I think essentially the argument we're making is that we've established through the analysis that all three groups experience significant vulnerabilities, but in particular racialized women. These vulnerabilities arise from both their racialized and gendered identities. It is essential for the federal government to regulate the labour market in such a way that it addresses the precarious nature of the work that is available to them.
In terms of that regulation, we're thinking about some changes in labour law or women's standards that would address the experience of those who are under federal jurisdiction, but also provide leadership for the jurisdictions of the provinces so they can address that experience too.
We recognize that there is employment equity legislation at the federal level. There have been ongoing discussions about making changes to the legislation that might strengthen the associated regulation and ensure greater access to employment and equitable employment for all three groups, but in particular racialized women. I should not only say racialized women, but also indigenous women.
Pay equity is another area where we believe that there is some scope for making the experience of racialized women much more equitable than it is today.
We believe that other dimensions of policy that relate to the experience of access to employment, like child care for instance, also represent an opportunity to address that disproportionate experience. We also believe that one of the challenges in the labour market today is the extent to which employers have disproportionate power in their relationship with their employees.
Part of that has to do with the level of unionization. Unionization is significant lower that it has been in the past, especially in some of the areas of jurisdiction outside the public service. We believe, both from the point of view of access to unionization for those workers who have the vulnerabilities, but also dealing with the responsibility of the federal government to meet its obligations under international treaty, that it is essential for us to look at how we can regularize unionization to make it easier for under-represented groups to unionize. The three groups that we're talking about are likely to be less unionized than other groups.
I want to echo what Sheila just said about the question of data collection. Precisely because of this vulnerability arising from intersectional impacts, how we collect data is really important to our having a better understanding of that experience. I think it's essential for us to disaggregate the data so that we have data that explains the experience of particular groups in the labour market. In this case, without this disaggregated data, there is no way we can understand the challenges that particular groups face in the labour market. That is last point I want to make, to really emphasize the question of data collection and this disaggregated data collection.