An initial review of governance and leadership practices across Waterloo Region’s non-profit sector conducted through feminist and intersectional lenses identified structural biases in leadership recruitment practices. Further, dominant assumptions in organizational or board cultures have placed diverse women at the margins of decision-making in these organizations. 

Women from low-income backgrounds, newcomers, disabled, 2SLGBTQ+, First Peoples, and racialized communities, and those experiencing intersectionality of these, remain drastically underrepresented in non-profit decision-making and leadership roles – the voices of the sector. Non-profit board cultures often privilege white, male perspectives through recruitment processes and ongoing practices, influencing how organizations understand and critically respond to feminist and intersectional issues. In a sector that perceives itself to be “helping,” these are implicit tensions that need to be identified and addressed by feminist-led and women-centered organizations in our community that are committed to working collectively towards transforming such biased systems. 

This project aims to identify specific local barriers limiting women, trans and non-binary people from stepping into non-profit leadership roles and, with a broad spectrum of relevant underrepresented stakeholders engaging, co-creating solutions and tools for making systemic change for their own, and potentially other, communities.