Members of the PEI Advisory Council on the Status of Women made comments at the June 17 news conference to release the first ever Equality Report Card for PEI.
Council Chairperson Isabelle Christian said that at this stage in the Council’s work towards women’s equality on PEI, we see that many of the barriers to women’s advancement are almost invisible until they run into them.
They run into them at crucial times:
• when their family breaks up
• when they face violence
• when they get pregnant or have a baby
• when they seek a spot in leadership
• when they lose a job or home vehicle
Isabelle commented that these are pretty ordinary kinds of events in men’s and women’s lives, and the outcomes of these situations should look similar whether you are a man or a woman. But too often, they still don’t.
It’s Council’s job, she said, to look ahead, see the barriers, and advise government on how to break them down before more women run into them. Council sees the Equality Report Card as a valuable way to alert government to barriers in policies and programs, in a way that gets their attention.
Roseanne Sark, a Council member, said that since the last Aboriginal Women’s Summit, women have had an opportunity to check in about whether there has been progress or not on preventing family violence.
Aboriginal women are saying that there’s still some uncertainty if there is help available for Aboriginal women. Talking about safety plans and emergency protection orders, women have a sense that a protection order is only a piece of paper that cannot protect them. They ask, How can we know that we will still be safe? In their experience, Aboriginal women say that protection orders have sometimes failed. That lack of trust about that piece of paper came out very certainly among women in her community.
Recently, though, Roseanne says there have been education sessions on family law. There has been funding for Aboriginal women’s programs to stop violence, and in the past there was nothing. So there have been some really good things happening.
Council Vice-Chairperson Jane Boyd commented that in recent weeks, we have noted the appointment of a Public Kindergarten Commissioner, and that’s a good thing, but lots of people are waiting to see what that means. In the meantime, there’s been a change again on the age of school entry. There’s a lot of confusion on the part of parents about whether their kids are starting school or not in the next year. Parents also don’t understand what’s mandatory, and what isn’t. There’s no central place for accurate, up-to-date information. There’s concern kids are pushed along into school because their parents may not have resources for pre-school childcare or education for their children, and school is publicly funded. Also, she noted, the kindergarten piece is not the only piece. There’s a whole spectrum of early childhood development to consider.
Sue Connolly, another Council members, said that we need to recognize that government has made some improvements, but that there is still more to do. She referred to the Participate in PEI program as an example, in that more than 40% of appointments made by government have gone by women, but an issue remains around who chooses to apply and why people do or don’t choose to apply and how accessible that program is. Government will need strategies to encourage women and other people from under-represented groups to put their names forward. Sue concluded that when our government doesn’t reflect our population, that makes it less accessible to all citizens.
Isabelle concluded the news conference by saying that we think the C+ overall grade for government means that many parts of government have a strong will to work towards women’s equality goals. We think it also means they continue to need advice and support to reach women’s equality goals in their policies and programs. It’s our role to offer that advice and support, and we will continue to take our work seriously by making recommendations and finding effective ways to follow up on them. We again commit to collaborate with government to help them achieve As and Bs on the next Equality Report Card.
Council staff members Jane Ledwell (left) and Lisa Murphy (right) sit ready to support Council in its research for next year’s Equality Report Card.
