Status of Women Committee on June 5th, 2018

[Jennifer Kaddatz]

We can infer some of it from the data in the infographic. Women are spending more time on local and civic issues, and volunteering for schools and clubs, so they may feel that these things are more important than volunteering for political parties.

[Anne Minh-Thu Quach, NDP, Salaberry—Suroît, QC]

We are talking about women in general, but do you have information on racialized women?

Are women in any specific age groups more interested in politics?

Is there any data on women who are racialized, women living in remote regions or aboriginal women?

[Pamela Best]

We have some data on that, but I want to point out once again that the size of the sample is fairly small in the general social survey. If we look at the rate of participation in political organizations, which is already very low, and we focus on various age groups, we see that the data and estimates are increasingly unreliable.

[Jennifer Kaddatz]

We did run a table looking at interest in politics by aboriginal groups. We intended to bring that here today, but for most of the categories of interest on first nations, Métis, and Inuit, we had that E that indicates a large coefficient of variation, which means that because of the small sample size in this survey we can't really analyze those data.

We are making a concerted effort on the GSS to increase our sample sizes for aboriginal people and minority groups so that we can do more, but for this survey on that particular question, we weren't able to tease anything else out of the data.

[Anne Minh-Thu Quach, NDP, Salaberry—Suroît, QC]

Okay.

Rwanda has the highest proportion of women in a political position. The percentage of women in Parliament is 61% there. In Sweden, that percentage is 43.6%. Moreover, some countries have adopted electoral quotas.

Did you ask any questions on the electoral quotas parties have imposed to increase that proportion, given that Canada ranks 60th in the world in that respect?

[Pamela Best]

We did not ask those questions, which are excellent but are not part of the general social survey.

[Anne Minh-Thu Quach, NDP, Salaberry—Suroît, QC]

I am unlucky today.

Did you ask questions on what would encourage women to take an interest in politics?

In women's discussion groups, mentorship is something that comes up often. They are saying that more mentorship is needed.

If there was more, would women be more likely to get involved in politics?

[Pamela Best]

As I said in my presentation, mentorship and leadership were not covered in the general social survey.

[Anne Minh-Thu Quach, NDP, Salaberry—Suroît, QC]

Okay. I have one last question.

Much is being said about barriers in the parliamentary community. Some of the issues brought up are the work-life balance, voting hours and so on.

Do you have any information on that you could share with us?

[Pamela Best]

That was definitely not one of the questions regarding the parliamentary community. A study titled Women in Canada, published by Statistics Canada in collaboration with its partners from Status of Women Canada, contains a chapter that delves into the issue of women and paid work. I don't have that study on hand, but its general focus is women's experience in the job market. I'm not completely sure that it covered issues related to the work-life balance, but that chapter focuses on all women and their paid work.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

We're now going to Pam Damoff.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Thanks, Chair.

You were talking about the survey. Is anything in there about the nomination process, about how many women run for nomination? Would it make sense for that to fall within Elections Canada versus StatsCan?

[Pamela Best]

I can't really answer that because I don't know what the mandate is of Elections Canada. Statistics Canada, in this context, is basing its data on a household survey, It's a general population survey.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Right. It wouldn't be possible for you to track how many women run for a nomination or some of the more specific things that I think some of us have had an interest in?

[Jennifer Kaddatz]

It might be possible to track, but not in our vehicles that we use right now in our current surveys.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

It wouldn't be done on a regular basis either. You'd be doing it every five to seven years.

[Jennifer Kaddatz]

That could be negotiated. If it was a brand new survey or a brand new administrative instrument that we're doing, the timeliness could always be negotiated. It's mainly the general social survey that we work on that's every five to seven years. Other surveys at Statistics Canada run with different frequencies.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Can you explain to me the difference between the general social survey and the study that you did, “Civic Engagement and Political Participation in Canada”? That report drew data from the general social survey, right?

[Pamela Best]

The general social survey is a survey program that encompasses a number of different cycles. The cycle that was of interest here today was the cycle on social identity, which had the questions on civic engagement. The GSS also gathers data on a cyclical basis for caregiving and care receiving, giving, volunteering and participating, victimization, etc. Every year there is a cycle of general social survey. Every five to six or seven years, the data that we're collecting is different.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

You also did a report, “Civic Engagement and Political Participation in Canada”. That's where these stats are coming from.

[Pamela Best]

That's right, and those are derived from the general social survey.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Okay. That report probably has a lot more data that would be of interest to us, because you mentioned something about more women are involved in schools and clubs.

What are the breakdowns? Often, people who run for political office need large networks. Depending on what your volunteerism is, it may be that those organizations are smaller rather than larger. Other than schools and clubs, what would you look at?

[Pamela Best]

What we do know—

[Anna Kemeny]

I have some of the numbers here. For example, if you look at being members of a school group, neighbourhood or civic organization, we have 20% of women and 15% of men who are members. We have talked already about members of political groups. I could actually get you the data for a number of other things if you're interested, such as sports organizations, unions, cultural organizations, the whole variety of them. We can send those to you if you like.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

I'd be very interested in seeing—