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Losing Ground: the Effects of Government Cutbacks on Women in British Columbia, 2001 - 2005
A
Report by: Gillian Creese, Professor, Anthropology & Sociology,
University of British Columbia, and Veronica Strong-Boag, Professor,
Educational Studies & Women Studies, University of British Columbia
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Prepared for: The B.C. Coalition of Women’s Centres, The University of
British Columbia Centre for Research in Women’s Studies and Gender
Relations, and The B.C. Federation of Labour | March 8, 2005 |
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Read the entire report:
PDF format | HTML format (coming soon)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
While women were far from equality in May 2001, there is no doubt that
British Columbia women have lost ground under Gordon Campbell’s New
Era. The long history of gender inequality that Canada continues
to struggle with has been long documented by social scientists and
activists and leaves no doubt that much more needs to be done to
achieve gender equity. In fact, this work is widely available and
in substantial agreement; legislators and policy makers cannot claim
ignorance of gender inequality. Not to address these realities is
tantamount to indifference to the welfare of half the population.
The need for good quality daycare is well-documented. In spite of
their pro-employment ideology, the Liberals have slashed funding for
childcare centres, reduced subsidies to low income parents, and
eliminated the $7 per day cap on pre and after school care. They
have undermined licensed facilities, particularly in poorer
neighbourhoods where some daycares have closed. Social supports for the
elderly have also been damaged with reduced access to home care and
closures, reorganization, and staff reductions in hospitals and
long-term care facilities. More unpaid caring work - for
children, the elderly, the ill, and those with disabilities - has been
downloaded to women, who already do the lion’s share of such labour.
Health care restructuring has injured women - as workers, as patients,
and as unpaid caregivers. Reduced services associated with the
centralization of health care hits rural areas especially hard, with
especially serious consequences for Aboriginal women. Violence,
particularly spousal violence and sexual assault, remains common.
Yet the Attorney General has retreated from a zero tolerance policy and
encouraged Crown Prosecutors to divert domestic violence cases away
from the courts. Liberal cuts to community-based victims’
services, legal aid, and women’s centres further threaten women’s
safety.
Massive reductions and reduced eligibility for welfare have created
significant hardship among our most disadvantaged citizens.
One-third of BC welfare recipients are single-parent families, 88%
headed by women.
Welfare benefits constitute between 32% and 49% of Statistics Canada’s
low-income cut-off in large cities. Single mothers no longer keep
$100 of child support; earnings exemptions have disappeared; mothers
are ‘employable’ when their youngest reaches three years of age;
welfare recipients may no longer attend university or college; those
deemed ‘employable’ can only receive time-limited assistance for 2 out
of every 5 years. People with disabilities have been forced to
re-qualify. This has been onerous especially for women, with
their higher incidence of so-called ‘invisible’ disabilities that are
less likely to be recognized. Not surprisingly, BC has widespread
homelessness, food insecurity, and food banks. In 2003, 78.6% of
all BC food bank recipients were on income assistance.
Education has long been embraced as the best insurance of social
equality. Liberal education policies have worsened women’s access
as training and higher education have become more costly. The
Industry, Training and Apprenticeship Commission, with its mandate to
include more women, Aboriginal and Visible Minority residents in trades
and technical training, has gone. Enrollment in trades training
has fallen. Tuition in colleges and universities has jumped by
76% since the tuition freeze was lifted. Non-repayable grants no
longer help low-income students dependent on student loans. The loss of
childcare subsidies further compromises female enrollment.
BC Liberal employment policies have made it more difficult for women to
achieve wage parity with men. The government cut women’s jobs in
the public sector, weakened employment standards, eliminated pro-active
measures such as pay equity and employment equity, cut childcare and
impaired access to education. The attack on public sector unions
and workers has cost over 20,000 jobs, 75% held by women. These
were ‘good jobs,’ secure, unionized, with the greatest gains in
reducing pay discrimination. The Employment Standards Act was
revised to foster ‘flexibility’ for employers while weakening
safeguards for workers, particularly for the part-time, short-term and
low-waged, who are largely women and recent immigrants. The
government’s ability to enforce these standards has been compromised,
with workers directed to ‘self-help kits’ available only in
English. Policies designed to achieve equality in the workplace
have been eliminated: the Equity and Diversity Branch was axed
and the pay equity provision in the Human Rights Code repealed.
Women’s access to justice has been undermined by the attack on legal
aid. Legal aid funding has been slashed by almost 40%, and
services for family, poverty and immigration law largely
eliminated. These changes deny women access to the very legal
services they are most likely to need. Legal Services Society
offices have closed, including 12 Native Community law offices.
One-third of the province’s courthouses have gone, further compromising
access. More women are appearing in family court without legal
representation and immigrant women in abusive relationships are more at
risk. The BC Human Rights Commission was eliminated, the only
provincial body that had a mandate to eliminate discrimination.
Liberal policies regarding advocacy for women’s equality have been
equally disturbing. The Ministry of Women’s Equality, with its
pro-active mandate to ‘advance equality’ for ‘the diversity of women’
has gone. Its replacement, a junior Ministry of State for Women’s
Services, does not include equality or diversity in its mandate.
The Provincial Mental Health Advocate, the Minister’s Advocacy Council
on Women’s Health, and the Human Rights Commission all fell victim to
the Liberal guillotine. All thirty-seven women’s centres in the
province have lost core funding, making effective advocacy more
difficult, and eliminating an essential part of the support system for
women in crisis.
On major policy fronts – caring work, health and safety, welfare,
education and training, employment, access to justice and women’s
advocacy – Liberals have tossed equality and justice overboard.
The Liberal government may pretend that gender equality has already
been achieved and policy formation can be indifferent to women, but
abundant research demonstrates otherwise. Gender inequality is
increasing even as BC Liberals promise a ‘golden decade’ in the
pre-election Throne Speech. As we celebrate International Women’s
Day on March 8th, women and the men who support gender equality must
demand a fair deal from those we next elect.
Read the entire report:
PDF format | HTML format (coming soon)
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