OTTAWA - A new report says it would take Canada 164 years to close the economic gap between men and women if things keep going the way they are.
The review of how close — or far — Canada is from meeting United Nations gender equality goals it signed on to in 1995 shows "uneven" progress over the past five years despite a renewed focus on feminist policies from the Liberal government.
Ottawa submitted its own progress report to the UN this spring, where the Liberal government highlighted achievements such as gender-based budgeting and recent moves towards ensuring that men and women get equal pay for work of equal value.
The shadow report from more than 50 non-governmental organizations and released today says there is still a persistent gender gap when it comes to economic security in Canada, even though women now outnumber men when it comes to completing some form of post-secondary education.
That gap is even wider for women with disabilities or from First Nations, Metis, Inuit and immigrant communities.
Katherine Scott, a senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, says the report shows there is still a lot of work to do.
