Global Policy Forum

After decades of working toward income equality, women still lag far behind men in earning power. New research on previously unpublished Statistics Canada data shows women still face severe economic discrimination.

Dr. Karen Hadley is the author of "And We Still Ain't Satisfied," Gender Inequality in Canada: A Status Report for 2001, released jointly by the National Action Committee on the Status of Women and the CSJ Foundation. Her findings were a "startling reflection on the depth and breadth of women's inequality."

The gender gap is much wider than commonly believed. Women's incomes are 61% that of men's and an overwhelming amount live in poverty. Poverty rates of all women are high - about 20% of women live in poverty. Specific groups of women are much harder hit. These include women of colour (37%) and aboriginal women (43%). Women aged 45-64 made only 51% of their male counterparts. Hadley says, "We've got to pay attention to these issues. It is unacceptable for so many women to live in poverty and for women to be continually bear the weight of system-wide failure."

When examining how many women make it to the ranks of the wealthy, the study reveals that not many do. "It's still territory few women can access" says Dr. Hadley. Women are under-represented by almost a 3-fold factor in the top 20% of Canadian earners. Only 11% of women get into the top 20% (after-tax income of $32,367), whereas 29% of men access upper incomes.

Women also are still denied access to many of the prime high paying professions and jobs. Women made up only 5% of skilled trades, 10% of fire and police forces and a meager 21% of senior managers. The barriers to women's employment must be significant to have such results. "Women continue be marginalized and underestimated - glass ceilings are alive and flourishing" says Dr. Hadley.

The study's data is from a special run of Statistics Canada's Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, a monthly survey of 20,000 income earners across Canada. It goes up to 1998, the most recent data available. One bright spot in terms of equality is in the results found for women working in unionized environments. Women make 82% of men's incomes in such environments even when comparing full-time, full-year employment. Unionized settings do much for women's equality: it's the core of the policy recommendations that wrap-up the report.

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