Women also receive less pay than men on an average basis. In 1980 in Canada, women earned only 64% of the average male wage (Table 2). Although the wage gap has narrowed slightly over the years, a recent Economic Council of Canada report on the employment effects of technological change, notes a disturbing research finding. Although the high technology sector of the economy is accounting for an increasing percentage of jobs created in Canada, women's earnings within that sector were even less than the national average in 1980 (12) (see Table 3).

For women with low education levels, all these problems are exacerbated. Research for the Economic Council report found, for instance, that the effect of technological change was to reduce employment for all those (male and female) with less than Grade 9 by 15.4%. In contrast, those with more than Grade 9 but no university were affected negatively by 7.7% and for those with university, technological change acted to increase employment by 3.4% (13).

2.2 Education and Training for Women

With respect to training and education, women's position is defined by extension from economic circumstances. For example, although educational levels are the single most significant predictive factor in determining whether any individual woman will find a 'good' job, women with the highest levels of education university graduates are still more likely to be unemployed than male graduates (see, for example, an analysis of Ontario data in Chart 2) and the earnings gap persists. Women generally make considerably less money than men with the same qualifications (Table 4). Although women have made significant progress in entering formerly male-dominated fields at both the undergraduate and graduate levels of universities, there have so far been few corresponding changes in women's share of related occupations. This may well be because although the percentage increase of women enrolled in fields such as engineering or math and physics is significant, the actual numbers are not. Similar patterns exist with respect to training and education for women outside the universities. Previous CCLOW research has found that from 1982-1984, the number of women who were enrolled in federally-sponsored training programs actually declined (14). This is due partly to an absolute decline in the number of dollars available for sponsorship of training, a trend which is continuing with the. current government's Canadian Jobs Strategy (15).

There have, however, been cases where seats in training courses reserved for women went unfilled. There are a variety of reasons why women never get to training, even when it is available. Of these the most important are: lack of child care, lack of money, lack of information regarding the availability of programs, geographical isolation, and a lack of good fit between the program structure and the needs of women who might enroll. Analysis of policy related to these access issues form one area of focus for our report.