Evidence of meeting #77 for Status of Women in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was teachers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:35 a.m.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thinking about what the federal government can do, tell me what recommendations you'd like to see in our final report to move the field ahead. Sometimes that's around bringing provinces and territories together within a common framework.
Tell us what recommendations would buoy your organization.
11:35 a.m.
Director, Youth Programming, Canada Learning Code
More support for teacher training would be helpful. Again, we know that to redesign our approach to computational thinking in terms of education at the extracurricular level is very limiting, so more support on the practical side of equipping our educators across Canada to be able to implement this in their classrooms would be helpful.
We have the honour of having conversations with teachers on a regular basis. This involves hearing a lot of their frustrations with the support they have. They wish they could have a little more practical support, and we are happy to be the organization to help educators through that.
We'd like more support and funding at that end, as well as any support we and organizations like ours could get to get creative in redesigning the approach of computational thinking education within schools, and to the point I brought up earlier, working around a lot of the things we currently see as obstacles.
11:35 a.m.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
We've had a number of witnesses at committee talk about the important role the federal government could play when it's spending public dollars, for example, that it reserve some slots, whether they're apprenticeships or jobs, for training groups that traditionally have not been represented in that field.
Is that a conversation that comes up?
11:35 a.m.
Director, Youth Programming, Canada Learning Code
That is a conversation that comes up both within the education system and in working with organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs, the YWCA, and the libraries. Libraries are another group that we are increasingly starting to work with.
I've had a conversation with the OLA, the Ontario Library Association, and the equivalent in various provinces, to have training for school librarians as well as public librarians.
We love working with libraries. When it comes to accessibility and inclusivity, we feel they have a really good handle on the pulse of the needs within their communities, so we certainly regard librarians as key educators that we need to work with as well.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
I'm going to change things up, because we like to be fluid here in this committee today.
Pam brought forward the great idea of maybe suspending now and then starting 10 minutes early, since Bonnie would be able to do her brief during that time, if that gives you ample time to relax.
Carolyn, we have had excellent conversations with you. If there are any other questions, we'll be sure to forward them to you. We really appreciate that.
Sean.
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
I have a quick question.
I don't know your availability, Ms. Van, but if you were planning on sticking around....
Would it be possible for her to just sit and take questions in the second one, or is that out of order?
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
I don't see that being.... That would be a decision for the committee.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
We're going to have three or four panellists, but if you wish, I don't see that being an issue.
Is there any discussion from the committee members, if she's available?
Carolyn, are you available?
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Wonderful.
We're going to suspend until 11:50, and then we'll get started with Bonnie's brief. We'll be joined by the other two panellists as well, and then we'll have the four panellists.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Welcome back. We have new panellists joining us.
I would like to welcome Michael Holden, Elise Maheu, Justine Akman, Nancy Gardiner, and Bonnie Brayton to the panel.
Carolyn, thanks for sticking around, and taking some more questions.
Michael is the chief economist, and Elise Maheu is a board member and director of government affairs with 3M Canada. They are both under Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters. We also have Justine Akman and Nancy Gardiner from the office of Status of Women Canada.
We're going to begin with Ms. Brayton, for 10 minutes. She is with DisAbled Women's Network Canada.
11:50 a.m.
Bonnie Brayton National Executive Director, DAWN Canada, DisAbled Women's Network Canada
Good morning.
I'd like to begin by acknowledging that we're gathered on the territory of the Algonquin people, and that we are in a time of truth and reconciliation with the first peoples of Canada. By so doing, we are also acknowledging the overrepresentation of our indigenous peoples in all systems of oppression.
I have submitted a fairly lengthy brief to the committee, which has not been translated, but the clerk will eventually circulate it to you. It's very fact-based. I really didn't think today was the day to stay super focused on facts, because the facts are irrefutable. The poorest people in this country, the highest rates of unemployment, from an intersectional perspective, belong to women with disabilities and deaf women, without question.
I do have a few facts I can highlight, but I thought it would be more important, again, to invite you to read and review the report when you have it, because the statistics are fairly solid and compelling. In fact, the Government of Canada has, by three UN bodies—the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and under CEDAW—essentially been told that it has been failing women and girls with disabilities and it is time for action.
As mentioned in the call for briefs from the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, we will focus on the realities of disabled women who are poor, income-related statistics, as I noted in the report, their employment readiness, and working conditions in order to examine the impact on their well-being.
About 1.5 million women in Canada are unemployed. Of those, 629,000.... Actually, I'm going to stop with the statistics. I said I wasn't going to do it, and I won't, because it's too difficult to do.
There were a few that I thought were important to mention. When we're talking about the situation of women with disabilities, we're talking about women with disabilities having an average revenue of $4,000 less than non-disabled women. Again, in a juxtaposition of women and poverty, women with disabilities have an important difference in income.
I have another statistic that is important when we're talking about intersectionality.
Let us recall that, in 2007, the federal report on disability estimated the rate of disability in aboriginal communities at over 30%. That was reaffirmed in the report by Amanda Burlock, which indicated a higher prevalence of disability among first nations women as compared to men, and also among women who are not first nations.
I would add that racialized and disabled aboriginal women are overrepresented among poor women.
In terms of the focus of my presentation, it's to actually speak about women with disabilities who are invisible to this committee, to data and statistics. The reason I do that is this is where we need to go in terms of better understanding those women who are invisible. I'm speaking specifically of homeless women. I'm speaking about women with traumatic brain injuries, many of whom have experienced traumatic brain injuries through violence. The data is beginning to show, as some committee members who've heard me present before on the issue of violence know, that the number of women who become disabled through violence is much higher than is currently understood.
I remind the committee of women who are trafficked. Again, when we are talking about the data, you can assume that between 25% and 35% of women who are trafficked, whether it's for labour or sex, are women with disabilities.
I remind the committee of trans women with disabilities, racialized women with disabilities, and those intersections, and how important it will be for you to think of not just black women, indigenous women, or women in prisons but to always think from an intersectional perspective, and to understand that when that intersection includes disabilities, they are the most marginalized.
In terms of recommendations, with the limited time we have, I bring forward a quote from Sebastian Buckup of the International Labour Organization. He states:
This is useful to indicate that people with disabilities are less productive not because they are “disabled” but because they live and work in environments that are “disabling”. This is of crucial importance to the message the analysis wants to transmit: it makes economic sense to create an environment that is supportive for people with disabilities.
Of course, our federal government is coming forward with new federal accessibility legislation that will touch on some areas of our lives in that regard. I understand, too, that the federal government and all of you, and your most important work, need to be working with your provincial and territorial counterparts on this issue, because these things, programs and services, are delivered through provincial and territorial labour market agreements. It's important to see this as an opportunity to really begin focusing on the populations in your discussions in terms of who is most affected.
It's about 10 years ago to this month—it's a little longer than that now—that our first presentation was made by my president and me. That was in 2007. In that presentation, we mentioned several things that I find still have a great deal of resonance today: separating income programs for disability-related supports and services; creating a stable environment in which persons can move between paid employment and income support with ease; increasing the sick leave benefits for unemployment insurance; extending the definition of employment support and accommodation to the domestic sphere; forums for information exchange and support groups which provide a valuable resource for women with disabilities trying to enter the labour market, and societal attitudes.
DAWN Canada is currently piloting the first employment program for young women with disabilities in Montreal with our partners from the Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work. We're only about six months into this program, and again, it's the only one of the four pilots that is focused on women and girls exclusively.
Early evidence bears out what is very clear, which is that it is really important to understand the intersection of disability and gender has a huge impact on employment. The unemployment rate for some women in this country, in the maritime region for example, is up to 75%.
I could belabour the point of poverty, but again, the point's been made. When we're talking about indigenous women with disabilities, we are absolutely talking about the very worst off.
Coming back to those forgotten women, episodic and chronic illness...and some of the data that I had was one of the other things. There are two pieces. One is from Michael Prince and Yvonne Peters, who did a study with the Council of Canadians with Disabilities on poverty:
More than four in ten disabled women in low-income households or 43.7% do not receive at least one of the support services required for their daily activities, such as meal preparation, household tasks, errands, finances, personal care, mobility inside the home, and so forth. The same is true for less than one disabled women in three or 30.7% of women with income above the LICO.
As I said, I provided you with a comprehensive, precise report including detailed statistics.
The bottom line, ladies and gentlemen, is that the poorest and the highest unemployment rates belong to women with disabilities and deaf women in this country.
I could sit here and provide resources. I could provide statistics, but what we really need is leadership from this committee. We've had some important leadership from the federal government, including from Status of Women Canada and the minister. Placing women with disabilities as one of the most important groups to address, from both a social and an economic perspective, must be something that you support.
Thank you.
Noon
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you very much, Bonnie.
We are now going to Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters. We have Michael Holden, chief economist; and Elise Maheu, board member and director of government affairs for 3M Canada.
You have 10 minutes.
Noon
Michael Holden Chief Economist, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
Thank you very much.
As you mentioned, I am the chief economist for Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters. Elise, in addition to being the director of government affairs at 3M Canada, is also a member of our national board and the chair of our women in manufacturing working group.
We are here today to talk about the need to improve female representation in the manufacturing workforce. Elise and I will be sharing our time.
Manufacturing is vital to the Canadian economy. It employs 1.7 million people, accounts for about 70% of our exports, and directly contributes 11% of our national GDP. When spinoff effects are included, close to 30% of all employment and all economic activity across the country relies on domestic manufacturing.
However, manufacturers face a number of challenges preventing them from realizing their full potential. Among them is that our members are struggling to find workers, especially in the skilled trades and in STEM fields: science, technology, engineering, and math. Addressing this issue is one of the top priorities of our Industrie 2030 national strategy to double manufacturing output and exports by the year 2030.
Attracting more women to manufacturing is the best way to solve this problem. Women hold 48% of all jobs across Canada, but only 28% of jobs in manufacturing. The situation is not improving. Female representation in the manufacturing workforce has been unchanged for about 30 years. This is not a situation that is unique to Canada; it's similar in advanced manufacturing countries all around the world. The gender imbalance in Canada is even greater in production-related jobs. Women hold less than 5% of jobs in the skilled trades, and less than one quarter of all jobs in STEM fields. These are exactly the occupations where manufacturers tell us their labour and skills shortages are most acute.
Through Elise's leadership, CME is undertaking a major initiative to address this problem. We released our first report about two weeks ago here in Ottawa. I am the author of that report, and Elise is leading the effort on implementation and next steps. We have brought copies of our summary report, if anybody is interested in picking one up at the end of the meeting. There is a longer version available online as well.
With the time that I have, I want to provide you with a brief overview of our key findings and then pass the floor to Elise to talk about the path forward.
At the outset, I want to say that our goal with this report was not just to increase labour supply for manufacturers, but also to open the door to new and exciting opportunities for women. Manufacturing has a lot to offer. Compared to the national average, manufacturing jobs tend to be more secure, are more likely to be full time, and pay better. Across Canada, average weekly earnings for women are about 76¢ on the dollar compared to those of men. In the skilled trades it's 82¢, and in STEM fields it's more than 86¢.
The report I have brought here today is focused on what women have to say. We conducted a survey in August and September asking women with first-hand experience in Canadian manufacturing a series of questions about their current work environment, the challenges and obstacles they face, and, most importantly, what they think needs to be done to attract more women to the sector. Our report and action plan were developed directly out of these survey findings.
The first and most important of these findings was that women in manufacturing like their jobs: 80% would consider remaining in the sector if they could start their careers all over again. The vast majority would support their daughters' pursuing a manufacturing career, and 91% thought that more women would be interested in manufacturing work if they saw what it actually looked like.
At the same time, women identified a number of specific obstacles that are contributing to the existing gender gap. There are three problem areas specific to the manufacturing workplace itself.
The first of these is sexism and a male-centric workplace culture. Many women, we found, are uncomfortable with the male-dominated work environment in manufacturing, and many feel they have to work harder than men to prove themselves. In fact, the gender gap in manufacturing may be, at least in part, a chicken-and-egg problem: women avoid careers in manufacturing because there are not enough women with careers in manufacturing.
The second is opportunities for promotion and advancement. We found that a significant number of women leave manufacturing jobs because they see few opportunities for career advancement. They also see women under-represented in executive leadership and feel that men have greater access to promotion opportunities.
Third is work-life balance. Women in manufacturing told us that they struggle to balance their work and family commitments. Many say that they have quit manufacturing jobs for this reason. Those with families fear that unavoidable commitments will hinder their career advancement.
Finally, there are two other issues that women told us need to be addressed. The first is that manufacturing continues to have a reputation problem. People cling to an outdated view of manufacturing work as being dark, dirty, and dangerous. Survey respondents told us that this perception causes women to overlook manufacturing opportunities. Second, women told us that the school system does not do enough to encourage young girls to pursue an education in STEM fields and the skilled trades. They believe that attracting more girls to these programs is critical to closing the gender gap in manufacturing.
With that overview, I'd like to turn the floor over to Elise.
12:05 p.m.
Elise Maheu Board Member and Director, Government Affairs, 3M Canada, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
Good afternoon.
I want to talk a little bit about the women in manufacturing working group. We launched that at CME last March, because we had the first female chair of CME, for an organization that is almost 150 years old. The goal was to attract more women in manufacturing. One of the first things we decided to do was to have a survey to be able to have actual data from the Canadian market. Out of that we identified five areas where we believe action is needed to attract and engage women in manufacturing.
The first is that more high-profile female role models are needed to inspire and encourage young women to pursue a career in manufacturing. Women need to see other women succeed. Nearly 37% of survey respondents said that one of the most effective ways to attract more women in manufacturing is to have more visible role models. Women under 35 were considerably more likely to say that female role models would help attract more girls in manufacturing.
Second, young women need more exposure to modern manufacturing facilities to gain a more accurate perspective on career opportunities for them. Misconceptions about manufacturing need to be addressed. Nearly 61% of women surveyed believe other women would be more likely to consider a job in manufacturing if they had a better idea of what it is like. We need to address this outdated view that manufacturing would be repetitive, dull, and dreary.
Third, efforts to encourage young girls to pursue an education in STEM fields and skilled trades need to be improved. The biggest roadblock preventing the gender gap in manufacturing from narrowing is that there are simply not enough women out there with the right qualifications to work in production-related jobs. Only about one in 20 certified tradespeople are women. As well, many companies are actively trying to recruit more women to manufacturing, but these efforts will have little impact unless we first increase the number of women available.
Fourth, businesses need to make their workplace culture more inclusive. Women enjoy working in manufacturing, but they point to challenges in two specific areas. The first is the gender gap itself, that Mike referred to as the chicken-and-egg problem. The survey is clear that the existing gender imbalance discourages women from considering a career in manufacturing. As well, 30% of women say that a male-centric workplace culture is what they like least about working in manufacturing, and 30% think women avoid manufacturing because of the current gender imbalance.
Businesses also need to find creative ways to improve work-life balance for their employees. Many women struggle with finding an appropriate balance between work and their personal life. Shift work, which is very common in many production-related jobs, discourages some women from even applying for manufacturing jobs.
In the coming months, CME will actively engage with business, government, and other stakeholders to look at developing solutions. For example, we can work together to promote careers in manufacturing to girls and women by providing higher visibility of women in manufacturing role models through events and online campaigns of sharing profiles. This can also include a series of videos and planned visits showing careers in manufacturing and modern manufacturing facilities, to expose them to the opportunity and dispel the myth of manufacturing being dirty and dangerous. We can also share our success stories around promoting the accomplishment of women in manufacturing.
Finally, we can support organizations that help bring young girls into STEM, organizations like FIRST Robotics and Let's Talk Science. For example, for close to a decade 3M Canada has been working with Let's Talk Science, a charitable organization that supports learning and skills development from kindergarten to grade 12 students across the country, to help youth and girls to get engaged with STEM and connect with career role models. Also, 3M is a founding partner of Canada 2067, a national initiative to rethink the future of STEM education in the country.
Our hope is that in a few years the participation of women in manufacturing will not be a challenge, but rather a strength inspiring the competitiveness and growth of Canadian manufacturing internationally.
Thank you.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you so much.
We'll now move to Justine Akman and Nancy Gardiner from Status of Women, for 10 minutes.
November 7th, 2017 / 12:10 p.m.
Justine Akman Director General, Policy and External Relations, Office of the Co-ordinator, Status of Women
Thank you.
Hello everyone.
I'm very happy to return to this committee. We were here at the beginning, so it's great to have watched your study through the last several months and to have the opportunity to appear again at the closing end of it.
This study is timely because promoting the economic security of women is essential to promoting gender equality and ensuring a better future for women.
As you know, although we have made real strides, there is still more work ahead. The barriers to economic equality that Canadian women face include systemic discrimination in the form of bias. There is also colonialism, which affects aboriginal women in particular, and traditional social norms that make women primarily responsible for providing care.
This study will be helpful as we work collectively to achieve equality for all women, particularly for those most vulnerable, including indigenous women, visible minorities, people with disabilities, youth, and rural women. Achieving equality for all groups of women requires a collaborative effort across the federal government, but also with provincial and territorial governments.
The private sector and civil society also, of course, play a significant role. For this reason, Status of Women has recently launched a new call for proposals for projects that address institutional barriers that limit women's economic security. The call for proposals, entitled “Support for Women's Economic Security”, will fund projects that address the economic security of women across Canada under two separate themes.
The first theme is building partnerships to address systemic barriers. It invites organizations to work together to address the institutional barriers that hold women back and limit their economic security. These barriers include the accessibility of child care, the wage gap, and pay inequity. The second theme is increasing private sector leadership and investments in women. It requires organizations to form partnerships with the private sector to implement solutions that advance women's economic security. Through these partnerships, the private sector can play a leading role in helping to advance gender equality in Canada.
Status of Women Canada has also issued a call for proposals, entitled “Addressing the Economic Security and Prosperity of Indigenous Women”, for projects to support the economic security and prosperity of indigenous women in Canada. This call invites organizations to foster collaboration between indigenous women, indigenous organizations, their communities, and the private sector to support the economic security and prosperity of indigenous women across Canada. These collaborations will build on the strengths of indigenous women, identify opportunities for their economic success, and address issues that limit these opportunities.
These targeted investments through the women's program complement the broader suite of Government of Canada initiatives to address the barriers to women's economic equality. Those of you on the committee who know Status of Women will know that we're really a very teeny agency. We have to work with all federal governments to push the bar on this issue. Since Status of Women Canada last appeared before this committee, we've continued to advance work with our federal partners. Progress is being made on pay equity in the federal jurisdiction. We've been working with Treasury Board Secretariat and the labour program. We've heard from a wide range of stakeholders. Going forward, we'll be incorporating these perspectives into legislation that is due to be tabled in 2018.
Pay equity is only part of the challenge to addressing the gender wage gap. Work is continuing to progress on the early learning and child care framework as well as dedicated funding for on-reserve child care. We're also supporting our federal partners in their efforts to increase women's participation and success in key economic fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, as well as in the skilled trades. Additionally, Status of Women Canada is supporting the development of a progressive trade agenda that promotes gender equality and the engagement of women and diverse populations.
We're also continuing to engage our provincial and territorial counterparts through the forum of FPT ministers responsible for the Status of Women to identify collaborative actions that can be taken to address the gender wage gap, including through data collection. Achieving economic equity for women requires the participation of a wide range of actors working toward sustainable solutions that meet the lifelong economic security needs of women in Canada.
Going forward, to address women's economic security and their equal participation in the economy, it will be imperative to continue to encourage and engage leadership across government; to create and support interdepartmental and interjurisdictional networks to facilitate, among other things, the collection and sharing of disaggregated data; and to encourage collaborative partnerships between government and indigenous leadership and communities, non-governmental organizations, institutions, and the private sector.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you very much.
We are ready for our rounds of questions.
We'll start with Bernadette Jordan for seven minutes.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Bernadette Jordan Liberal South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses for appearing here today. My first questions are for Mr. Holden and Ms. Maheu.
You did a survey and you said the top thing that you heard was sexism in a male-dominated sector is one of the challenges. How do you address that? Based on what you've heard, and knowing that this exists in the workplace, it's not enough to attract more women; you have to deal with the problem that's there. Do you have programming in place to try to help deal with the issue of a male-dominated workforce and the sexism that is taking place in the manufacturing sector?
12:15 p.m.
Board Member and Director, Government Affairs, 3M Canada, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
As we said, we actually started the group this past March and the first thing we wanted to do was the survey to have a base to start with. Now that we have these data.... We had identified a couple of things already before we did the survey, which is we said that it's a male-centric culture so we have to get more women. It's kind of a chicken-and-egg thing. That's why we say we have to look at girls in STEM and have girls and young women come to operations to see that it's actually a job they would like to do.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Bernadette Jordan Liberal South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
I hear what you're saying. I'm questioning the chicken-and-egg thing. If the people who are there have identified a problem, my question is, what is being done to address the problem? It's not so much how you attract more women so you don't have the problem, but if the problem exists now, how do you address it?
12:15 p.m.
Chief Economist, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
As Elise mentioned, the report that we came out with is two weeks old. The intent with that was largely problem identification. Now that we've done that, we're about to move on to those kinds of next steps to address those issues. It's something that businesses themselves have to take responsibility for, absolutely. We had a conference that included a panel on discussing issues of attracting and engaging women in manufacturing. That was on October 25, I believe. One of the key messages that came out of it was that this is a business's responsibility to fix this problem, absolutely, and how we do that is something we're in the middle of taking a hard look at right now.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Bernadette Jordan Liberal South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
When you did your survey, you surveyed women. Was there any movement to question the men about the behaviour in the workplace?
12:20 p.m.
Chief Economist, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
One of the things that we did with this survey was.... It's impossible to control exactly who is going to respond to your survey, so we did ask a number of filtering questions that we'd get different kinds of responses on, and one of those was so we could filter out men. We had 826 respondents of which about 78% were women. I think that leaves about 180-some men who responded.
On a few of the questions we did look at that to see whether there were any differences, and there were and they were interesting. For example, I can't remember the exact numbers off the top of my head, but let's say around 30% to 35% of women identified a wage gap between men and women. The men did not. Women thought they had to work harder than men to prove themselves. The men disagreed. Those types of findings were consistent. I think for us it speaks to the magnitude of the challenge, because you have to not only address the problem, but you also have to address the fact that the men who are there appear not to see a problem.