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What is IDEA?
Inclusion refers to a sense of belonging. Creating an inclusive environment means everyone feels welcome, respected, and valued, and is supported to fully participate as their true selves.
Diversity includes a wide range of people from different social locations with different identities, experiences, and perspectives. These differences include race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, religion, ability, among others.
Equity seeks to level the playing field by providing everyone with the tools and supports they need to succeed. Equity focuses on equal outcome rather than equal treatment.
Accessibility eliminates barriers that prevent people from participating and succeeding in the workplace. Universal design pre-emptively eliminates barriers rather than addressing them later.
Sex, Gender, Sexuality
What is sex?
Sex is a way of classifying people based on a person’s sexual anatomy and reproductive organs. There are three sex categories: female, male, and intersex. The two-sex model is used to medically classify people as either male or female, which doesn’t account for natural variation.
What is gender?
Gender is a social and legal classification system. Gender also refers to certain expectations, social customs, and characteristics typically associated with a particular sex. These meanings change over time and vary from culture to culture. The gender binary is a system that classifies people into one of two genders (woman or man) based on the two-sex model (female or male).
Gender identity is an internal sense of being a woman, man, both, or neither. One’s gender identity may or may not align with the gender one was assigned at birth.
What is sexuality?
Sexuality encompasses a person’s sexual orientation, sexual preferences, and sexual behaviours. Sexual orientation describes a person’s sexual attraction to a particular gender or gender(s). There are many sexual orientations, including straight or heterosexual, gay or homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, queer, asexual, and many more.
Gender: Key Terms
Gender identity is an internal sense of being a woman, man, both, or neither. One’s gender identity may or may not align with the gender one was assigned at birth.
Transgender is an umbrella term that refers to people whose gender identity is different than the gender they were assigned at birth. It refers to many different gender identities including... nonbinary, bigender, agender, genderfluid, genderqueer, trans woman, trans man, trans feminine, trans masculine, transsexual.
Cisgender describes individuals whose gender identity matches the gender they were assigned at birth. The term cisgender refers to non-trans people.
Reminder: Do not assume someone’s gender identity.
The gender binary is a system that classifies people into one of two genders (woman or man). Nonbinary is an umbrella term that describes individuals who identify outside of the gender binary.
What are pronouns?
Pronouns are words that you use to substitute for a noun. For example, me, I, you, we, us, they, who, and that are pronouns. Gender pronouns reflect a person’s gender. Common gender pronouns include: he/him/his, she/her/hers, they/them/theirs.
