PART II: SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This brief is prepared at a point in out history when women are confronted with structural unemployment of 13. 5%, 1 widespread deskilling of jobs, increasing vulnerability due to obsolescent skills, lack of influence, and undereducation.

The prospect a 50-70% loss of jobs in areas largely staffed by women over the next 25 2 years is a cause of great concern. The suffering and dislocation caused by this crisis as a result of technological innovation are not easy to address through anyone measure, but it is our opinion that through a system of retraining, redeployment and life-long learning the largest number of Canadian women will be able to lead productive working lives.

Economically, as workers and as learners, women are in need. The average annual income for women is approximately $11, 741 3 and 60% of women are living alone, are single parents, or are married to someone who earns less than $10,000 a year.4 The average annual wage for women is 60% of the average wage for men. For these reasons, there must be no extra financial burden put on women by a Paid Skills Development Leave program which seeks to retrain the workforce for the new technological reality.

The Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women (CCLOW) has prepared this Brief in the belief that all citizens have a right to skilled, productive work, and that access to such work is a major political issue of our time. Women's rights to full-time permanent employment is a question of equity which must be seen as a socio-economic need compatible with, and equal to, efficiency in production. The principles of equality of opportunity and individual freedom to take an active part in selection of training and career goals support our interest in dealing, through a Paid Skills Development program, with the special interests of homemakers, native women, immigrant women and those with literacy needs. Women urgently require a Leave program which will overcome the barriers to education and skills development which are common elements in women's experience.

Essentially, the barriers to skill development for women are: expenses of training, lack of living allowance during training, age limits, discriminatory practices of educational institutions, lack of provisions for part-time workers, family responsibilities, interrupted working life due to child bearing and child care, lack of flexibility in the delivery of educational programs, lack of opportunity for advancement in the labor market, lack of information about programs, and lack of educational and career counselling.

The measures which we propose to assist and guide policymakers in the development of a Paid Skills Development Leave program accessible to women are indicated in the following Recommendations.