Thank you very much, that's an excellent question as well.
I'm glad we're having this conversation in terms of pay equity being one component of addressing the gender wage gap. It certainly is a component, but it is really only one component.
We know there are a range of factors that are influencing the gender wage gap. I've talked a little bit about some of them—overrepresentation in lower-paying fields, under-representation in higher-paying fields—also overrepresentation of women in part-time work, lack of representation in senior positions and on boards, as well as women's greater share of unpaid work. I think about my own experience raising children and all of the time that goes into actually raising children that prevents you from possibly pursuing further education or training opportunities that might allow you to advance in your career, or even doing the very valuable networking in certain sectors that is essential to moving up in the ranks.
This discrimination and bias against women, even though we talk about the progress we've made in terms of women's rights, we still see a strong discrimination in certain sectors. When I talk about the Prime Minister's role around leadership, it's really because he's exercising his power in a way that's sponsoring women into higher positions. This doesn't happen across sectors. Quite frequently what happens is that the senior leader says, “Hey, does anyone know of a great guy for this vice-president position?” and four names of men come forward, rather than any names of women. That's because the network is primarily composed of men who are sponsoring other men.
Therefore, there are a number of reasons for the gender wage gap, not the least of which is pay equity, but certainly there are a lot of systemic, cultural, and practical considerations.
If I have another minute, Madam Chair, Status of Women actually has a number of actions across the range of those issues, whether it's looking for ways to empower women to seize leadership opportunities, working with corporations and boards to grow the pipeline and make sure there are women leaders in the pipeline, or looking for ways that we can actually work with our ministerial colleagues to address some of the legislative barriers to women fully participating in the workforce.