, and whether structured scoring is actually used or overridden.

  • Progression

    Time in grade, promotion rates, and access to the stretch assignments that promotions are based on.

  • Pay

    Unexplained pay gaps within bands, and starting-salary negotiation outcomes by group.

  • Experience

    Belonging, psychological safety, and accommodation experience — reported separately by group, never as one average.

  • Exit

    Voluntary turnover and exit reasons by group, and the tenure point where departures cluster.

Disaggregated data is collected under a stated purpose, with informed consent, small-cell suppression, and a governance rule about who may see what — the same standard we apply to our own research.

In practice
Start a conversation

Tell us what you are trying to change.

Most engagements begin with a 30-minute scoping call. Bring the problem, the timeline, and whatever evidence you already have — we will tell you honestly whether we are the right partner, and what a realistic scope looks like.

  • Fixed-fee scopes with deliverables agreed in writing before work starts.
  • Not-for-profit and community rates, plus pro bono capacity each year.
  • Bilingual delivery (English and French) and fully accessible materials.
  • Every engagement leaves behind tools your team can use without us.