Campaign to Raise Awareness of Everyday Sexism Recognized at the OSEntreprendre Challenge

The initiative, spearheaded by a student team from INRS, was one of five provincial finalists.

Photo from left to right : Linsey Yvette Mouatcho, Léa Maude Gobeille Paré, Hermine Counil, Jessica Dozois, Eve Bernet.

The “Le sexisme ordinaire, ce n’est pas banal” (Everyday Sexism is Not Acceptable) awareness initiative was honoured in the Student category of the 26^th OSEntreprendre Challenge. This province-wide competition, which receives hundreds of entries each year, highlights innovative entrepreneurial projects that stand out in the business ecosystem.

Created by students and staff at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), the “Le sexisme ordinaire, pas notre genre” (Everyday Sexism: Not for Us) campaign was one of five finalists in this major competition. It was joined by other projects focusing on social and cultural entrepreneurship: Balado Nuance from Université Laval, Cultur’elles MTL from the Université du Québec à Montréal, ExoFlex from the Université de Sherbrooke, and Tutorat Junior from the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi.

« Through our entrepreneurial initiatives, we’re fighting for the future of women and gender minorities. The fact that we made it to the finals of the OSEntreprendre Challenge shows the importance of dialogue and transparency around these everyday issues. »

 Comité d’action contre le sexisme ordinaire (CACSO)

Over 600 guests from all over Quebec attended the award ceremony—exceptional visibility for this innovative project and the INRS community as a whole.

A project by and for the university community

The “Le sexisme ordinaire, ce n’est pas banal” (Everyday Sexism is Not Acceptable) initiative was born out of a common observation by female INRS students and staff members: everyday sexism is rife in academia and in laboratories.

In response to these testimonials, the Comité d’action contre le sexisme ordinaire (CACSO) was formed in May 2022 by students Eve Bernet, Mathilde Broquière, Sarah Cavo, Hermine Counil, Jessica Dozois, Apolline Maurin, and Linsey Yvette Mouatcho, with the support of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Advisor Léa Maude Gobeille Paré and INRS social worker Élizabeth Doiron-Gascon.

The committee organizes discussion workshops to break the silence and create an inclusive listening space. In January 2023, this promising project received a grant of nearly $17,000 from the Secrétariat à la Condition féminine to pursue the committee’s actions.

CACSO campaign to spread the word

Later, in 2024, the CASCO launched an awareness campaign. It offers a variety of free tools, mostly in French, to help the academic and scientific community raise awareness about the consequences of everyday sexism.

This led to the creation of a guide  for a workshop on everyday sexism, as well as five cartoon strips (in French and English) created with illustrator Sophie Bédard. Inspired by real-life testimonials from members of the INRS community, these illustrations highlight the impact that sexist words and actions can have on their subjects. All these tools can be downloaded from the INRS website and are free for the academic community to use to spread the word.

In February 2024, the committee also organized a lecture by Farah Alibay, NASA aerospace engineer, speaker, and author from Quebec. The INRS-exclusive event was attended by over 130 people.

The CACSO plans to use a model of horizontal cooperation and collective action to continue deploying tools and activities to combat systemic problems rooted in the higher education environment.