OBA Keeping the Momentum Going with New Awareness Campaign

  • June 26, 2019

The Ontario Bar Association is building Momentum through a unique campaign that shines a light on some of the unconscious biases that can lead to gender inequality in the legal profession.

This visual awareness-raising campaign features posters with exaggerated role reversals that force people to consider why a scenario looks funny and out of place one way, yet still seems normal in the other.

“Imagine a reality where it is no longer easier to automatically process these scenarios in reverse,” says OBA President Lynne Vicars. “Our point is that there is no “right way around” when it comes to inequality; inequality is no one’s role.”

A common theme identified in recent OBA Solution Circles was the need to highlight and remind people about the deep-seated ways inequality occurs. This new campaign is aimed at getting the profession to consider and question some of the unconscious biases that still exist today.

The campaign images are intended to do a few things at once:

  • Highlight the pace of change.  The vintage aesthetic looks outdated; but the biases presented remain prevalent even in 2019. The aesthetic  is anachronistic, and we think gender bias should be too
  • Draw attention to just how ingrained gender bias is in our profession and society by showing the biases in reverse.

The goal of the new campaign is to draw attention to the topic of gender roles and inequality by engaging the profession, encouraging them to consider changing behaviour or assumptions, and also getting them to share the images through their social networks and in their places of work.

“Everyone has a role to play in advancing gender equality.  We welcome our partners, who also want to get involved and show their commitment to advancing gender equality in the profession, to help keep the momentum going,” Vicars adds.

Law firms may request custom-branded and printed posters of the ads with their logos, free of charge, from the OBA. Click here to learn more about the campaign and to request your copies of the posters.