Backgrounder - New federal funding will help improve women’s economic security in Northern Ontario
Backgrounder
Status of Women Canada – Women’s Program
One of the ways Status of Women Canada advances gender equality is by providing funding to eligible organizations through the Women’s Program. Projects are selected via calls for proposals on specific themes, as well as through a continuous intake process that allows the Women’s Program to accept applications on an ongoing basis.
The Women’s Program funds projects of up to five years that address barriers to women’s participation and equality in Canadian society in three priority areas: ending violence against women and girls; improving the economic security of women and girls; and encouraging women and girls in leadership roles.
Calls for Proposals – Support for Women’s Economic Security and Addressing the Economic Security and Prosperity of Indigenous Women
On October 2, 2017, the Honourable Maryam Monsef, Minister of Status of Women, launched two calls for proposals. The first call, entitled Support for Women’s Economic Security, invited organizations to apply for funding for projects to address the economic security of women and help advance gender equality in Canada. More than 30 projects will receive a total of $10 million in funding through this call for proposals.
This call for proposals is divided into two themes; the first is Building Partnerships to Address Systemic Barriers, which provides funding to address major barriers that limit women’s economic security, including, but not limited to, the accessibility of childcare, the gender wage gap and pay inequity.
The second theme, Increasing Private Sector Leadership and Investments in Women, encourages organizations to partner with the private sector to find innovative solutions that will help advance women’s economic security.
The second call for proposals, entitled Addressing the Economic Security and Prosperity of Indigenous Women, invited organizations to foster collaboration between Indigenous women, Indigenous organizations, their communities, and the private sector to support the economic security and prosperity of Indigenous women across Canada. Fourteen projects across the country will receive more than $4.3 million in funding through this call for proposals.
Funded Project
The PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise provides financial and other support to help thousands of women entrepreneurs succeed in business. They are a not-for-profit organization that works with their many partners to increase women’s access to credit, training, networking and other supports to help their enterprises expand and grow.
Project Description
The PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise will receive $280,061 in funding for their project, “Collaborating for Transformation: Advancing Women’s Economic Security”. In this 36-month project, the organization will focus on understanding the gaps to the growth experienced by women-led businesses in Northern Ontario and will help better understand why many women-led enterprises start off well, but are unable to expand and grow. These barriers include women’s unequal access to growth capital, attitudes of investors, existing and potential market opportunities, as well as improving business networks and other small business “connectors” that can make a difference to success or failure. The project will also address the role that other factors such as sexism, rural isolation and ageism play in hindering the growth of women-led enterprises.
Statistics – Women’s Economic Security
In 2015, 82.0% of women in the core working ages of 25 to 54 years (6 million) participated in the labour market.
In 2015, women represented 47.2% of the labour force, up from 45.7% in 1999 and 37.1% in 1976.
In 2015, the national employment rate for women was 77.5% compared to 85.3% for men.
On average women work 5.6 hours per week less than men (35.5 hours/week compared to 41.1 hours/week).
Currently, 19% of employed women work part-time (compared with 5.5% of employed men).
The average net worth of lone mothers was less than half of that of lone fathers: $240,000 versus $540,000. Unattached women and men had similar average net worth at $250,000 and $230,000, respectively.
Lone mothers had the lowest average adjusted income ($25,300), followed by those who were unattached ($33,700). The average adjusted incomes of lone fathers and unattached men were similar (around $40,300). Notably, the average adjusted income of lone mothers was $15,000 less than that of lone fathers.