An overall assessment of CEIC policy raises several issues.
First, the Commission appears to be caught with two conflicting sets of values
related to women: one attached to the condition "employed" and the other to the
condition "unemployed". The Women's Employment Section clearly supports
equality of opportunity in employment. Other literature takes a dim view of
providing equality of opportunity in unemployment. As long as a woman is
employed, or if unemployed does not require training or financial support, she
will receive the blessing and assistance of the various divisions of the
Commission. An unemployed woman requiring training or financial assistance is
another matter. Ignoring the hard data, we can speculate that the reasoning
involved in the Commission's policies and treatment related to women may be
arrived at this way...
| Employed women... |
Therefore, unemployed women
... |
| |
|
| ... are secondary earners |
... do not require U.I. benefits
or Manpower allowances to support a family and any training costs can be borne
by the primary earner |
| |
|
| |
... if they really want to work,
should not ask a hard-pressed public taxpayer to support them in training or
unemployment. |
| |
|
... have only a marginal
(minor)
attachment to the labour force |
... tend to work 11 weeks, then
quit and collect U.I. benefits. |
|
|
| |
... will stay in a training
program less than 12 weeks |
|
|
|
. ... are of minor importance in
the system both for U.I. benefits and training. |
| |
|
| ... are job-leavers |
... have "unstable work patterns"
and are unstable employee trainees |
|
|
| |
. ... are quitters who won't
finish training programs anyway, or if they do, they will then quit and go back
to housekeeping. |
| |
|
| |
... cannot be trusted. |
| |
|
...are under-educated and/or
under-trained and/or educated/
trained in the wrong way |
... will require too much time to
become functional academically and complete their. training program which will
increase costs. |
| |
|
| |
... should be happy with unskilled
work or with jobs requiring little responsibility and few advancement
possibilities. |
| |
|
| |
... are the responsibility of the
provincial educational systems. |