Toward an inclusive economy: BMO donates $1.5 million to the Institute for Gender and the Economy

Aug 15, 2023
A woman carrying a backpack walks up the pink staircase at the Rotman School
Photo by Nick Iwanyshyn

A gift from BMO will enable the Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE) at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management to drive its mission: to use rigorous academic research to change the conversation on gender and the economy.

The generous donation of $1.5 million will support GATE’s research agenda, including a global collaboration on the care economy and studies of behavioural interventions to create inclusive organizations.

The gift will provide funding for the newly renamed BMO GATE MBA Fellowships, which issue a bursary each year for five Rotman students to work on a project related to the mandate of GATE. The inaugural recipients are Syed Ahmad Nafisul Abrar, Alex Foty, NIshtha Taneja, Wendy Nguyen and Corrina Vali.

We are grateful to BMO for recognizing the importance of rigorous research and training on achieving a more inclusive economy.

“BMO’s gift is transformational for GATE. Their backing supports cutting-edge research and ensures our MBA Fellowships program can continue for the next five years. We are grateful to BMO for recognizing the importance of rigorous research and training on achieving a more inclusive economy,” says Sarah Kaplan, GATE Director and Distinguished Professor of Gender & the Economy at the Rotman School.

“GATE’s research is driving the discourse on gender and the economy forward, providing important data and evidence that can be used to inform systemic change here in Canada and around the world,” says Helen Seibel, Head of Employee and Community Giving at BMO. “Supporting research like this is an important part of how BMO is eliminating barriers to a more inclusive society.”

We are grateful to BMO for recognizing the importance of rigorous research and training on achieving a more inclusive economy.

The Institute for Gender and the Economy works to understand and remedy inequalities in the world of business

Since GATE was founded in 2016 by Prof. Kaplan, it has promoted an understanding of gender and other inequalities and how they can be remedied in the world of business and, more broadly, the economy. GATE has funded over 50 group and individual researchers investigating topics as varied as de-biasing job ads, care work, fair lending practices and women in STEM. It has engaged hundreds of undergraduate, MBA and Ph.D. students in taking a gender-inclusive perspective to create innovative solutions to complex problems through design sprints, case competitions and the MBA Student Fellowship Program.

GATE also brings its transformational insights to a broad range of audiences through its platforms, including social media, webinars, public events, conferences and courses, including an offering on Gender Analytics with Coursera and a Rotman Executive program on Inclusion by Design.

The gift supports the University of Toronto’s Defy Gravity Campaign, the largest university campaign in Canadian history. Defy Gravity is about addressing the most urgent issues of our time by rebuilding the world around us to be more inclusive and responsible.

For the complete press release, please visit the Rotman School of Management

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