Women face economic insecurity, domestic violence and increased caretaking responsibilities: group
Lawyers Godyne Sibay and Lisa Borsook have joined The Prosperity Project, which seeks to support the success and well-being of Canadian women affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Godyne Sibay is Ontario regional managing partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP and a member of its real property, project development and infrastructure groups in Toronto.
Sibay has been the co-chairperson of the Urban Land Institute’s Women’s Leadership Initiative in Toronto and of the United Way’s Women Gaining Ground Initiative. She is also a founding member of Women in Infrastructure’s Toronto chapter and a member of Toronto Commercial Real Estate Women (Toronto CREW).
Lisa Borsook is executive partner and former managing partner of WeirFoulds LLP. She is co-chairperson of the firm’s commercial leasing practice group and a member of its corporate group and its women lawyers group. She also represents the firm as part of the Law Firm Diversity and Inclusion Network.
Borsook is a member of the Law Society of Ontario’s Equity Advisory Group and the International Women’s Forum. She has worked with numerous community and charity initiatives, including acting as board member of the Women’s Brain Health Initiative.
“As one of the first women managing partners of a major law firm, Lisa fought to bring issues concerning women in the workplace to the forefront in her work and continues to be a champion of these causes both in the legal and business marketplace,” said WeirFoulds in a news release.
The Prosperity Project, a Toronto-based not-for-profit organization consisting of more than 60 Canadian women leaders, has identified economic insecurity, domestic violence and increased caretaking responsibilities as some of the problems facing women and girls in the context of the public health crisis.
To proactively address these issues, the organization has declared five initiatives, which are to match private sector professionals with non-profit organizations, to embark on a national long-term study on prosperity, to track the spending power of women, to undertake annual data tracking and to encourage people to join the organization as Friends of The Prosperity Project.
The organization has recognized that maintaining Canada’s progress toward gender equality is crucial in advancing the country’s broader social and economic recovery.
The organization has adopted an intersectional and inclusive approach to ensure that Indigenous women, women of colour, women in the LGBTQ2+ community, women refugees and women with disabilities are not excluded from its initiatives.
Aside from Sibay and Borsook, Christy Clark, former B.C. Premier and senior advisor at Bennett Jones LLP, also joined The Prosperity Project. Clark has been described as the longest serving female Premier in Canadian history and the only Canadian woman to ever be re-elected.
