Thank you.
Good morning. I'm the director of industry relations at Women Building Futures. I'll be speaking about the measures and strategies that we use, and that can be used, to increase women's entry, participation, retention, and representation in positions of economic leadership.
Since 1998 Women Building Futures, or WBF, as we call ourselves, has been the leader in preparing women for economically prosperous careers in industries where women have historically been under-represented. We have focused on construction, maintenance, and transportation. These careers lead to economic freedom, personal confidence, and growth, which are, as you can see, transformational for women, their families, and communities. WBF has extensive experience in recruiting and ensuring career success for women within these industries at a consistent employment rate of over 90%.
What is the reality today? Let's start there. Women make up almost half the workforce in Canada, yet they are still under-represented in these industries. According to Statistics Canada, the number of women who held trade certificates in 2015 was 7%, as compared with 10% in 1991, so we're actually decreasing. The number of women involved in apprenticeships is still low, with 86% of trades apprenticeships held by men. Women Building Futures is working hard to change that.
The average woman working full time in Canada, as we likely all know, makes an average of $32,000 per year, which is 66% less than the average for a male. There are many reasons for that, which I'm sure others will go into, but one key reason is that women are still working in occupations that have lower wages. Higher education was once an argument for why women made less, but we know now that although more women in Canada have post-secondary degrees as compared with men, they're still making less. For example, truck drivers, 97% of whom are male, make an average annual wage of $45,000, whereas childhood educators, 97% of whom are female, make $25,000. This is why at WBF we focus on economic leadership through entry-level careers that can be broken into very easily, relatively quickly, and lead to economic prosperity. We teach career paths from there.
A really good example is that in 2016, the average hourly wage for industrial, electrical, and construction trades, including carpenters, was about $28 per hour, translating to an annual wage of roughly $58,000. A career path for a carpenter could lead to construction project manager, and an average senior-level construction project manager with between five and 10 years of experience makes over $100,000. That's a really good example of career-pathing, starting from the trades, that leads to true economic leadership and prosperity.
Women who enter our programs at WBF tend to be underemployed. They make between $10 and $14 per hour, sometimes in multiple jobs. Oftentimes they don't have a high school diploma, 34% are indigenous, and yet they enter our programs and graduate with a success rate of 94%. They're employed with a success rate of 90%. Their incomes rise by 132% from day of hire. Now, that's a true pathway into economic leadership.
What is preventing women from entering these economically prosperous careers? There are many things. There is certainly child care and a lack of education and awareness about these types of roles. Women don't see themselves doing these roles. Employers are often reluctant to hire what we call “starters” in the construction industry and to register them as apprentices. Though things are changing, industry is also oftentimes reluctant to hire women.
What can we do? Our approach at WBF really starts with education. We educate women that these careers are options for them, and we educate industry that women are a source of labour. After education, we provide support to women to remove those barriers. We prepare them to meet or exceed industry standards for safety and productivity before they enter into the industry. We support women and we support employers all the way through that process. Industry values WBF for that preparation and support, because it leads to good workers, and the industry continues hiring our workers. That cycle of economic prosperity continues for women.
We also focus on “thought leadership” on best practices. We examine, through research, the best practices for hiring and retaining tradeswomen. Then we teach them to tradeswomen and to employers so that we can further that cycle of economic prosperity and leadership. We also examine whether these best practices are different for indigenous women.
I'll move now to some recommendations for the committee. First and foremost, we need affordable, sustainable child care that makes sense. Without child care, women are unable to participate fully in economic life. This holds especially true in the construction industry. We need child care that's affordable, that's universal, that's standardized, and that works construction hours.
The second piece is a streamlined form of multi-year funding for organizations, such as WBF, that have proven impact.
What happens at not-for-profits like WBF is that we spend a huge amount of resources and time securing funding through multiple ministries at multiple levels every year. This time could be spent doing the work we do and establishing the partnerships that are so absolutely critical to making these things work between labour, not-for-profits, employers, women, and government.
With that, I thank you very much for allowing me the opportunity to speak.