7. The unionization of women, while not a responsibility of the CEIC, has a direct bearing on CMTP programs, particularly on Industrial and Apprenticeship programs. To become a registered apprentice, a woman must have a job in the field and this often involves requiring permission to join the appropriate union. In an economic recession, unions may attempt to protect the positions of their current members by refusing new admissions. Some unions use these and other policies, such as the absence of washroom facilities, to exclude women from membership; and also from the apprenticeship program. If women are to gain greater access to these training programs, the CEIC will need to work directly with both the provincial educational institutions and the unions to facilitate both training and future employment. CCLOW could assist in this process by supporting current female union members in their efforts to improve conditions for unionized women workers.

8. The methods by which the level of unemployment is calculated have an effect on the admission of women to training programs. The labour force survey defines the labour force as those who are working or who have a job ("employed") and those who are looking for work ("unemployed"). Those who do not fall into either of these two categories are considered to be "not in the labour force". Therefore, a woman who does not have a job is not unemployed unless she is actively seeking work. Since CMTP programs are designed to "recycle the labour force", we can assume that those who are not in it receive the lowest priority in terms of training places.

To be classed as unemployed a woman must fill several very specific criteria and must maintain these activities, often over many weeks. These are:

- if she has no job, she must have actively looked for work in the past four weeks. This means she must conduct a job search by answering ads, contacting a CMC or private employment agency, go for interviews, etc. The labour force survey only asks if she has looked. The Unemployment Insurance, Commission (U.I.C.) requires proof of a job search; and in some cases, requires more, more extensive, and more intensive searches of women than it does of men. If a woman cannot satisfy the U.I. officer, she will be disentitled from her U.I. benefits.

- in addition, she must be "available for work" at all times. To be "available for work" means to be a full-time student seeking part-time work; to have no reason why she cannot take a job; or, if she cannot take a job, it is because of 'own illness or disability', 'personal or family responsibility', or already have a job which begins within 4 weeks or from which she has been laid-off for 26 weeks or less.

- if she is the mother of small children she is expected to have a baby sitter or day care services "on call".

Many women would be hard pressed to fulfill these criteria and to keep it up for 20, 30 or 40 weeks. The result is that women frequently withdraw voluntarily from the labour force (or are involuntarily defined out of it), and "simply return to housekeeping". More often they withdraw from becoming discouraged, from not being able to keep a baby sitter on call, from not being able to meet the job search requirements, from not being able or willing to move and so on. There is no data on how many women withdraw voluntarily because of sexual harassment or sexual discrimination which makes finding a suitable job very difficult.