2021 Transition binder two: Gender equality in Canada

1. Gender equality in Canada

Overview of Gender Equality in Canada

Education and skills development^{Footnote 1}

• Boys are less likely to complete high school than girls. In 2020, 94 percent of women aged 25-64 years had obtained at least a high school diploma, compared to 91 percent of men of the same age.
  • First Nations, Inuit and Métis women aged 25-64 years have lower high school completion rates than non-Indigenous women at 69%, 48% and 81%, respectively. Indigenous men have even lower rates: 59% among First Nations, 42% among Inuit and 77% among Métis.
  • Persons with disabilities were less likely to have obtained an educational credential in 2017 than those without disabilities.
• Women are more likely to continue their education than men. A larger proportion of women reported having college t (29% for women versus 23% for men) and university as their highest level of educational attainment (42% for women versus 33% for men).
  • Gay men and lesbian women are more likely to have a post-secondary qualification than heterosexual men and women, while bisexual men and women are less likely to have a post-secondary qualification.
• Women were less likely to enter and more likely to leave studies in engineering, mathematics, and computer science than men, accounting for only 25% of students at the undergraduate level in 2018-19. In contrast, men are less likely to study education and health-related fields, accounting for 20% of undergraduate students.
  • Among STEM graduates, men are also twice as likely to work in STEM fields than women.
• In 2018, boys aged 15 years had lower average reading scores than girls (506 versus 535), whereas scores differed only marginally between boys and girls for math and science.

Economic participation and prosperity^{Footnote 2}

• Labour force participation^{Footnote 3} has increased for women over the past several decades, including among women with young children. Still, participation rates are lower among women than men (73.8% versus 81.2% in 2020 for ages 15-64 years). Women's employment rates^{Footnote 4} were also lower than men's in 2020 (66.9% versus 77.3% for ages 15-64).
  • Employment rates for recent immigrant women and for Indigenous women were 22 percent and 10 percent lower respectively than that for women born in Canada among those aged 25 to 54 years.
  • Persons with disabilities were less likely to work than those without disabilities. Severity of disability is a factor that negatively impacts employment, with only 31 per cent of people with severe disabilities working in 2016.
• The gender pay gap persists in Canada. In 2020, women earned an average 89 cents for every dollar earned by men, based on the median hourly wage of full-time workers.
  • The gender pay gap is wider among certain groups of women. Indigenous women earned 44 per cent less than non-Indigenous men in and 19 per cent less than non-Indigenous women in 2015. Visible minority women earned 20 per cent less than white women.
  • Demographic and job characteristics, like industry, occupation, age, and education, did not explain these pay gaps.
• Women are less likely than men to work full-time. In 2020, 83% of employed women aged 25-54 were working full-time compared to 94% of men.
• Over the last 30 years, the share of men participating in housework tasks has increased from 64 % to 76 %. However, in 2015, women still spent 90 minutes more per day on unpaid domestic and care work than men.
• In 2019, about 60% of children under the age of 6 years participated in some form of formal or informal child care.
  • Families with younger children tend to spend more money per year on child care. In 2019, people with a youngest child aged 12 years or younger, spent an average of $6,000 during the year on child care expenses, which represented 5.1% of their after-tax income. People with a youngest child aged 5 years or less spent on average of $7,300 during the year on child care expenses, which represented 6.3% of their after-tax income.
• Women are over-represented in the care industry. In 2020, women represented 89% of workers in professional occupations in nursing and 82% of care providers and educational, legal and public protection support occupations.
• Women are under-represented in higher paying fields, including STEM fields. For example, men comprise 75% of workers in professional occupations in natural and applied sciences.

Leadership and democratic participation^{Footnote 5}

• In 2020, women accounted for 35.8% of employees in management occupations and 29.2% of those employed in senior management occupations.
  • Among corporations that disclosed diversity data in 2020, members of visible minorities held 9 per cent of senior management positions while 0.6 per cent and 0.2 per cent senior management positions were held by persons with disabilities and Indigenous people respectively.
• In 2020, women made up 29.3% of FP500 board membership, however, women represented only 12.2 percent of board Chairs and Co-Chairs and 6.8 percent of Presidents and CEOs.
  • Among corporations that disclosed diversity data in 2020, members of visible minorities held 4 per cent of board seats while persons with disability and Indigenous people each held 0.3 per cent of board seats.
• In 2017, 16% of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were majority-owned by women. Of those that are exporters, 15% were majority-owned by women.
• In Canada, 103 women were elected as members of Parliament in the September 20, 2021 federal election.
• In Canada, as of August 2021, women held about 30% of elected positions of federal Parliament, and, as of January 2021, women represented almost half of the federal cabinet.
  • As of April 2021, there were six Indigenous women Members of Parliament.
• As of February 2021, women represented 35% of all provincial and territorial Members of the Legislative Assembly across Canada and 36% of provincial/territorial Cabinet members.
• As of February 2021, 17% of mayors and 38% of councilors were women.
• In 2019, 27% of First Nations council members were women and 19% of Chiefs in First Nations communities were women.
• In 2019-20, of the 60 Judges appointed in the federal judicial system over the year starting in October 2019, 39 self-identified as women, 2 as Indigenous peoples, 10 as visible minorities, 8 as part of an ethnic or cultural group, 0 as persons with disabilities, and 6 self-identified as LGBTQ2+.

Gender-based violence and access to justice^{Footnote 6}

• Data collected across Canada in 2018 suggests that about 44% of women, or 6.2 million women, experienced at least one form of intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime; significantly more than among men (36% or 4.9 million men). Women were also more likely than men to have experienced multiple forms of IPV in their lifetime, including the most severe forms, and to ever have been afraid of a partner in their lifetime.
• In 2018, women post-secondary students were more likely (45%) than their men peers (32%) to have experienced unwanted sexual behaviours, and more likely to have experienced unwanted sexual attention (27% compared to 6%). Factors further increasing the likelihood of having experienced unwanted sexual behaviours included having a disability, being lesbian, gay, bisexual or of another sexual orientation than heterosexual, or wearing a visible religious symbol.
• Women also represent the majority of victims of intimate partner homicides in Canada, accounting for 79% of people killed by an intimate partner between 2007 and 2019. In 2020, 160 women were violently killed in Canada.
  • Police-reported data shows that while Indigenous women account for about 5% of all women in Canada, they accounted for 21% of all women killed by an intimate partner between 2014 and 2019.
• In 2018, women in Canada were 3.5 times more likely than men to have been sexually assaulted at least once since the age of 15 (30% versus 8%, respectively).
  • Indigenous women, people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or of a sexual orientation other than heterosexual, transgender and gender-diverse people, women with a disability and visible minority women are more likely to have been sexually assaulted at least once since the age of 15 years.

Poverty reduction, health and well-being^{Footnote 7}

• In 2019, 9.8% of men and 10.4% of women were below the poverty line.
  • Those more likely to live in poverty are persons in lone-parent households headed by women, Indigenous people, visible minorities, recent immigrants, and persons with a disability.
• In 2017/18, 8.8% of households– approximately 1.2 million households –experienced moderate of severe food insecurity.
  • Those more likely to experience food insecurity are women lone-parent households, Indigenous or Black households, and recent immigrants.
  • Nunavut has the highest prevalence of food insecurity of all the provinces and territories; 49% of households are food-insecure (26% moderate and 24% severe food insecurity).
• In 2016, 36% of persons in women lone-parent families were in core housing need, compared to 20.5% of persons in men lone-parent families, 8.0% of persons in couple families with children, and 5.3% of persons in couple families.
  • Others more likely to be in core housing needs are Indigenous people and visible minorities.
• Data collected in 2018 found that 21% of youth experiencing homelessness identified as LGBTQ2+.
• In 2019, 65% of women aged 12 years and over reported that they perceived their mental health as very good or excellent compared to 70% of men.
  • Mental health was worse among low-income people, people with less than a high school diploma, people identifying as gay, lesbian or bisexual, and transgender individuals, as well as Indigenous people living off reserve.
• Transgender individuals not only have higher rates of negative mental health but are also significantly more likely to report having seriously contemplated suicide (45%) than cisgender individuals (16%).
  • Indigenous individuals are also more likely to contemplate suicide. Nearly 30% of Indigenous women report having had suicidal thoughts in their lifetime, compared with 20% of Indigenous men. Indigenous people living off reserve were twice as likely to report having had suicidal thoughts, both in their lifetime (25%) and in the previous 12 months (6%), compared with non-Indigenous people (12% and 3%, respectively).

Gender equality around the world

• In 2021, women comprised only 7% of combined UN police and military personnel in peacekeeping missions. Evidence shows that the inclusion of women in peacekeeping has benefits for effective operations.
• While evidence shows that women's rights organizations are the single most significant factor in influencing policy changes towards gender equality, only 1.1 per cent of the total amount of aid earmarked for OECD gender specific programming went to women's rights organizations in 2015-2016.
• Between 1997 and 2020, the global average of women members of parliament rose from 12% to 25%.
• There were an estimated 89 million unintended pregnancies in developing countries in 2017, and every day approximately 830 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, with adolescent girls facing an even higher risk of complications and death.
• Of women aged 15-49 years, 60% reported using contraceptives in 2017. This is down 4 percentage points from 2014.
• Canada's trade agreements include gender provisions, including free trade agreements with Chile and Israel, the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.
• In 2018, nearly 40% of countries worldwide imposed constraints on women's right to own property, 104 countries had laws preventing women from working specific jobs, and in 18 countries husbands could legally prevent their wives from working.
• In 41 countries, inheritance laws do not treat daughters and sons equally; in 38 countries, there are no laws prohibiting the dismissal of pregnant workers; and in 32 countries, there is no legislation specifically addressing domestic violence.
• Gender-based violence and sexual exploitation continue to act as significant barriers to women and girls around the world. 12 million girls are married before reaching adulthood each year, almost 1 in 3 has experienced intimate partner violence, and over 200 million women and girls in 31 countries have experienced female genital mutilation.
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, the challenges that women around the world were already facing have been amplified; 40% of all working women, globally, are in the sectors that have been most impacted by the pandemic.
• Women make up more than two-thirds of the world's nearly 750 million illiterate people, and in conflict zones girls are 2.5 times more likely than boys to be out of school entirely.

Gendered Impacts of COVID-19

Economic Impacts

Women, youth, students, and newcomers were disproportionately impacted by the economic shutdown during the first wave of the pandemic

The widespread economic shutdowns across the country have affected many people in Canada, with 5.5 million experiencing employment losses or reduced work hours by April 2020. Although a comparable amount of women and men experienced employment losses by April 2020, losses among women (-6.9%) were almost double that experienced among men (-3.7%) in March 2020.^{Footnote 8} Employment declines by April 2020 were greater among youth and students, particularly female youth (-37.6%) and students (-53.4%), as well as newcomers (-23.2%).^{Footnote 9} Recent immigrants, particularly female recent immigrants, were more likely than Canadian-born workers to move out of employment from March to April 2020. ^{Footnote 10}

After the first wave, employment losses did not recover at the same pace for everyone.

As the economy reopened after the first wave of the pandemic, recovery of COVID-related employment losses was uneven, with women, youth, students, low-wage workers, and recent immigrants trailing behind. For example, as the economy began to reopen in May 2020, employment increased twice as fast among men than women (+2.4% vs. +1.1%).^{Footnote 11} Compared with one year earlier, the three-month moving average of the employment rate for Indigenous women was down 8.0 percentage points to 47.8% in December 2020, compared with a 3.2 percentage point decline for Indigenous men to 57.1% (not seasonally adjusted). In contrast, the drop in the employment rate among the non-Indigenous population was similar for men (-2.4 percentage points to 63.4%) and women (-2.6 percentage points to 55.7%). These differences are consistent with findings from earlier in the pandemic.^{Footnote 12}

People in Canada were being differentially impacted by the economic shutdowns experienced during the second and third waves of the pandemic.

The economic shutdowns experienced in several parts of the country during the second wave of the pandemic resulted in notable job losses, which were disproportionately experienced by certain groups of people. Following a drop of 52,700 (-0.3%) in December 2020, in January 2021, employment fell by 212,800 (-1.2%), bringing employment in Canada to its lowest level since August 2020. Like in March and April 2020, the employment decline among core-aged women (-73,400; -1.3%) in January 2021 was more than double that of core-aged men (-33,500; -0.5%), resulting in employment being 3.2% and 2.7% lower than it was in February 2020 for core-aged women and men, respectively. Employment for female youth fell by 68,500 (-6.1%) in January and was further (-17.4%) from its pre-pandemic level than any other major demographic group. In comparison, employment for male youth fell by 39,000 (-3.3%) and was 11.6% lower than it was in February 2020.^{Footnote 13}

Following gains in February and March 2021, the third wave of the pandemic resulted in employment decreasing by 124,700 (-1.4%) and 82,400 (-0.8%) in April 2021 for women and men, respectively, and in May 2021, employment fell by 54,200 (-1.6%) and 13,800 (-0.1%) for women and men, respectively.^{Footnote 14Footnote 15}

Employment rose by 94,000 (+0.5%) in July 2021, adding to the 231,000 (+1.2%) increase in June. The two consecutive months of growth brought employment to 246,000 (-1.3%) below the February 2020 level. Youth aged 15 to 24 and core-aged women aged 25 to 54 accounted for the bulk of the gains. Employment rose 30,000 (+0.5%) for core-aged women aged 25 to 54 in July 2021, with full-time gains (+73,000; +1.5%) more than compensating for part-time losses (-44,000; -4.2%). Overall, employment was little changed for core-aged men. Core-aged employment was 124,000 (-1.0%) below pre-COVID levels in July, with similar deficits for men (-71,000; -1.1%) and women (-53,000; -0.9%). Employment among youth aged 15 to 24 increased by 62,000 (+2.5%) in July 2021, with gains split between young men (+36,000; +2.8%) and young women (+26,000; +2.2%).^{Footnote 16}

Financial Impacts

Financial concerns and food insecurity have been experienced by many.

The economic downturn has left many Canadians concerned about, or experiencing challenges with, their financial well-being and ability to pay for or access basic necessities, such as food. In June 2020, about 1 in 5 Canadians reported difficulty meet their financial obligations (e.g., rent or mortgage payments, groceries).^{Footnote 17}

In May 2020, about 1 in 7 (15%) Canadians reported that they live in a food insecure (i.e., inadequate or insecure access to food due to financial constraints) household during the pandemic, with those living in a household with children (19%) and those who were employed but not working due to COVID-related reasons (28%) were more likely to report being food insecure.

Impacts on Child Care and Other Care Work

During the pandemic, women have continued to take on a disproportionate share of unpaid domestic and care work.

School, daycare, and summer camp closures, increased time at home, as well as limited access to other supports and services, have contributed to an increase in time spent on unpaid domestic and care work during the pandemic. Unsurprisingly, the majority (74%) of parents have expressed concern over balancing child care, schooling, and work.^{Footnote 18}

Not unlike pre-pandemic, women have shouldered this increased work, which may have implications for their short- and longer-term economic participation. Research conducted by Statistics Canada in June 2020 revealed that women are more likely to report that they perform most parental tasks during the pandemic. This research also indicates that homeschooling during the pandemic has mostly fallen to women, with almost two-thirds (64%) of women reporting that they mostly performed homeschooling or helping children with homework, while 19% of men reported being mostly responsible for this task.^{Footnote 19}

Gender-Based Violence and Access to Justice

Consistent with historical trends on global challenges, emerging evidence indicates that some forms of gender-based violence have increased during the pandemic.

Mid-year data from the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability show that a total of 92 women and girls were killed by violence in Canada between January and June 2021 – slightly more than for the same time period in 2020.  Of the identified accused, 92% were men.^{Footnote 20} In both Canada and Europe, increases in femicide prevalence have been be explained by pandemic circumstances that have forced partners to be together 24-7 but even more so by those to do with the gradual lifting of lockdown measures.^{Footnote 21Footnote 22} It is important to recognize that the pandemic has not “caused” increases in femicide per se, but rather has exacerbated factors that contribute, at any time, to this extreme form of violence.^{Footnote 23}

Despite evidence and attestations that domestic violence has increased during the pandemic, a new analysis of Statistics Canada data in July 2021 shows that police-reported cases of domestic violence have in fact held steady during the pandemic.^{Footnote 24} After a slight spike in the summer of 2020, reports to Canadian police of intimate partner violence steadily declined to about the same levels as before the pandemic.  Two explanations cited are that police data do not show the full picture because many survivors do not file police reports and lockdown measures have made it more difficult to do so.^{Footnote 25}

Newly released reports on human trafficking lay bare the circumstances that are contributing to increases in trafficking that some experts claim are happening. The pandemic has caused greater economic and social vulnerability, moved more people and activity online, disrupted existing and planned anti-trafficking interventions and help for trafficked individuals, and put trafficked individuals more at risk of stigma and threats to their safety.^{Footnote 26 Footnote 27 Footnote 28}

Impacts on Health and Well-Being

Certain groups are reporting poorer mental health during the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic carries with it a host of mental health challenges, including self-isolation, as well as financial, health, and social concerns. Women, gender-diverse people, youth, Indigenous peoples, and recent immigrants have reported particularly notable mental health challenges, including symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress during the pandemic. Since the start of physical distancing, women (57%), gender-diverse people (71%), youth (64%), Indigenous peoples (60%), persons with long-term conditions or disabilities (57%) and recent immigrants (52%) reported that their mental health is somewhat or much worse.^{Footnote 29Footnote 30Footnote 31Footnote 32Footnote 33}

Education and Skills Development

School closures are leading to new challenges for parents, children, and post-secondary students.

School closures have resulted in many Canadian families having to adapt to online delivery of education and homeschooling, with the majority (77%) of parents reporting that their children are engaged in structured academic activities. For many parents, especially parents of children with disabilities, this has resulted in concern about their children’s school year and academic success.^{Footnote 34Footnote 35}

The move to online learning for many post-secondary institutions across the country has posed considerable financial and academic challenges for post-secondary students. For many, this has had implications for their grades, their ability to complete courses or conduct graduate-level research, whether they can return to school, and completing their degree, diploma, or certificate as planned.^{Footnote 36}

Leadership and Democratic Participation

A study completed by Deloitte in August-September 2020, which surveyed women globally who were employed full time, found that nearly 70% of women who experienced negative disruptions from the pandemic are concerned about their ability to progress in their careers.^{Footnote 37} Using different socio-demographic and economic data from the World Development Indicators, a research paper published in June 2020, examined indicators from 194 countries and found that COVID-19 outcomes are systematically better in countries led by women.^{Footnote 38}

A research study by BMJ Global Health published in December 2020 found that only 3.5% of 115 COVID-19 decision-making groups across 87 countries contained an equitable number of men and women.^{Footnote 39}

Research conducted by Statistics Canada suggests that the impact of COVID-19 on businesses majority-owned by women has been comparable to the impact on all Canadian businesses, with nearly three-fifths of businesses majority-owned by women (56.0%) and all businesses (56.5%) seeing a decline in revenue in August 2020, compared to one year prior. Further, about two-fifths of businesses majority-owned by women (37.9%) and all businesses (39.3%) had the same level of spending in August 2020 as in August 2019.  More than two-fifths (45.7%) of businesses majority-owned by women reported that they did not have the ability to take on more debt, slightly higher than the proportion (43.9%) of all businesses. Further, 41.7% of businesses majority-owned by women reported being able to continue operating at their current level of revenue and expenditures for one year or more, before considering staffing actions, closure or bankruptcy (compared to 39.9% of businesses in general). However, businesses majority-owned by women were more likely to lay off a larger proportion of their workforce and to rehire 50% or more of their laid-off employees as well as having more of their workforce working remotely.^{Footnote 40}

LGBTQ2 Action Plan

Issue

• The first Federal LGBTQ2 (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and two-spirit) Action Plan (hereafter referred to as the Federal Action Plan) is currently under development.
• The implementation of a Federal Action Plan will contribute directly to the promotion of LGBTQ2 equality, protecting LGBTQ2 rights, and addressing discrimination against LGBTQ2 communities, both past and current. Specifically, the Federal Action Plan will strive to address the needs and contribute to improved health, social and economic outcomes of LGBTQ2 communities as well as broader diversity and inclusion outcomes.

Background and current status

• Individuals from LGBTQ2 communities face many inequities compared to other Canadians. These inequities are particularly evident in such areas as health, employment, housing and safety.
• To answer some of those inequities, several countries have implemented LGBTQ2 action plans at the national or regional level, including France (2020), Australia (2019), the United Kingdom (2018), Ireland (2018) and the Netherlands (2011). At the provincial level, Quebec implemented its second Government Action Plan Against Homophobia and Transphobia in 2017 and Yukon launched its LGBTQ2S+ Inclusion Action Plan in 2021.
• The comparative analysis across plans shows diversity in thematic commitments, indicator approaches, and duration of plans (e.g. 2 ≤ 5 years), and also provides varying levels of funding for targeted initiatives, including joint government and civil society initiatives.
• Currently, the Federal Action Plan is expected to include concrete actions to support LGBTQ2 communities through a whole-of-federal-government approach, that is, led by the LGBTQ2 Secretariat, in collaboration with key departments.
• A community engagement process to consult with civil society representatives from the LGBTQ2 communities took place from November 2020 to July 2021. The themes prioritized for the work of the Federal Action Plan were as follows:
  • health and well-being;
  • employment and the workplace;
  • safety and justice;
  • housing and homelessness; and
  • stigma, isolation and resilience.
• The engagement process incorporated an intersectional approach, ensuring that the effects of racism, ableism, ageism, etc. experienced by LGBTQ communities are taken into account, notably through enhanced accessibility throughout the engagement process.
• In order to build a strong foundation of evidence for the development of the Federal Action Plan, the engagement process consisted of three streams of inputs:
  • An online survey, conducted from November 27, 2020, to February 28, 2021, which collected responses from more than 25,000 LGBTQ2 individuals living in Canada;
  • Written observations, submitted online from April 13 to May 31, 2021, by over 50 LGBTQ2 civil society organizations; and
  • A series of virtual roundtable discussions, which were held throughout the spring and summer of 2021, each bringing together approximately a dozen advocates, community leaders and researchers around the themes identified above. In addition to the five themes above, there was a discussion dedicated to international LGBTI issues, as well as a discussion dedicated to Black LGBTQ2 communities. A specific engagement session with Two-Spirit and Indigenous LGBTQQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual) communities has not yet taken place, although various discussions with Two-Spirit and Indigenous LGBTQQIA+ civil-society and the MMIWG sub-working group members have occurred throughout the public engagement process.
• Analysis of engagement results is underway, and an interdepartmental team composed of several departments and agencies (including Justice, Employment and Social Development, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Global Affairs, among others) has been working with the LGBTQ2 Secretariat to support this work over the past several months.