March 17th, 2012
Standing Committees Reports

Joint Morning Session

The Status of Women & Human Rights Standing Committee topic for the March 17 morning session was pay equity, and the speaker was Emanuela Heyninck, Commissioner of the Pay Equity Commission for Ontario. The focus of Ms. Heyninck's presentation was Wage Gaps and Pay Equity: Why Women Should be Concerned.

The issue of pay equity was positioned in the larger context of wage gaps, where pay equity is seen as one component of the 28% (Stats Can 2006) difference in wages between men and women.

Causes of gender wage gap:

1. Level of education
2. Level of unionization
3. Women entering/leaving/re-entering the workforce
4. Ghettoization of women in low-paying sectors
5. Discrimination in workplace- hiring/promotion/compensation

Why is the wage gap a problem? At the societal level, under utilization of almost 50% of the labour pool and the talent pool is reflected in higher rates of poverty for women. As a result, there is a greater impact on both the health and welfare systems, which is compounded by a loss of tax revenue. In addition, companies who have more diverse decision-makers are shown to perform better. See The Diversity Advantage: A Case for Canada's 21st Century Economy at  http://www.rbc.com/newsroom/pdf/20051020diversity.pdf

When the problem of wage gaps is addressed, the outcomes are experienced at a personal level through:

1. Standard of living
2. Economic consequences to self/family
3. Better job satisfaction
4. Enhanced self-image and self confidence
5. Role modeling

Some common myths of the causes of wage gap are: women possess a lack of negotiating skills, there are few mentoring opportunities, and women are generally disinterested in career advancement. However, even when women employ the same career advancement strategies, they advance less than their male counterparts and with a slower growth in pay. See The Myth of the Ideal Worker at http://www.catalyst.org/publication/509 as well as the Pay Equity Commission's Wage Gaps and Earnings Ratios in Ontario at http://www.payequity.gov.on.ca/en/about/pubs/genderwage/wagegaps.php 

Under the Ontario Pay Equity Act, pay equity is a mechanism for addressing the gender wage gap. The Act is administered and enforced by the Pay Equity Commission of Ontario, as an independent agency of the Ministry of Labour.

Education Committee   

Guest speaker was Dr. Cheryl Gaver, research associate at the University of Ottawa with an interest in global issues, religious studies and aboriginal cultures, speaking on the difficulties in communication between peoples with completely different cultures and worldviews.

Dr. Gaver's focus was on the difference between the cultures and worldviews of aboriginals and non-aboriginals in Canada, and the often-inadvertent misunderstandings resulting from them. She described cultural differences under three headings:

• Visual - language, clothing, food, housing
• Intangible - style of greeting (bow? Shake hands?); do men and women sit together? Do women wear trousers, headscarves?
• Worldview - how do we look at the world? How do we organize it, and what is our place in it?

This led to a discussion on individualism, what it is, how it is expressed, and different views of the relationship between the individual and society. For example, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, the individual is dominant, superior to and separate from the rest of creation, while the aboriginal view is that the individual is on the bottom, dependant on the rest of his environment. Some cultures (notably ours) have strong bonds to a nuclear family; aboriginal cultures tend to be more fluid, with stronger bonds to community or clan, or something more nebulous: e.g. one is related to everyone with the same name.

In dealings between aboriginals and non-aboriginals, lack of awareness of these and more deep-rooted differences can lead to differences in interpretation resulting in gridlock in negotiating serious issues, and sometimes toxic lack of understanding and tolerance between the parties.

Dr. Gaver illustrated her talk with examples, anecdotes and interactive games and quizzes. She believes that healing can come from awareness, education and inclusiveness.

Status of Women &
Human Rights Committee

The meeting began with a discussion about the morning presentation from the Commissioner of the Pay Equity Commission of Ontario, Emanuela Heyninck on the issue of pay equity from the enlarged view of wage gaps.

The point was made that maybe some women don't want to do "non-traditional" jobs and perhaps we could ask 'why should we?' Instead, valuing the traditional female jobs such as day-care, social services, etc. is a way of addressing pay-equity. As such, child care is mechanism for addressing the gender wage gap.

It was noted that the Toronto Caucus is working with the Honourable Margaret McCain to promote her new Early Years Report. The Committee has undertaken to revisit the topic of child care next year.

Some members feel that we have made progress and that the next 50 years would bring more progress. It was noted that in the 1960's newspapers had separate columns for female/male jobs ads, and women got the vote only in 1920. There is a false perception of pay equity among young women; however, 5 years after graduation they will feel the effects when they do not receive promotions in their jobs.

The Commissioner's message was a wake-up call that progress for women's rights has been made but we must keep up the fight, or risk losing our hard fought rights!