Focus turns from women’s equality in cabinet to wage gap

Groups still waiting for concrete Ottawa plan to lower barriers to employment

For the second time in three months, the Trudeau government has signalled its desire to make women’s equality a priority. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent a powerful message in November when he appointed a cabinet with 50 per cent women “because it’s 2015.”

This week at a Paris forum on the future of work, federal Employment Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk was applauded for her off-the-cuff comments on the need to make progress on the issue.

“It’s 2016,” she quipped in response to an academic on an all-male panel who suggested women still struggle with family and home duties.

Although Mihychuk acknowledged in an interview from Paris on Friday that the Liberal government hasn’t promised any specific policies or initiatives to lower barriers to employment or close the gender pay gap, she said the makeup of cabinet will keep the issue top of mind.

“The fact that we have 50 per cent females in cabinet means that we’re going to be talking about these kinds of issues,” she said. “I’m a feminist. I’m a woman. I believe that we should have equality.”

Mihychuk said her first foray as minister on the international stage gave her hope. “I said, ‘Look, it’s time to change. It’s 2016.’ And the crowd started clapping,” she said about her impromptu comments on Thursday during a discussion on how digitization is reshaping work.

Women’s groups in Canada are also watching. “I’m glad she’s talking about it,” said Toronto lawyer Mary Cornish of the Equal Pay Coalition. “But you have to have a plan.”

The national coalition of women’s business and professional organizations, community groups and trade unions has been fighting for 40 years to eliminate the wage gap between men and women, which is currently about 33 per cent. It means women earn about earn 67 cents for every dollar a man makes.

“We’re not going to get beyond this 33 per cent if we just chat about it,” Cornish said. At the current rate of progress, it will take women another 62 years to reach wage parity with men, she added.

Ottawa should follow Ontario, which has committed to close that province’s 31.5 per cent gender pay gap and appointed a steering committee last fall to develop a strategy, Cornish said.

Mihychuk said she will be watching what other jurisdictions are doing and thinks Ontario’s response to the issue is a “very innovative and positive step.” As a geoscientist who worked in the mining industry for 38 years, Mihychuk knows the challenge first hand and was “insulted” recently when a company official told her women will move to the board room and executive suite when they have the experience.