Women's organizations are different: their response to shifts in Canadian policy

[Paragraph 1 of Introduction]: There are an estimated 200,000 nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations in Canada today offering a wide array of services to all segments of the population, ranging from food banks, women’s shelters, children’s aid societies, and immigrant service organizations to environmental protection agencies, opera companies and sporting societies (Browne, 1996). A significant, but unknown, percentage of voluntary organizations are led by women and governed by boards that are predominantly made up of women. Despite the 2 pervasiveness of these organizations, there has been little research focusing on them. We seek to redress this neglect by comparing 351 women’s voluntary organizations to 294 ‘other’ (gender neutral) voluntary organizations. Specifically, this paper investigates whether there are differences in attitudes, behaviours and perceptions between the leaders of women’s voluntary organizations and the leaders of ‘other’ voluntary organizations regarding: 1) perceptions of the environment; 2) outlook for the future; 3) perceptions of the impact of the external environment on the organization; 4) organizational changes made in response to environmental pressures; and 5) collaborative behaviour and attitudes. Keywords: CVSS, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Working Paper Series,TRSM, Ted Rogers School of Management Citation: