The Business & Community Newsletter – April 2017

The Canadian labour market has seen remarkable changes since the 1950s, one of which is the mass participation of women. Over the second half of the 20th century, women became far more involved in the workforce than ever before.

This Canadian Megatrends article, “The surge of women in the workforce”, looks at increased participation of women in the paid workforce since the 1950s. It finds that women's involvement in the labour market has not only risen dramatically, but has also led to a large rise in their median annual wages and salaries. Women's earnings more than doubled between the mid-1960s and the early 2010s, rising from $15,700 in 1965 to $37,200 in 2010 (in 2014 dollars).

The study “Portrait of caregivers, 2012,” first published in September 2013, is worth another read. It highlights the contributions of women providing care to family or friends with chronic health conditions, disabilities or aging needs.

In 2012, about 8.1 million individuals, or 28% of Canadians aged 15 years and older, provided care to a family member or friend with a long-term health condition, disability or aging needs.

Women represented the slight majority of caregivers at 54%. They were also more likely than men to spend the longest hours on caregiving activities. In 2012, 17% of women providing care devoted 20 or more hours a week to these tasks, compared with 11% of men.

The increased intensity of caregiving among women may be partly related to the type of tasks commonly performed by them. Women tend to provide care for activities that must be completed on a regular or set schedule. For instance, they were twice as likely as their male counterparts to provide personal care to the primary care receiver, including bathing and dressing (29% versus 13%).

Women were also substantially more likely to assist with medical treatments (27% versus 18%) and housework, such as preparing meals (59% and 41%). On the other hand, house maintenance or outdoor work, which can usually wait until the care provider has the time to do them, was more often performed by men (56% versus 35%).

In 2014, Canadian women had lower financial literacy scores than men. About 15% of women and 22% of men correctly answered five key financial literacy questions related to interest, inflation and risk diversification. Women were also less likely than men to consider themselves to be “financially knowledgeable” (31% versus 43%) and were less likely to state that they “know enough about investments to choose the right ones that are suitable for their circumstances” (48% versus 63%).

These knowledge gaps are highlighted in the study “Gender differences in the financial knowledge of Canadians”. Using data from the 2014 Canadian Financial Capability Survey (CFCS), this study examines the gap in the financial knowledge of men and women and how the difference varies across socioeconomic characteristics such as age and education. It also provides additional insight into the financial knowledge of Canadian men and women who are married or in a common-law union.

In 2011, women represented less than one in four (23%) workers in university-level scientific occupations, compared with nearly two-thirds (65%) of workers in university-level non-scientific occupations.

The relatively low proportion of women in scientific occupations was due to the fact that there were fewer women in occupations related to computer science. In 2011, computer science accounted for nearly one-half of all workers in scientific occupations normally requiring a university degree.

These findings are reported in a study, "Women in scientific occupations in Canada," which provides information on the scientific occupations of working women aged 25 to 64.

Although the study discusses both college-level and university-level occupations, the results presented in this release are based on occupations that normally require a university degree.

University-level scientific occupations comprise those in engineering, physical and life sciences, architecture, urban planning and land surveying, mathematics, statistics and actuarial science, and computer science.

According to a Juristat article, “Measuring violence against women: Statistical trends”, about 173,600 women aged 15 years and older were victims of violent crime in 2011. This translates into a rate of 1,207 female victims for every 100,000 women in the population, 5% higher than the rate of violence against men (1,151 per 100,000).

The article is organized into four sections: prevalence and severity of violence against women, risk factors associated with violence against women, impact of violence against women and responses to violence against women.

To provide a comprehensive picture of the extent and nature of violence against women, both police-reported crime data and self-reported victimization data are used. The analysis also draws on information from two administrative surveys, namely the Transition Home Survey and the Victims Services Survey.

Between 2000 and 2012, parental leave benefits were extended from 10 to 35 weeks, same-sex marriage was legalized, Quebec Parental Insurance Plan started offering paternity benefits to fathers, and the Universal Child Care Benefit and Family Caregiver Tax Credit were introduced.

Information collected in surveys like the General Social Survey on Family helps paint a more accurate picture of the diversity of Canadian families and contributes to the implementation of social programs such as these, which meet the needs of all Canadians.

March 22 is World Water Day, an annual international event. In 1993, the United Nations officially designated this day to create awareness about the importance of freshwater, freshwater resources and sustainability. How much do you know about this precious resource in Canada? Learn more about this in “By the numbers… World Water Day.”