Women making transitions
Ingrid WELLMEIER, Researcher
This report contains a list of the barriers women face: a literature review of barriers and a summary statement; the principles, objectives, and training criteria for women's programming; case studies of four transition programs for women in Canada and 20 recommendations to the Task Force.
Literature review
Literature review For over 20 years, women have been working to establish training programs to give women access to the full range of occupations, apprenticeship training, and college and university programs to end their concentration in the lowest paying occupations in service and clerical work. Research reports that deal with the barriers women face with respect to training are listed. A summary statement of barriers is presented under the headings access or entry issues, financial and other necessary supports, and quality and usefulness of the programs.
Access or entry issues: Funding, lack of information, physical barriers, eligibility and insufficient training opportunities, sexism, racism, language barriers.
Financial and other necessary supports: Lack of income support, child care, transportation, emotional support.
Quality and usefulness of the programs: No coordination between training and the economy; discriminatory attitudes in counselling; lack of instructional support; inflexibility of curriculum and programs; and lack of access to personal and professional development, skills training for trades, technology and operations work and preparatory programs.
Training principles, objectives, and criteria
The report advocates principles, objectives, and criteria for training and educational programming to effect positive outcomes that support women in transition into a full range of occupations in the labour market. Some programs have produced positive results. These "women only" programs have been based on the following criteria, which are necessary to achieve different labour market outcomes for women.
*Copies of the five reports summarized in this appendix are available on request from CLFBD.