This page features news items that highlight the issues important to women's studies. It is updated on a regular basis, so be sure to check back for new items.
Women's Economic Equality Campaign
The Canadian Labour Congress is sponsoring a year-long campaign on women's economic equality. They have put together an excellent research report, a series of 8 fact sheets (childcare, unions, pay equity, pensions, young women etc), and a site to send letters to MPs.
To find out more about the campaign go to the website at http://canadianlabour.ca/index.php/womens_economic_equa
It's time for Equality! Once and For All!
According to the facts, it just doesn't pay to be a woman in Canada. It doesn't matter where we live. It doesn't matter what we do. It doesn't matter how much we or our parents have invested in a good education. At the end of the day, when women go to work, they get paid less than men. We're still not equal when it comes to the value that's placed on the work that women do in Canada.
According to a new report prepared by the Canadian Labour Congress for International Women's Day, women in Canada earn, on average, 70½ cents for every dollar earned by men for in full-time, full-year jobs. This wage gap between men and women has failed to close and is especially persistent for younger, well-educated women.
In response to these findings, this International Women's Day, the Canadian Labour Congress is launching a year long campaign to highlight and suggest solutions to the ongoing economic inequality experienced by women in Canadian society.
In over 30 cities and towns across the country, women are gathering to discuss wage inequity, the lack of child care, unequal access to Employment Insurance and low and inadequate pensions. Women will be planning a series of actions directed at raising awareness and challenging our elected officials to take action to eliminate economic inequality.
Explore our web site for more information on all the issues. Here you'll find fact sheets on a number of key issues and our research paper which provides the statistical evidence to prove we've got a problem. Check out our "take action" section and send a letter to your Member of Parliament demanding action on women's equality. Come back frequently to follow and participate in our campaign. It's time for action. It's time for Equality! Once and For All!
Funding casualties under the Harper government
From www.albertasenator.ca/hullabaloos
Casualties: Have you Heard?
by Senator Elaine McCoy
The Canadian Health Network (CHN) is the latest in a series of services to be shut down by the Harper government. As of April 1, 2008, the CHN's superb website will be killed. A new site, Healthy Canadians, has been launched instead. If you're looking for unbiased information on, say, abortion, don't go there. The first of 1,670 responses to a search on that word lists a document issued by the Canadian Forest Service (Shoot-tip Abortion and Pseudoterminal Buds) !
The number of funding casualties continues to grow. We did a quick survey the other day, and here are the results:
Closures:
- Canadian Health Network (April 1 '08)
- Women's Future Fund (March 7 '08)
- WISE - Wellbeing through Inclusion Socially and Economically (December '07)
- NAWL - National Association of Women and the Law (September '07)
- DES Action Canada
- Court Challenges Progam (September '06)
Funding Crises:
- NB Coalition of Transition Houses
- National Organization of Immigrant and Visible Minority Women
- Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women
- Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action
These shut-downs and cut backs are all having adverse impacts on information and resources for Canadian women. No doubt there are other organizations facing similar challenges. When will Canadians say enough is enough?
Comment at the blog: www.albertasenator.ca/hullabaloos
Women's wages and market forces
"Legal dropouts"
The retreat of female lawyers proves that a few friendly HR policies
are no match for a business culture that is deeply hostile to
family; and to women's values
A new report from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC),
reveals that on average, women around the world are paid 16 per cent
less than their male work colleagues.
http://www.tuc.org.uk/international/tuc-14408-f0.cfm
Some of us hoped that the days of claiming the productivity and occupational choices of women caused differences in “pay” between men and women were behind us. But no, they persist! A recent report by TD repeats the historic claim as if it was a new and accurate insight.
So, with a major caveat – here is the link to the recent article:
http://www.td.com/economics/special/bc0907_woman.pdf
Many experts including Pat Armstrong of York University have debunked such claims with evidence that even where men and women are in the same occupation, and where productivity is not a differentiating factor, women’s and men’s wages remain differential with women anywhere from 10-30% less than that of their male counterparts.
See also the submission of CAUT to the Federal Pay Equity Review Task Force in 2002, in particular, part 8) of submissions at:
http://www.justice.gc.ca/en/payeqsal/4495c.html
Gender wage gap stays wide
June 12, 2007
OTTAWA A new study has found little progress in closing the wage gap between young men and women.
The Statistics Canada study says the earnings gap between the sexes declined only moderately during the 1990s, despite a dramatic increase in the proportion of young women holding university degrees.
From 1991 to 2001, the proportion of 25- to 29-year-old women holding university degrees went to 34 per cent from 21 while the proportion of men with degrees in their 20s rose only moderately, to 21 per cent from 16.
Yet the gender earnings gap narrowed only slightly, in spite of this sharp increase in the proportion of young women with university degrees and the fact that university degree-holders generally earn more than other workers.
Women in their 20s earned 20 per cent less than men in 1991; by 2001, the gap had narrowed slightly to 18 per cent, primarily due to the higher qualifications among young women.
Statistics Canada says one reason for the disparity is that wage gaps among university graduates actually increased through the 1990s largely due to wage declines in female-dominated disciplines such as health and education, and wage increases in male-dominated disciplines, such as engineering, mathematics, computer sciences and physical sciences.
Who is being squeezed out of higher education?
This article is available at thestar.com
