Designated Themes

CCLOW's Board of Directors, with input from the organization's membership, identified six theme areas as key issues for women's learning, education and training in Canada. Through on-line discussions, hosted through AlphaCom's web capabilities at AlphaPlus, topics for workshop sessions were identified. Following is a summary, under each theme, of discussions from both the on-line dialogues and the congress workshops, organized by workshop topic. However, there are many intersecting subjects and issues throughout all the themes.

Learning, Work and Gender Equity
This stream of discussion concerned itself largely with past and pending changes to Employment Insurance (EI) policies and eligibility, and with the loss of the "equity principle" in devolution of training responsibility from the federal to provincial governments. Results documented in Voices from the Field, produced by the NWRG, indicate that, a) fewer women are availing themselves of training opportunities; b) provincial and federal policies are undercutting services to women as there is no longer any requirement for women's equal access to training; and c) providers of training directed specifically to women are disappearing from the field. Despite years of rhetoric about women's equal access to higher paying, more stable jobs, a huge percentage of women apprentices are still concentrated in "pink ghettos" and marketing efforts for jobs in the new field of Information Technology (IT) are unlikely to attract women. Topics identified for conference workshops were: Gender-Based Analysis; Practical Approaches to Increasing Women's Participation in Technical and Non-Traditional Occupations; and Increasing Women's Participation in Trades and Technology Occupations and Blue Collar Work.

Gender-Based Analysis
In the on-line discussions, gender-based analysis (GBA) was identified as an important policy instrument to strengthen the government's commitment to equity and as a means to assess whether programs meet women's needs. Joan McFarland, professor in the Department of Economics at St. Thomas University and a former President of CCLOW, was invited to present findings from her research on women's access to training in New Brunswick. Helene Dwyer-Renaud, Director of the Gender-Based Analysis Directorate, Status of Women Canada, was asked to discuss GBA and the role of her directorate in implementing it.

Joan McFarland's research focused on the unavailability of government sponsorship as a barrier to training. Information from the public sector indicates that women's access to training has been driven by government sponsorship and with that sponsorship virtually eliminated by the 1996 EI changes, the impact has been great. Sponsorship was supposed to have been replaced through the Skills Loans and Grants program but the federal government has not yet found a financial institution willing to underwrite the loans portion, resulting in assistance only for those eligible for grants. Gender-specific data shows that, to date, males in New Brunswick have taken greater advantage of these grants. Other assistance programs are becoming targeted to more and more narrow populations, reducing the number of those who are eligible. Very little gender based data is available from the private sector. This is important to note given that there has been a 100% increase in the number of private training agencies in New Brunswick since 1991.

Joan McFarland's research can be found at: www.yorku.ca/research/crws/network
(under Publications).

Hélène Dwyer-Renaud described gender-based analysis as a means to understand the different socio-economic effects of policies on women and men, and to question underlying assumptions. The federal government established the Gender-Based Analysis Directorate in 1995. The principles of GBA used by the directorate are that: women and men have different needs; women are not a homogenous group; inequality has a systemic and structural nature; men can be disadvantaged by gender differences; GBA is only part of an approach to equitable policies. The directorate has also developed a pool of "Gender Equality Indicators" and more are in development, though these have not been fully utilized to evaluate programs and policies. It has been challenging to circulate information and research findings widely enough so policy-makers utilize the information. Effective monitoring and evaluation is needed, as is pressure to ensure the directorate plays an active role in all policy development.

The Gender-Based Analysis Directorate can be found on the website for Status of Women Canada: www.swc-cfc.gc.ca.
Or contacted by mail at: Constitution Square, 350 Albert St., Suite 520, Ottawa,
Ont. K1A 1C3.