An Update On Chatelaine’s Inclusivity Goals

In our September 2020 issue, I wrote about our team’s commitment to building a more inclusive Chatelaine—and we pledged that, going forward, 40 percent of our freelance content would be created by writers who are Black, Indigenous or otherwise racialized. One year later, I’m pleased to report that we’ve succeeded in this goal: We’ve dipped below this percentage during certain months, and surpassed it in others, but on average over the past year, 43 percent of our freelance content was written by racialized writers.

This said, there is always room for improvement. Our next goal? To create a paid fellowship for mid-career journalists from under-represented communities, to give them an opportunity to embed with our team full-time. There are some logistics I’m working on in order to make this happen; I’ll share more when I can. Our intention is to launch this fellowship in the first half of 2022.

This update isn’t for a pat on the back, but rather to keep us accountable. Above all, I want you to know that we remain committed to helping broaden the scope of Canadian journalism. And if there’s more you want to see or hear from us in this regard, please send us a note at editor@chatelaine.com—I read every single message we receive.