Women And The Equality Deficit

February 1995 legislation entitled the Budget Implementation Act repealed the Canada Assistance Plan and introduced the Canada Health & Social Transfer. This publication begins with a review of the Plan, what the new Act has taken away from national social programs, the history of national standards for social programs, the federal role in setting such standards, and implications for women and the poor. Chapter 2 describes the equality commitments made by Canada both internationally and domestically. Chapter 3 examines the application of equality rights when economic policies are challenged in the courts. Chapter 4 explores more closely the content of the rights instruments available to women and sets out interpretations of equality guarantees that can be responsive to women's material inequality and that draw on the richness and complexity of Canada's equality commitments. The final chapter considers the work that women must do to ensure that both social programs and equality guarantees can be responsive to women's needs and aspirations. Future directions are suggested for women's activism, institutional reform, and government policy.

The author introduces the concept of economic woman and makes her visible in duality with and opposition to the exclusive model of economic man. Economic man has epitomized neo-liberal capitalism, which embraces competition and maximization of profit, resulting in a steep increase in economic inequality. The book demonstrates that women’s inequality is a crucial factor in economic inequality, which cannot be fully understood without relating to women’s situation, and that economic woman cannot thrive in the conditions of economic inequality created under global neo-liberalism. Emphasising the international human rights guarantees of women’s right to equality in all fields of life, the author documents woman’s increased participation in political, public, financial and corporate institutions, employment and entrepreneurship, with some women reaching high profile positions. Nevertheless, using global data, she reveals that economic woman lags behind, with a severe economic power deficit, an unfulfilled promise of equal employment opportunity, a gendered impact of poverty and barriers to gender equality in the family. The book analyses the trap of women’s increased burden of breadwinning in the context of discriminatory laws and practices, infrastructural failures and policy gaps, which preempt achievement of gender equality in economic life. The book is intended for the general reader, academics, students, policy makers and NGOs. It shows economic woman at a global crossroads between a universal paradigm of gender equality and pervasive barriers to equal economic opportunity. The author demonstrates that tackling gender inequality, restoring welfare priorities and reducing economic inequality are inextricably linked. Human rights and governments have a vital role to play in addressing them all, to create a sustainable economic infrastructure for the lives of women and men.

The author shows that only a select minority of the nation's women earn at rates equal to those of men, explores the social and political reasons for the phenomenon, and calls for a national move to end gender inequality.

Trade can dramatically improve women’s lives, creating new jobs, enhancing consumer choices, and increasing women’s bargaining power in society. It can also lead to job losses and a concentration of work in low-skilled employment. Given the complexity and specificity of the relationship between trade and gender, it is essential to assess the potential impact of trade policy on both women and men and to develop appropriate, evidence-based policies to ensure that trade helps to enhance opportunities for all. Research on gender equality and trade has been constrained by limited data and a lack of understanding of the connections among the economic roles that women play as workers, consumers, and decision makers. Building on new analyses and new sex-disaggregated data, Women and Trade: The Role of Trade in Promoting Gender Equality aims to advance the understanding of the relationship between trade and gender equality and to identify a series of opportunities through which trade can improve the lives of women.

Among the multiplicity of objectives that high quality child care can meet is the pivotal goal of promoting equality for women. This paper identifies what has been happening in child care over the last decade, describes policy options for the commencement of Canada's long-recommended national child care policy, and suggests that a successful resolution to the child care dilemma would serve as a good test for assessing the effectiveness of the new social union. Topics covered are: deficit reduction and devolution; downsizing and deregulation; the impacts on women; promises, promises; can Canada work without child care.

Theoretical Perspectives on Gender and Development demytsifies the theory of gender and development and shows how it plays an important role in everyday life. It explores the evolution of gender and development theory, introduces competing theoretical frameworks, and examines new and emerging debates. The focus is on the implications of theory for policy and practice, and the need to theorize gender and development to create a more egalitarian society. This book is intended for classroom and workshop use in the fields ofdevelopment studies, development theory, gender and development, and women's studies. Its clear and straightforward prose will be appreciated by undergraduate and seasoned professional, alike. Classroom exercises, study questions, activities, and case studies are included. It is designed for use in both formal and nonformal educational settings.

In the supposedly enlightened ’60s and ’70s, violence against women was widespread. It wasn’t talked about, and women had few, if any, options to escape their abusers. Yet in 1973 — with no statistics, no money and little public support — five disparate groups of Canadian women quietly opened Canada’s first battered women’s shelters. Today, there are well over 600. In Runaway Wives and Rogue Feminists, journalist Margo Goodhand tracks down the “rogue feminists” whose work forged an underground railway for women and children, weaving their stories into an unforgettable — and until now untold — history. As they lobbied for funding, scrounged for furniture and fended off outraged husbands, these women marked a defining moment in Canadian history, triggering monumental changes in government, schools, courts and law enforcement. But was it enough to stop the cycle of violence? Forty years later, these pioneers describe how and why Canada has lost its ground in the battle for women’s rights.