I can speak to senior women, not specifically to EI, but I have been looking at the incomes of seniors and how that's changed over the past decade.
They've improved for women quite a bit over the last decade, given that the most recent cohort of women entering retirement are much more likely than their predecessors to have access to the Canada Pension Plan benefits, because they have so much more experience in the labour force than earlier generations of women.
They're also much more likely—I can't remember the numbers off the top of my head—to have a pension plan with an employer. This gives them an income that is completely independent of their spouse. So the biggest problem for women is becoming a widow. When a woman becomes a widow, she loses a lot of the family income immediately. This now becomes a situation where these women do have at least some income that is not dependent on their spouse.
I think there is some reason to actually be a bit more optimistic for senior women on that front.