Thank you, Madam Chair and members, for the invitation to speak to you about women’s economic empowerment.
My special thanks to parliamentary secretary Lisa Hepfner, our local Hamilton MP.
Every year at YWCA Hamilton, we serve over 10,000 women, gender-diverse people and families on the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabe.
At YWCA Hamilton, we believe women are economic drivers and that women’s economic empowerment is critical to Canada’s economy. Women’s economic empowerment should be a national strategy to combat and prevent gender-based violence.
Financial and economic abuse occurs in about 99% of domestic violence cases. Abusers use money as a way to assert power and control. One survey showed that 93% of survivors were not able to access their own money—receiving cash allowances and accounting to abusers for how they spent money—and 86% of respondents to the survey were ordered to quit work, leading to further isolation and financial dependence. I want to share three recommendations to promote women’s economic empowerment.
First, we need bold leadership to promote women’s advancement in non-traditional industries. Women continue to be left behind in STEM and trades, where there is real potential for secure, high-demand jobs with good wages but where progress has been moving at a snail’s pace or there is no progress at all.
For example, despite the vast range of jobs in the manufacturing sector, women’s participation in Ontario has stayed steady at 29%. For more than 40 years, there has been zero growth in women’s participation in the manufacturing sector, and women have maintained the lowest-paying jobs in that sector. We know from experience that it takes innovative programs to support re-skilling and upskilling for women seeking financial independence to care for themselves and their families.
YWCA Hamilton’s uplift program, funded through FedDev Ontario, has seen significant success, supporting 600 women in gaining new skills in data science, analytics, advanced manufacturing and cybersecurity, leading to career advancement and new job opportunities with an average income of $70,000—far above the minimum wage and low-paying jobs typically relegated to women through traditional job programs. Opportunities to re-skill and upskill should be fundamental in supporting women returning to the labour market and for women fleeing violence to build their confidence as well as their earning power.
Second, we need solutions that address the gendered nature of the housing crisis. A lack of safe, affordable, quality housing is one of the largest barriers to economic empowerment, and women cannot be expected to focus on building financial independence when they are facing daily threats of violence.
It’s the reason that YWCAs across the country have asked the government to reinvest $600 million in the women’s shelter and transitional housing initiative. Transitional housing offers faster access to affordable housing with counselling and employment services to rebuild independence and safety and to help give women the time and space they need to heal and move forward. A reinvestment in this housing fund across the country would allow organizations like ours to begin construction on shovel-ready housing designed for women. We encourage the government to continue to recommit 25% of the national housing strategy to women.
Finally, we need to strengthen the care economy. We applaud the government’s work to realize a funded and regulated system of child care and early learning, setting an ambitious target to increase spaces by 250,000. Child care is fundamental to women’s economic success. However, economic empowerment won’t be found for women employed in child care or the care economy, where work is underfunded and employers struggle to meet a living wage.
Eighty per cent of workers in the charitable sector are women, and the lowest-paid and most precarious positions in the care sector or any sector are predominantly held by indigenous, Black, racialized and immigrant women, who face more significant economic barriers. While we strive to see women in non-traditional employment where they have more opportunities for financial independence, we also acknowledge that care work continues to be done by populations of women who are undervalued and underpaid.
The care economy and community services sectors are essential in supporting the overall Canadian economy, but we cannot meaningfully talk about economic empowerment of women if we continue to leave women in the care economy behind.
Thank you.