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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 17, 2008 STRATFORD, PEI — Today, the PEI Advisory Council on the Status of Women released its first Equality Report Card on the provincial government’s progress towards selected women’s equality goals. The PEI Status of Women assessed government on more than twenty initiatives in seven categories and awarded PEI’s provincial government a C+ overall. |
“We consider C+ a good beginning on a first report,” says Status of Women Chairperson Isabelle Christian. “It represents a number of small, but real, steps to improve women’s equality.”
Christian says, “Women are our mothers, sisters, daughters, and partners. They are more than half our provincial population. Good policy that supports women supports families, communities, and our whole Island society.” The PEI Status of Women says it is using the Equality Report Card as a tool to praise positive change and to prompt government action on areas that need to be higher on the government agenda.
The Equality Report Card gives its highest grade, a B, for improvements to Access to Justice. “Recently, government has supported legal aid for family law with more commitment than we’ve seen for a long time. This will truly benefit women going through family break-ups,” says Christian. “We’ve seen the Attorney General state strong support for family law legal aid, but more importantly, government has backed that up by budget investments, a plan to hire another family law legal aid lawyer, and first steps towards a domestic violence court option that women have advocated for.”
Other top policies (B or better) include improved profile for the role of the Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, increased gender balance in appointments to agencies and commissions, the creation of a multi-partisan women’s caucus, the move of early childhood education in the Department of Education, investments in breast cancer screening.
The Report Card gives its lowest grade, a D, for Women’s Economic Status. “On this report, a D means that very little has improved women’s economic status this year. Some women are doing well on PEI, but we are concerned about the lack of priority government puts on the women and families who are having a hard time and are most vulnerable. Unfortunately, this past year saw little improvement to income for people on social assistance, inadequate support for persons with disabilities, little planning for affordable housing, and lack of updates to labour standards. It was a tough winter for many families on the Island. Government needs to pay real attention to policies that support livable incomes for all Islanders.”
Other issues that saw very little attention or improvement over the past year also received D grades. The PEI Status of Women assessed that issues important to women continued to be poorly reflected in government’s major public statements, women were under-represented in Executive Council, government failed to adequately consult early childhood educators on policy changes, and mental health services continued to be under-resourced.
The Status of Women Council awarded ‘bonus’ points to reward government for cooperating in the Report Card process in a positive and helpful way. All departments of government were engaged in the collaborative process.
“Women’s lives and experiences and men’s lives and experiences are different, so policies affect them differently in their day-to-day lives,” says Christian. “We want the test of a policy to be how well it works for the people whose lives are hardest,” Christian continues. “There are too many Island women whose lives are too hard, and we see ways that government can — and should — help. We’ll use the Equality Report Card as a way to measure government’s progress as long is it helps.”
The Equality Report Card publication and supporting documents will be available at http://www.gov.pe.ca/acsw and http://peiacsw.wordpress.com. Hard copies are available from the PEI Advisory Council on the Status of Women by calling 902-368-4510 or e-mailing
The category grades assessed by the PEI Status of Women look like this:
• C+ for Making Equality a Priority. Positive government steps push equality forward (such as a strong role for the Minister Responsible for the Status of Women), and old attitudes hold equality back (such as continued lack of mention of women in budgets and key public statements).
• C+ for Women in Decision-Making. Some government initiatives signal positive change (better gender balance on agencies, boards, and commissions), but little change at the highest levels or in the biggest systems (still very few women in cabinet, and still little improvement to the electoral system).
• C for Family Violence Prevention. Government has taken small steps across the board this year on violence prevention. More is needed to support community groups active in preventing violence, to get the Premier’s Action Committee on Family Violence Prevention back up and going soon, and to implement woman abuse protocols.
• B for Access to Justice. Government has begun to take concrete action on long-standing issues of access to family law legal aid.
• D for Women’s Economic Status. Government’s supports for economically vulnerable women are mostly stagnant, even while stressful food and fuel costs grow.
• C for Supports for Caregiving. Government is headed for the right destination to support early childhood care and education, but has taken some wrong routes, bypassing consultation with early childhood educators. There’s been little action to improve access to maternity and parental benefits for new parents.
• C for Women’s Health. Government invests lots in fixing the worst that happens to bodies through support for acute care, but we need more that links body, mind, and spirit — looking at social determinants of health and whole-body health, and especially supporting people’s mental health.
• B+ as a Bonus. Government collaborated on the pilot Report Card extremely well and is taking steps towards more inclusive decision-making.
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Contact:
PEI Advisory Council on the Status of Women
Sherwood Business Centre (161 St. Peters Road)
PO Box 2000
Charlottetown, PE C1A 7N8
(902) 368-4510
www.gov.pe.ca/acsw
