Ms. Mathyssen, thank you for you question.
I wouldn't want to leave the committee with the impression that I would declare victory on the economic security of women. Absolutely not. What I am saying, though, is that the situation is improving. As I said, we look at post-secondary education...and we're seeing that younger women, in particular, are doing better. That isn't true across all women, but the gap is narrowing. The situation is improving, but we have to be vigilant and explore policy and program options to continue to close the gap.
The differential in wages is one that I know the committee has looked at in the past. The proxy we use to look at the differential is the average hourly wage. That's a different statistic than looking at an annual wage, for instance, and looking at all women by comparison to all men, because it does take into consideration some of the caregiving and other responsibilities that women do take in our society.