Spring 2017

University of Waterloo’s role in HeForShe Impact 10x10x10

UWaterloo joins the Movement

Lindsay Glofcheskie

What is the Impact program?

In 2014 Emma Watson, the United Nations Women Goodwill ambassador, announced a new initiative to the world: HeForShe, an initiative that explicitly includes men in the drive for gender equality. More recently (2015), a new program called Impact 10x10x10 was initiated. The Impact program geared into motion to ensure that there would be lasting change in government, the private sector, and the lives of youth during the early stages of HeForShe’s implementation [1]. The program chooses ten head of state champions, ten corporate champions, and ten educational leader champions to lead each of their sectors towards gender equality [2]. Each champion works with their organization to put together a large-scale action plan in order to empower girls and women within their jurisdiction [1].

Chosen universities strive to empower and to show everyone the benefits of gender equality on their campuses. The universities will do this by committing to three main goals:

Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment – bringing in gender sensitization programs for all students on campus.
Launch and Leadership – including HeForShe mobilization initiatives on campus to track how active their campus is with the initiative.
Unique Contribution – each campus will create a university specific goal that benefits their surrounding community.

University of Waterloo (UWaterloo) HeForShe Goals

As a university champion UWaterloo has put together three goals that we are working towards together. These goals, along with milestones UWaterloo has already reached, are provided below:

1. UWaterloo hopes to increase admissions of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math programs (STEM) to 33% by 2020

Currently

Women entering STEM programs and assorted events have received scholarships.

In the future

By April 2017, UWaterloo plans to launch a STEM website that outlines experiences for women across campus that will target girls in Aboriginal communities. UWaterloo also plans to have more campus-wide student engagement.

2. UWaterloo is aiming to have 30% female faculty by 2020

Currently

Eight grants of ten thousand dollars have been announced to support research that investigates gender equality.

In the future

UWaterloo strives to review recruitment and hiring policies in order to ensure they promote an equitable chance for both female and male prospective staff and faculty.

3. UWaterloo plans to include 29% female leadership by 2020

Currently

UWaterloo has implemented round-table meetings to ask current faculty and staff how to help females become university leaders.

In the future

UWaterloo plans to organize a program that focuses on leadership and mentoring to help everyone across campus and to have a lecture series that highlights female academics and equity research [3].

What can you do?

Respect everyone around you and help to create a safe environment at UWaterloo
Attend events supporting the university’s effort. (A calendar of upcoming and past events is available here)
Make the HeForShe commitment and let your voice make a difference
Volunteer to help with some of these outreach events (contact the proper faculty’s outreach administrator)

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