Expected Outcomes

1. Increased effectiveness of the lobbying effort by bringing together diverse perspectives on policies and programs that holistically address the barriers that women face
2. A workplace quality survey that will promote understanding of the issues that women face and form a benchmark on workplace quality
3. A benchmark analysis of women's substantive equality (inequality) in the labour market
4. A web-like analysis showing how barriers inter-relate
5. Myriad strategies that work positively to address lack of access, lack of participation, lack of equitable outcomes
6. An analysis of these strategies demonstrating who the major beneficiaries are and what impact they have on diverse groups of women.
7. A set of criteria for policy formulation for women's equality, developed for both federal and provincial territorial governments, according to the policies and programs in F/P/T jurisdictions.

Funding
Funding partners are likely to be SWC, the Women's Bureau at HRDC, and others such as employers, unions, educational organizations, etc., for specific components of the project.

Timelines
2000 - 2001: Phase 1

• Research labour force development initiatives and their impact on women
• perform benchmark analysis of how women participate in the labour market (this requires no primary research)
• Form partnerships for a workplace quality survey
• Analysis of labour force development strategies for a diverse population

2001 - 2002: Phase 2

• Perform workplace quality survey; present results
• Using results of Phase 1 and a developed equity policy, design a 'supports framework' that demonstrates how barriers inter-relate and what must be in place to support women's access
• Design key labour force development initiatives that would move women closer to equality and detail the many different types of strategies that are needed to achieve equality. This design responds to the needs of a diverse population and details how the initiatives affect diverse groups.
• Design a policy formulation tool for use in government that requires a demonstration of how the policy will improve women's access to and more equal participation in the labour market.
• Work with other women's groups to determine priorities for the NGO sector.

2002 - 2003: Phase 3

• Using the benchmark analysis, the workplace quality survey, the initiatives designed in Phase 2 and the results of the priorities of the NGO community, design a strategy of actions, responsibilities and outcomes that would move women closer to equal participation.
• Quantified results of the strategy developed as a tool to measure potential progress in several key areas.

Staffing
Project Manager (E.D)
Lead Researcher - Project Coordinator
Content Researchers - specialists (4 to 6)
Researcher/Writer to work on development of tools

Estimated Budget

Potential Partners
The National Women's Reference Group is a potential partner in this initiative. Also, provincial Women's Advisory Councils.