About Us

Our Story

Drawing on more than a decade of cutting-edge research and policy work, the Centre for Gender & Sexual Health Equity (CGSHE) was formally established as an academic centre in 2018. CGSHE is a University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine research centre, affiliated with Simon Fraser University and Providence Health Care, with over 35 faculty members. CGSHE hosts a large cohort of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, operations and research admin teams, as well as UBC and SFU project teams across two sites and virtually.

The centre is founded on a well-established infrastructure of research, education, policy, and knowledge translation at UBC and SFU, bringing together faculty members, their trainees and research staff since 2010. Our work spans departments, schools and disciplines, including social medicine, public health, family medicine, obstetrics, nursing, social sciences, gender and labour studies, and policy. We are committed to intersectional and collaborative approaches to advancing gender equity and sexual health for all.

CGSHE regularly provides expert evidence and consultation to all levels of government, including City of Vancouver taskforces, BC Ministry of Health, BC and National Inquiries into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, federal Ministry of Justice, House of Commons, Status of Women Canada, and Public Health Agency of Canada.

As leaders in the field of gender and sexual health equity, the Centre also provides expert evidence and guideline development to international policy bodies including Amnesty International, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, United Nations Population Fund, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Refugee Agency, and World Health Organization.

In 2019, CGSHE at UBC received funding from the federal Ministry of Women and Gender Equality to advance research, evidence-based policy, and practice responses to gender equity and gender-based violence among women and LGBTQ/2S+ people using an intersectional feminist lens. CGSHE also serves as the annual Canadian host for World Sexual Health Day.