Accelerate Action: Celebrating International Women’s Day at CMHA Ottawa

Mar 8, 2025

For International Women’s Day 2025, we wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the women of CMHA Ottawa.

From our clients who are women, to some of our peers and the women members of our Peer Engagement Advisory Council (PEAC), to all of the women on our dedicated frontline staff and steadfast enabling teams, to the women of the management team, at the leadership table, and the women of our esteemed Board of Directors, we want to acknowledge the hard work, dedication, resilience, tenacity and compassion necessary to be a woman in today’s world, especially in the field of community mental health and addictions. 

On Saturday, March 8, 2025, we at CMHA Ottawa are encouraging everyone to celebrate International Women’s Day and imagine a gender-equal world.  

#AccelerateAction 

This year’s theme is Accelerate Action: a call to do everything in our power today to help us reach gender parity tomorrow. According to data from the World Economic Forum, it will take until the year 2158—roughly five generations from now—to reach full gender parity. 

From the International Women’s Day website: “Focusing on the need to Accelerate Action emphasizes the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. It calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face, both in personal and professional spheres.” 

Let’s do our part to Accelerate Action to increase the rate of progress in our community, and in turn, across the world. 

Women and Mental Health 

Encouraging recognition and appreciation of women’s inclusion involves assisting women to make informed decisions about their health. A 2023 poll revealed that 66 per cent of Ontario women between the ages of 18 and 35 are living with a mental health condition.  

Women are nearly twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with depression. When gender bias is present, women’s mental health can be adversely affected, leading to delays and misdiagnoses which ultimately lowers overall healthcare quality. 

Outside of the health system, the inequities experienced by women can lead to strain on their mental health. In Ontario, the hourly wage gap has narrowed six percentage points since 1998 to 13 per cent in 2022 when looking at average hourly wages. This means women employees in Ontario earned $0.87 (or 13%) for every dollar earned by their male counterparts.  

The gender wage gap is larger for racialized women, women who are newcomers, women with disabilities, Indigenous women, and trans women. 

At CMHA Ottawa, we’re striving to do our part. Of the 1,463 individuals served in 2023-2024, 588—or 40 per cent—were women. This 40 per cent represents women in Ottawa who are experiencing severe and persistent mental illness and/or substance use disorder, many of whom—upon entry into service—were experiencing chronic homelessness, were justice-involved, in hospital, or facing many of the challenges that come from lack of access to the social determinants of health that so many of us take for granted. 

Show your support for #IWD2025 by visiting the International Women’s Day website and sharing on social media how you choose to #AccelerateAction. 

The Canadian Mental Health Association, Ottawa Branch (CMHA Ottawa), is an independent, community-based non-profit organization that provides services for eligible individuals in the Ottawa area with severe and persistent mental illness and/or substance use disorder, many of whom are experiencing chronic homelessness or are vulnerably housed. CMHA Ottawa is dedicated to promoting good mental health, developing and implementing sustainable support systems and services, and encouraging public action to strengthen community mental health services and related policies and legislation.