Thank you, Sheila, for bringing this forward.
It's an important situation to look at. Women with disabilities who are employed typically are in jobs that are hard to retain. Because they are in lower-paying jobs, if they are employed at all, they are likely to be challenged in accessing opportunities to move forward and just in obtaining the basic necessities of life. You're talking about the working poor at the most profound level when you're talking about people in these kinds of jobs. Women in these situations often have to choose between their disability supports and child care.
The other point I'd like to make is that many women with disabilities, because they do not have good prospects for employment, end up in unpaid caregiving roles. The number of women with disabilities in unpaid caregiving roles in the Canadian context is quite shocking. The data show that upwards of 60% of unpaid caregiving in Canada is done by women with disabilities.
To understand this problem requires a great deal of familiarity with the challenges these women are facing in their access to employment, the kind of employment they are being offered, and the opportunities available to them.