Thank you.
Good afternoon, everybody.
My name is Carey Calder. I am a two-spirited Ojibway woman originally from northwestern Ontario, and I relocated to Ottawa about seven years ago. I am the manager of labour market development with the Native Women's Association of Canada, otherwise known as NWAC.
NWAC is one of the five national aboriginal organizations in Canada and the only one specifically representing aboriginal women. Our mission is to facilitate aboriginal women's meaningful participation in the development of legislation and policies that reflect the unique needs of aboriginal women.
We strive to highlight best practice models and policy using a culturally relevant gender-based analysis in all of the approaches to the work that we do. NWAC has led the development of the CRGBA, or culturally relevant gender-based analysis tool, which provides a holistic policy perspective on where aboriginal women stand on issues and is particularly relevant to identify desired outcomes and measures of performance.
For example, using the CRGBA, one might look at the social determinants of health that have been identified in Canada, in that just being aboriginal already puts you at a disadvantage but being aboriginal and female is a double disadvantage. So we have to take that into consideration when looking at policies and programs.
NWAC is the expert at applying the CRGBA lens to legislation and policy, so it is with great interest that we are able to participate here today and provide some comments on increasing the participation of women in non-traditional occupations.
Our key message today in using the CRGBA context is to appropriately support the participation of aboriginal women in non-traditional occupations: first, to ensure that aboriginal women have equitable access and are represented and reflected in non-traditional occupations; and secondly, that aboriginal women are under-represented in all occupations, yet we have rising rates of attainment in post-secondary in the business, health, and education fields.
Further to the first point, just to start, in order to increase participation we must ensure that aboriginal women have equitable access and are represented and respected in the non-traditional occupations.
Aboriginal women who seek a rewarding career in trades, industry sectors, and apprenticeships continue to face barriers that impact equitable access and participation levels. We must first address the existing barriers that are beyond the control of job seekers. We have to consider that gender-based analysis, and certainly a culturally relevant gender-based analysis, was not utilized when recruitment strategies were originally designed. The planning around how this might have happened or evolved wasn't part of the initial discussions, so now we have to find ways to ensure that women have access and are equitably represented in all these occupations.
It is not enough to simply state a target for participation levels, although that would at least be a start. We have to make sure that all avenues and doors are opened and that we are adequately prepared to meet the unique challenges of aboriginal women.
So it's things like, how are maternity leave policies built into career plans? Is it encouraged within those environments? How does it affect their seniority when they come back to work?
We need real strategies to address the racism and the sexism that still exists in these environments. Conversations held within male-dominated work environments are not always conducive to a healthy welcoming environment for women. So we must recognize that there may need to be a cultural shift within certain environments in order to increase the participation levels in a sustainable way.
In terms of some of the recommendations, we have seen a growing focus on getting aboriginal people, in particular youth, into trades through marketing and promotional campaigns. Yet this often lacks a connection with the employers. There needs to be real and actual opportunities for paid employment or on-the-job training, and employer commitments to apprenticeship agreements. This means shifting attention to the employers so that the demographic breakdown of their workforce is, firstly, shared, and that it is clearly understood. So how have they been performing in their own recruitment and retention strategies; and does the governing legislation, wherever those employers are located, also support the strategies they have in place? What is their demonstrated commitment to ensure aboriginal workers are well represented in the workforce? And more to the point, what specific considerations have been made for aboriginal women?
Secondly, one of our messages is that to increase the participation rates of aboriginal women in one particular sector, we must first look at the fact that aboriginal women are under-represented in all occupations, despite raised rates of attainment in post-secondary in the business, health, and education fields.
There's a noted decrease in the proportion of aboriginal women who are obtaining their trades certificates. For example, between 2001 and 2006 it went from 12% to 9%, and yet there's an overall increase in educational attainment based on the completion of college diplomas and university degrees. In 2006 aboriginal women were more likely to have a college and university credential than their male counterparts.
It's also important to note that the gap between aboriginal women and non-aboriginal women narrowed between 2001 and 2006. Basically what we're seeing is a trend toward aboriginal women who are demonstrating significant successes when it comes to post-secondary attainment. They're not necessarily always getting into the trade.
The recommendation based on that is that due to the fact that aboriginal women are under-represented in all occupations, we need to promote that opportunities appropriately be in place to ensure that demonstrated successes are then realized in actual employment. Focus employment initiatives for women in areas where they're attaining higher education based on where they want to be. Meet the need and the demand, which then provides the framework and the best practice models to apply in this area of work that you're doing. It's important that we not be reactionary in our responses to what is the sector of the day and try to stream people into certain areas.
In closing, we also want to address the term “non-traditional occupations”. The assumption there is that the reference here is to occupations within male-dominated environments such as trades, transport, and industry. It's critical to point out that women continue to be under-represented in management occupations generally. One could argue that senior management and decision-making occupations could also be defined as non-traditional for women, and that strategies, policies, and discussions in this area also need to be addressed. Strategies must provide models of inclusion of aboriginal women as full participants in the economic benefits that Canada has to offer.
Thank you for the opportunity to be able to present to the Standing Committee on the Status of Women and we look forward to our continued involvement in this area.