Thank you.
Thank you, honourable members of the committee, for inviting us to come today. I am joined by Allison Pilon, who is a colleague who works in our programs section as one of our employment equity officers at the PSAC.
As most of you know, the PSAC represents approximately 175,000 workers who work everywhere across Canada. Our members work in federal departments and agencies, museums, airports, and in the para-public and private sectors. Approximately 62% of our members are women, and our members, men and women, work in a host of different types of work, everything from clerical and administrative work to technical, trades, science, and so on.
The PSAC has been engaged in the struggle for economic and social justice for our members and all workers for many years. Pay equity, in our opinion, is essential to the full equality of women in our society and ensures that female-dominated jobs, which have historically been undervalued, are paid equally with male-dominated work of equal value. Another essential piece of the struggle for women's economic and social equality is ensuring that women have access to areas of employment outside of what are seen as traditional female jobs, to have the ability to explore their skills and talents, and to overcome the gender segregation still embedded in the labour market.
The labour market in Canada is in many ways segregated along gender lines. Although women make up about half the workforce in Canada, they are more likely than men to work part-time or in other forms of precarious work. About 40% of working women are in part-time, contract, or other non-standard work arrangements, compared with fewer than 30% of men. Of those women who do work part-time, the majority do so out of necessity. Only 28% of women who work part-time choose to do so out of personal preference. Most have to do so because they cannot find full-time work, because they are in school, or are caring for their children or aging parents and don't have access to adequate child care or family services.
The situation is more pronounced for racialized and immigrant women, aboriginal women, and women with disabilities. Racialized women are more likely to be working in the low-wage service sector and in part-time work. Many immigrant women are underemployed and are unable to work in the field in which they were trained and they are also more likely to work part-time. Aboriginal women have among the highest unemployment rate in Canada and are employed mainly in lower-paying service sector jobs. Women with disabilities are often unemployed or underemployed because so many workplaces remain inaccessible. More than two-thirds of women work in occupations traditionally held by women, such as nursing, teaching, clerical, and sales positions, and although women have made significant gains over the past few decades, in many areas we are still largely excluded from blue-collar jobs, skilled trades, and professions such as sciences and engineering. As of 2006, women represented only 21% of those employed in primary occupations, 6.5% of those employed in trades, transport, and construction, and only 31% of those in processing, manufacturing, and utilities.
Turning to the federal public service, where most of our members work, a number of jobs and occupational categories remain male-dominated. For example, as of March 31, 2008, women represented only 20% of workers in the operational category. These are jobs such as trades, ships' crews, firefighters, and other services. The technical category is also male-dominated, with only 32.5% female representation. This category includes such jobs as engineering and scientific support, technical inspection, and products inspection.
When one looks at how the figures have changed over the past decade or so, there is not a lot to celebrate. That is because although the overall proportion of women in the technical and operational categories has increased, this has not been the result of a significant boost in the hiring of women; rather, it is largely due to a higher rate of attrition for male workers.
Why do we continue to see such a gender gap persist for many jobs?
Women have less access to certain types of education and training. For example, although women represent more than half of all university graduates, the number of women taking engineering and natural sciences has barely increased in almost 20 years. Women certainly do not have access to and are not encouraged to train in the skilled construction trades. Further, fewer women than men have access to employment insurance and therefore cannot access the retraining moneys available under that program. Even when they are on the job, women experience a gender training barrier. Women are less likely to receive employer-sponsored training than men, according to a recent study by Statistics Canada.
Another important barrier to women's access to many job markets is the lack of support for child care and elder care, the unwillingness for employers to provide flexible working hours or other such arrangements, and the fact that women are often penalized for taking extended leaves of absence for child or family care. The view that some jobs, particularly senior managerial positions, skilled manufacturing jobs, or other male-dominated professions, are unsuited to flexible and part-time work arrangements or job-sharing reinforces this gender gap.
For racialized women, immigrant women, aboriginal women, and women with disabilities the barriers to full participation in the labour market are larger and run much deeper. Discrimination and marginalization, lack of access to training and education, lack of recognition of foreign credentials, and lack of accommodation and accessible workplaces all contribute to further labour-market segregation.
Of course, sex discrimination and stereotypical views of women are still prevalent. A sexist culture and harassment in workplaces and in schools still persist and result in many women leaving, even after they've tried to break into non-traditional areas. There must be assurances that when women enter these sectors, harassment and bullying is not tolerated, and workplace cultures ultimately must change.
In the federal public service, approximately one in three women report having been the victim of harassment, and 55% of women reported having been the victim of discrimination on the basis of sex. Unfortunately, the Treasury Board does not provide the breakdown of these numbers by occupational category. This is information we have asked for and have been denied.
There are a number of ways in which these barriers to women's full and equal participation in the labour market can be addressed.
Employment equity legislation must be strengthened. Employment equity policies and programs that specifically focus on bringing women into non-traditional sectors and jobs must be introduced, and they must also ensure that racialized and aboriginal women and women with disabilities have access to these jobs.
Infrastructure moneys should be tied to employment equity requirements. Since most of the infrastructure moneys flow into the creation of traditionally male-dominated jobs with no incentive or obligation for contractors or employers to recruit more women into these jobs, it means that women have been largely shut out of the benefits of these investments.
Prevention of sexual and racial harassment in the workplace is a key component of ensuring women's access to non-traditional areas of employment. There must be proactive obligations for employers to make the workplace welcome to women and to prevent harassment.
The 2006 Harry Arthurs report on employment standards in the federal public sector made some important recommendations that if implemented would mean an improvement for women working in the federal sector. Examples include improvements to family responsibility and parental leaves, protections for nursing mothers, and provisions with respect to training.
Other important measures include better employment standards, retraining funds to allow women to be trained in non-traditional areas of education or skills, improved access to employer-sponsored training, and the promotion of more flexible work arrangements in virtually all types of work.
Finally, to ensure that more women enter areas of non-traditional employment, basic supports are needed. A national child care program and an improved employment insurance program are vital components for ensuring women's full participation in the workforce. Pay equity is also a fundamentally important right for women's social and economic equality.
Thank you.
