In some areas of Canada women are shut out of good jobs just like in the U.S. This article by Linda Smith who is an autoworker in Ingersoll and a researcher with Rural Women Making Changes points out the physical, emotional and sometimes lonely process of finding a job with good wages, benefits and security in the skilled trade environment.
That collective sigh of relief we heard in the Woodstock area last week was the sound of life breathing back into the local economy: the announcement that Toyota will add 800 jobs in the region comes on top of a recent recall of more than 300 workers at Cami Automotive in nearby Ingersoll.
These aren’t merely jobs. These are good jobs. Jobs with wages that support families and benefits that offer workers some security.
In rural Canada, where I live, good jobs like that are hard to come by.
For women, they are often simply out of reach.
As Canada’s economy slowly recovers, women who live and raise families in rural Canada need a piece of the pie. Because of economic conditions in rural areas, only about 70% of rural women have full-time jobs, compared to 80% of urban women and over 90% of both urban and rural men, according to Statistics Canada.
In Ingersoll, where I work, the average annual earnings for women are about $23,000, compared to $38,000 for men. Tens of thousands of Canadian women are shut out of the best jobs in their areas.
Growing up on a farm, I hadn’t given much thought to what a “good job” might be. I hadn’t even thought about whether I was rural or urban. I only knew that my friends in Kitchener or Toronto had access to things I couldn’t even dream of: day-care centres, for instance. I had a full- page list of babysitters and got almost to the end before I found a suitable person to care for my child while I went to work for minimum wage.
Things haven’t changed. More than two-thirds of Canadian women work, yet only 12% of children have access to a regulated child-care space. This alone creates an almost insurmountable barrier to women — and particularly rural women hoping to take part in any economic recovery.
We look to Quebec with envy, where a regulated child-care program has helped boost the number of women working and paying taxes.
Living in a small town often also means no all-night health clinics, no college for educational upgrading opportunities, or even bus service when your car fails. If the only person in your area that works at the same plant isn’t on the same shift, carpooling isn’t an option.
More trouble looms at the outset for women trying to get manufacturing jobs. I had never even seen a ratchet when I was asked to use one for my full day of testing. Having gone to school with my options spelled out for me, I didn’t have the credits in shop class to get me that better-paying millwright position.
I was told that I could go to school to upgrade myself, but that is pretty daunting when you work 48 hours a week and still have children at home. Searching for a new job often means updating your skills and education. But what happens when you don’t have transportation?
Once they get a good job, women need to be prepared to deal with its heavy demands.
Shift work presents huge problems for single moms.
And in workplaces where a significant percentage of women are not already present, sexual harassment creates daunting hurdles faced by incoming women.
Visit the Ifpress.com website here to read the entire article.
