Perry Work Report: work&labour news&research, March 11, 2016

March 11, 2016

The Women's Issue

A highlight from "Lightening the Mood with a Little Feminist Humour":

What are women?
“Long-standing assumptions about the difference between men and women have been eroded in recent decades, as we begin to understand how our traditional notions of both biological sex and social gender roles impose artificial binaries on a far more fluid reality. However, as a broad rule of thumb: Women are like men, but with better personalities, deeper friendships, and structural disadvantage imposed by societal norms."

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Amazing Women to Read about on Our International Day

“Do the disingenuous brand tweets about International Women’s Day make you wish you were dead? Keep your chin up, and read about these great women who got through worse things.”

“At Broadly, we believe that every day is International Women’s Day; however, in honor of today’s observance, we have decided to highlight some of the most fascinating, determined, and genius women that we’ve featured on the site in the past few months.”

Nadia Murad, Yazidi rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee
“Nadia Murad’s video testimony at the United Nations went viral last year for good reason -- it was the first time a former ISIS sex slave had spoken out in such detail about the suffering endured by enslaved Iraqi Yazidi women. Broadly followed Murad -- now a Nobel Peace Prize nominee -- as she traveled to London to raise awareness of her community’s dire plight.”

Ericka Huggins, civil rights activist
“Ericka Huggins joined the Black Panthers when she was 19. She became one of the leading female voices in the party, fighting institutionalized racism and FBI surveillance all the way. Broadly spoke to her about Black Panther feminism, police harassment, and the #BlackLivesMatter movement.”

Follow the link below for more amazing stories of mind-blowingly amazing women.

Broadly, March 8, 2016: “Cool Women to Read About on Our International Day”

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Gender Parity: Work in Progress

This story is part of Work in Progress, The Globe’s look at the global struggle for gender parity

“A woman working full time in Canada makes 73.5 cents for every dollar a man makes, according to updated Statistics Canada income data produced for The Globe and Mail -- a persistent wage gap that continues even though women’s educational attainment has surpassed that of men and amid widespread recognition of the issue among Canadians.”

“The disparity in men’s and women’s incomes ‘is not simply the result of women working fewer hours. Nor is it the result of different levels of education and experience,’ notes an analysis to be released [March 7, 2016] by Oxfam Canada and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. ‘Even when all of these factors are considered, the result remains the same: a wage gap.’”

“One factor explaining the wage gap is that women and men tend to hold different types of jobs, and the occupations in which women work often pay lower wages, Oxfam’s report notes. It [also] notes that wage gaps exist across all sectors and all education levels ..., and that the disparity is even greater for aboriginal, racialized and immigrant women. The report says women still perform nearly twice as many hours on unpaid household and care work as men, a factor that increases their likelihood of requiring part-time or flexible hours.”

A “motherhood” penalty and discrimination are other persistent issues contributing to the wage gap.

“The Oxfam study makes several recommendations, among them changing employment insurance rules so that more women (who tend to work fewer hours) are eligible to apply, expanding paternity leave, and conducting more gender-based analysis of economic and social policies.”

The Globe and Mail, March 6, 2016: “Women still earning less money than men despite gains in education: study,” by Tavia Grant

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, March 7, 2016: “Making Women Count: The Unequal Economics of Women’s Work,” by Kate McInturff and Brittany Lambert [download the 28-page PDF here]

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An App for the Pay Gap

"Splitting up a dinner bill with a large group of friends can be a real pain. An even split is the simplest way, but usually not the most equitable. Going through each item can be far too tedious, especially after a few glasses of wine. But what if you want to make it really fair in the broadest economic sense, even accounting for the wage gap? Well, you’re in luck; there’s now an app for that.”

“EquiTable is essentially a calculator, but instead of solving ordinary math problems, it splits up your bill based on privilege -- defined as your relative earning power. After plugging in each person’s race and gender, the app pulls data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and then splits up the bill based on their demographic’s income. The idea would be that, say, a Latina woman would pay a much smaller portion of the bill than a white man.”

“EquiTable has other features, like rating how diverse your group is and sharing your payment on Twitter and Facebook. If your group is homogenous, there’s an option to donate to a charity like the American Civil Liberties Union.”

“EquiTable was started by Luna Malbroux, a comedian and the former education director at the Anti-Defamation League. Malbroux pitched the idea at Cultivated Wit’s Comedy Hack Day -- a four-year-old event where people build humorous tech products.” 

“Malbroux said the app is more of a conversation starter than anything else. She hopes the app shows that if the wage gap was discussed more often, we’d be inclined to do something about it.”

Quartz, March 8, 2016: “Would you use an app that splits your restaurant bill by privilege?," by Ian Kar

CBC Radio, March 1, 2016: “As It Happens: EquiTable app splits the bill fairly, bridging the wage gap in the process"

EquiTable [website]

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Dream, Girl

In honour of International Women’s Day, Erin Bagwell, founder of Feminist Wednesday, released the trailer for Dream, Girl, a documentary film, “redefining what it means to be a boss by telling the stories of female entrepreneurs.”

“Last August 2014 I launched a Kickstarter Campaign to produce a documentary called Dream, Girl. Our mission is to tell the stories of amazing female entrepreneurs in order to inspire the next generation of leaders. From brand new startups to million dollar industries, it’s time we stop telling girls they can be anything they want to be and show them what it means to be a leader.”

“With the help of the Feminist Wednesday community I raised over $104K and am currently in production on the film alongside an amazing team of female producers. Check out the trailer to Dream, Girl and for more information check out our website here.”

Feminist Wednesday [website]

Dream, Girl [website]

GUTS Canadian Feminist Magazine -- a digital, volunteer-run Canadian feminist magazine and blog [website]

Meet Gail Mooney, Producer and Director of Like a Woman

“We at Feminist Wednesday know first-hand the serious diversity issues plaguing the film industry; only 15 percent of directors and 29 percent of writers are women, and a whopping 89 percent of all directors are white. By and large, white men run the industry but thankfully, there are people out there working tirelessly to change that narrative. We’re doing it through our sister production, Dream, Girl, and this week we chatted with another badass lady shaking up the industry, Gail Mooney. Gail tells us about her latest projects and what it’s like to be a woman paving her way in a male-dominated industry.”

Feminist Wednesday, March 2, 2016: “Meet Gail Mooney, Producer and Director of Like a Woman”

National Film Board of Canada Devotes 50% of Budget to Female-Directed Projects

“America’s eternally more-chill neighbor to the north has just implemented heartening new measures to ensure gender parity on a wide scale. The National Film Board of Canada has released a new report detailing plans that moving forward, 50% of all production funds will be allocated to films directed by women. No talkarounds, no B.S., no waffling -- right down the middle, equal funding for men and women.”

ScreenCrush, March 9, 2016: “National Film Board of Canada Devotes 50% of Budget to Female-Directed Projects,” by Charles Bramesco

The Globe and Mail, March 8, 2016: “NFB pledge for gender parity could spur change in Canadian film industry,” by Kate Taylor

Women in View, October 21, 2015: “Women In View on Screen 2015," prepared by Rina Fraticelli (20 pages, PDF)

Women in View [website]

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What Philanthropists Get Wrong about Empowering Women

“[Melinda Gates’ portion of the annual letter released by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation] highlights the central blind spot of the brand of feminism endorsed by the philanthro-capitalist class. In focusing on private and technological solutions as the only ways to address social problems, they ignore the policy changes that are necessary to correct gendered inequality. Paid leave and state-subsidized health care and childcare are chief among those changes.”

“Trained by the nature of their success to believe in the strength of the private sector, mega-donors don’t consider the role that governments might play in promoting the equality and well-being of their citizens. For them, private and technological solutions are always best.”

“They stick to this line of thinking even when capitalist interventions have been shown to be useless -- or to make women’s conditions worse. See, for example, this 2014 paper by development economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, demonstrating that micro-loans to women in Hyderabad, India, had no effect on their economic status after two years. Yet micro-loans continue to be championed by everyone from Hillary Clinton to Bono as an effective way to help the poor.”

“If women are going to enjoy equal opportunities to flourish and prosper, they need a lot more than cell phones. They need policies that value the work of care, and thus incentivize both men and women to do it. These include not only paid leave, but also state-subsidized childcare and health care and allowances for children.”

“Without support for policies that actually value women’s unpaid labor, the plans of the philanthro-capitalists to ‘empower’ women to seek paid work start to look pretty sinister. The language of personal empowerment and responsibility celebrates capitalist self-reliance and free markets, with the suggestion that women are most important because they function as reserves of value that have yet to be properly optimized. If we buy into this narrative, we risk treating women as just one more natural resource to be used up.”

Quartz, March 8, 2016: “What billionaire philanthropists get wrong about empowering women

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, March 2014: “The miracle of microfinance? Evidence from a randomized evaluation,” by Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Rachel Glennerster and Cynthia Kinnan (53 pages, PDF)

Gates Notes, February 22, 2016: “2016 Annual Letter: Two Superpowers We Wish We Had”

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Lightening the Mood with a Little Feminist Humour

International Women’s Day Explained for Men

First up: What are women?
“Long-standing assumptions about the difference between men and women have been eroded in recent decades, as we begin to understand how our traditional notions of both biological sex and social gender roles impose artificial binaries on a far more fluid reality. However, as a broad rule of thumb: Women are like men, but with better personalities, deeper friendships, and structural disadvantage imposed by societal norms.”

But wait: Why do they need a whole day to themselves?
“Why should just 49.6% of the world’s population get a whole 0.27% of the year’s days to themselves? Women can often be greedy in this way, like when they live to be older than men, hogging all the life. But it turns out there are actually lots of Days! May gives us World Migratory Bird Day... So if you just imagine that women are like migratory birds it makes more sense.”

When was the first International Women’s Day?
“Much like women, International Women’s Day has been around for a long time!
The origins of IWD can *possibly* be traced to the actions of women textile workers in New York in 1908, when 15,000 women marched to demand #JustGirlyThings like ‘shorter work hours, better pay, and voting rights’.”

Are women angry at me? Why are women angry at me?
“Yes, we are. Because this morning we were just trying to get on a crowded train, and there would have been space if you had only taken off your backpack, and instead you just looked me right in the eye with your big space-taking-up backpack on your stupid space-unaware body... Oh also, even if you are nice and not a crowded-train-backpack-wearer, you still benefit in numerous ways from a society that for centuries has treated maleness as the default, many of which you might not have fully acknowledged or even realised.”

Yeah, but when is International M--
“Let’s just stop you right there -- it’s on 19 November.”

Buzzfeed, March 8, 2016: International Women’s Day Explained For Men,” by Tom Phillips and Hannah Jewell

The Happy Feminist

Sydney’s All About Women festival took place this past Sunday March 6, 2016, with over 30 guests from around the globe talking to sold-out audiences across six theatres in the Sydney Opera House. One of the International stars present was Mallory Ortberg, the humorous co-founder of the feminist general interest site The Toast.

Read Mallory’s recap of her talk regarding “The Happy Feminist” on The Toast.

Also from The Toast:

“Oh, Christ,
Anna, he’s going to start reading poetry at us,
what do we do,
play dead?”

“No, that’s bears.’

Feminist Illustrations Point Out Problem With History

“British illustrator Jacky Fleming is exploring the remarkable women left out of the history books, and has released a witty book of sarcastic cartoons about women in history.”

“The book pokes fun at some of our greatest thinkers’ baffling theories about women, including Charles Darwin’s belief that women had smaller brains than men, and therefore would never achieve anything of importance; and John Ruskin’s belief that a woman’s tiny intellect should be used in ‘praise’ rather than invention or creation."

Mashable, March 8, 2016: “These feminist illustrations hilariously point out the problem with history,” by Rachel Thompson

12 Historical Women Who Gave No F*cks

Beatrice Potter Webb (1858--1943)
“Beatrice Potter Webb was a social reformer, economist, and historian who campaigned with her husband Sidney for policies to benefit the urban poor, working towards the first minimum wage laws, developing the early Labour party in Britain, authoring hundreds of books, and founding the London School of Economics -- all while giving no f*cks.”

Sojourner Truth (1797--1883)
“Abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth once engaged in the following exchange with the young suffragist Harriot Stanton Blatch in which she gave literally no f*cks:

Harriot Stanton Blatch: “Sojourner, can’t you read?”
Sojourner Truth: “Oh no, honey, I can’t read little things like letters. I read big things like men.”

SLAY SOJOURNER, SLAY.

Buzzfeed, January 5, 2015: “12 Historical Women Who Gave No F*cks,” by Hannah Jewell

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Embrace the Big, Bad F-Word

Written by Justin Trudeau, for The Globe and Mail:

“Equality is a core Canadian value, and I feel honoured to have this opportunity to advocate for gender equality and feminism. We have seen great advancements in Canada over the past hundred years, and I am proud to celebrate the strides we have taken toward gender equality. But there is still a lot of hard work left to do to advance these issues. Quite simply, we must do more.”
“I was fortunate to be raised by a mother who believed in feminism, and who chose to raise her sons to embrace feminist values. I was fortunate to have a father who raised us to respect and defend everyone’s rights. Because of my parents, I am deeply grounded in my own identity as a proud feminist.”
“We should not be afraid of the word feminism. Feminism is about equal rights and opportunities for men and women, about everyone having the same choices without facing discrimination based on gender. Equality is not a threat, it is an opportunity.”
“We must not fear equality. It is an essential part of any society that wants to be a leader in sustainable development, clean economic growth, social justice, peace and security.”

The Globe and Mail, March 8, 2016: “Gender equality is an opportunity, not a threat,” by Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister Trudeau also announced on March 8, 2016 that a Canadian woman will grace new bank note. 

The Globe and Mail, March 9, 2016: “Trudeau announces a Canadian woman will grace new bank note” [video, 1:38 min.]

Global News, March 8, 2016: POLL: Which Canadian woman should grace the new bank note?” by Rebecca Joseph 

CBC News, March 8, 2016: “Here are the Canadian women you think should be on the new bank note,” by Haydn Watters

Get on Board Lise Theriault

“International Women’s Day comes just a week after Lise Theriault, the Quebec minister responsible for the status of women, said she believes in equal rights for men and women -- but rejected the label of being a feminist.”

“We asked young women at Concordia University, who proudly identify as feminists, what they make of Theriault’s comments.”

“I personally feel insulted that she hasn’t taken the time to learn what this word means that is so important in today’s culture and has been in different periods of course.”

CBC News, March 8, 2016: “International Women’s Day: Young women talk feminism, Lise Theriault”

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Hey Ladies, How Many Laws Did You Break Today?

“MATCH is a grant-maker for grassroots women’s rights organizations supporting women in the global south. It is completely independently funded by Canadians who help support organizations making a difference in more than 25 countries. ’Our mandate is to get money into the hands of women’s organizations who are really working at the community level, and we’re particularly curious about investing in disruptive and innovated organizations,’ said [executive director Jess] Tomlin.”

“For International Women’s Day on March 8, MATCH is trying to ignite difficult conversations about what’s happening to women in other parts of the world.”

“’It’s a really hard thing for people to digest and it feels so far away,’ said Tomlin. ‘So we wanted to be really clear about what it’s like for women around the world.’”

“MATCH created a quiz (matchinternational.org/how-many-laws-did-you-break-today/) titled ‘How many laws did you break today?’ It features a series of mundane questions, such as, ‘What did you wear to work today?’ Its purpose is to compare Canadian women to women in the global south, showing how those in the global south are denied fundamental human rights.”

“At the end of the quiz, individuals are told how many laws they broke and are asked to ‘pay a fine’, giving them the option to donate to the organization.”

Ottawa Citizen, March 7, 2016: “MATCH trying to ignite difficult conversations for Women’s Day,” by Allison Larocque

The MATCH International Women’s Fund [website]

“Support women around the world throughout the year with tips from Jess Tomlin, of Matchinternational.org:

  • Acknowledge women as leaders and experts.
  • Inform yourself: News of women’s rights violations is more visible and more shareable than ever.
  • Demand women’s leadership in Canada and around the world: Women must be at the table as decision makers and relationship brokers.
  • Fund women’s ideas: Women’s organizations globally are critically underfunded. Yet they hold the solutions to lasting change.
  • Remember, ‘Not for us without us.’ Demand women’s inclusion and recognize their contributions - at home and at work.
  • Be the example: By taking these steps you set an example for men and women to do it differently.”

The Toronto Sun, March 8, 2016: “Stepping it up for gender equality on International Women’s Day,” by Joanne Richard

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Restaurant Dress Codes May Be Discriminatory

“Should you have to dress sexy to keep your job? Many women working at some of Canada’s popular restaurant chains say they do.”

“But dress codes for female staff at some restaurants -- which can include high heels, tight skirts and heavy makeup -- may violate women’s human rights, according to some experts.”

“CBC Marketplace investigated the dress codes at some of Canada’s top restaurant chains and heard from dozens of female staff who say they felt pressured to wear revealing outfits or risk losing shifts.”

“Outrage over dress codes is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to sexism in the restaurant industry.”

“Toronto pastry chef Kate Burnham grabbed headlines in 2015 when she spoke out about her alleged sexual harassment while working in the kitchen of a popular downtown restaurant, Weslodge.”

“Burnham’s case nabbed the attention of Toronto-based restaurant owner Jen Agg, who took to Twitter to say sexism and sexual harassment are major issues in the industry. It also provoked Agg to organize a conference on the topic called ‘Kitchen Bitches: Smashing the Patriarchy One Plate at a Time.’”

“Agg says what happens in kitchens is shocking. ‘Slapping with tongs, snapping bras, relentless grabbing -- women chefs learn quickly to crouch, never bend over, when picking up a pot,’ she wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times.”

CBC News, Marketplace, March 4, 2016: “Restaurant dress codes: Sexy outfits for female staff may be discriminatory,” by Lindsay Sample

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A Future without Jobs? A Future with Universal Basic Income?

“In the utopian (dystopian?) future projected by technological visionaries, few people would have to work. Wealth would be generated by millions upon millions of sophisticated machines. But how would people earn a living?”

“Silicon Valley has an answer: a universal basic income. But what does that have to do with today’s job market, with many Americans squeezed by globalization and technological change?”

“Two columnists for Business Day, Farhad Manjoo, who writes State of the Art on Thursdays, and Eduardo Porter, author of Economic Scene on Wednesdays, have just taken on these issues in different ways. So we brought them together for a conversation to help sharpen the debate about America’s economic future.”

Eduardo Porter: “A problem I have with the idea of a universal basic income -- as opposed to, say, wage subsidies or wage insurance to top up the earnings of people who lose their job and must settle for a new job at a lower wage -- is that it relies on an unlikely future. It’s not a future with a lot of crummy work for low pay, but essentially a future with little or no paid work at all.”

“The former seems to me a not unreasonable forecast -- we’ve been losing good jobs for decades, while low-wage employment in the service sector has grown. But no paid work? That’s more a dream (or a nightmare) than a forecast. Even George Jetson takes his briefcase to work every day.”

Farhad Manjoo: “Why does that future call for instituting a basic income instead of the smaller and more feasible labor-policy ideas that you outline? I think they see two reasons. First, techies have a philosophical bent toward big ideas, and U.B.I. is very big.”

“They see software not just altering the labor market at the margins but fundamentally changing everything about human society. While there will be some work, for most nonprogrammers work will be insecure and unreliable. People could have long stretches of not working at all -- and U.B.I. is alone among proposals that would allow you to get a subsidy even if you’re not working at all.”

The New York Times, March 6, 2016: “A Future Without Jobs? Two Views of the Changing Work Force,” by Eduardo Porter and Farhad Manjoo                            

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Basic Income is Coming

“One area of research that will inform the path to comprehensive reform [of social assistance] will be the evaluation of a Basic Income pilot. The pilot project will test a growing view at home and abroad that a basic income could build on the success of minimum wage policies and increases in child benefits by providing more consistent and predictable support in the context of today’s dynamic labour market. The pilot would also test whether a basic income would provide a more efficient way of delivering income support, strengthen the attachment to the labour force, and achieve savings in other areas, such as health care and housing supports. The government will work with communities, researchers and other stakeholders in 2016 to determine how best to design and implement a Basic Income pilot.”

Ontario Ministry of Finance, February 29, 2016: “2016 Ontario Budget: Chapter 1 Section E: Towards a Fair Society”

Ontario Ministry of Finance, February 29, 2016: “2016 Ontario Budget”

“In the past, much of the focus of BIG pilots has been on labour market outcomes. The intention is to design programs that will provide income security without discouraging work. The benefits of a basic income include that individuals face fewer barriers getting back into the workforce than they do from social assistance, and they do not fall into deep poverty if they are unable to find employment immediately.”

“So labour market effects will need to be examined, but thoughtfully.”

“But a BIG has potential effects well beyond the labour market. Some of the most important outcomes that should be examined in a pilot are health outcomes.”

“Finally, in designing this pilot, the diversity of the province’s population will need to be taken into account. Ontario’s pilot will need to include inner city, rural, and suburban populations, and also take into account the province’s social and cultural diversity. The differential impacts of the intervention on various populations will yield knowledge essential to the successful implementation of a basic income program that meets the needs of our most vulnerable neighbours.”

The Toronto Star, March 1, 2016: “Let’s get the basic income experiment right,” by Laura Anderson and Danielle Martin

The Independent, March 7, 2016: “Canadian province Ontario plans to trial universal basic income”

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How to Help the Working Poor?

“Proposals to increase the minimum wage have re-emerged in provinces across the country. For instance, the Alberta government recently pledged to hike the provincial minimum wage from $10.20 to $15 per hour by 2018, already taking the first step with a $1 hike effective October 1, 2015. There has been a similar movement to raise the minimum wage to $15 in various jurisdictions in the United States.”

“There is an enormous body of empirical research examining the effects of the minimum wage. Canadian studies are considered of higher quality than US studies be-cause (among other reasons) there is a wider variability in the provincial Canadian mini-mum-wage variable. The Canadian literature generally finds that a 10% increase in the minimum wage reduces employment among teens and young adults (ages 15 to 24) by 3% to 6%. By making it harder for low-skilled workers to obtain an entry-level position, the minimum wage may perversely hinder the development of human capital and harm the long-term career prospects of the very people it ostensibly helps. Indeed, Canadian researchers have found that hiking the minimum wage has no statistically significant impact on poverty and in some cases can increase it.”

The Fraser Institute, March 3, 2016: “Raising the Minimum Wage: Misguided Policy, Unintended Consequences”

The Fraser Institute, March 3, 2016: “Raising the Minimum Wage: Misguided Policy, Unintended Consequences - Report” (76 pages, PDF)

The Fraser Institute, March 3, 2016: “Raising the Minimum Wage: Misguided Policy, Unintended Consequences - Executive Summary” (2 pages, PDF)

“Provincial coordinator of First Call Adrienne Montani tells Vancity Buzz the study fails to consider that young adults who earn minimum wage may live at home because they can’t afford to move out.”

“The reason so many 20-somethings are living at home longer is because they can’t earn enough to match the costs of tuition, etcetera.”

“Montani adds many single parents may not work minimum wage jobs because they can’t earn enough money to pay for daycare, so working becomes something of a fruitless effort.”

VancityBuzz, March 3, 2016: “Raising minimum wage won’t help reduce poverty: study”

This paper reviews the significant body of academic research about the economic impacts of minimum wages to assess the likely costs and benefits of an increase in BC’s minimum wage to $15 per hour:

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, April 2014: “The Case for Increasing the Minimum Wage: What does the academic literature tell us?” (12 pages, PDF)

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Paternity Leave in Canada & How America is Failing its Mothers

“Without [paternal leave] women would always carry a disproportionate share of the child-care load. Mothers would always be expected to interrupt their careers, forgo their chances of promotion and somehow maintain a work-life balance.”

“The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) compared paternity benefits in all 34 of its member countries. It came to four principal conclusions:

  • Men’s uptake of parental leave is low. What typically happens is that women use the additional entitlement to extend their maternity leave. 
  • Fathers are more likely to take time off if a portion of parental leave is earmarked exclusively for them. 
  • Men who do take time off work to help care for their newborn children stay more involved in their lives as they grow up. The children do better physically, mentally and emotionally. 
  • There are limits to what social policy can achieve. Gender norms, cultural traditions and wage gap between men and women can be such powerful deterrents that men won’t use either paternity or parental leave.”

“In Canada, only Quebec designates a portion of its parental leave (5 weeks) for new fathers. The take-up rate by fathers is 80 per cent in Quebec compared to 20 per cent nationally.”

“But Ottawa shows no inclination to follow Quebec’s lead. Perhaps the reason is that Conservatives ... were uninterested in social policy. Perhaps it is because young women believe the battle for equality has been won. Perhaps it is because Canadians outside Quebec tend to use the United States, not Europe, as their standard of comparison. By that measure, Canada looks enlightened.”

The Toronto Star, March 8, 2016: “Surprising perspective on International Women’s Day: Goar,” by Carol Goar

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, March 2, 2016: “Parental Leave: Where are the Fathers?” (2 pages, PDF)

Statistics Canada, June 2008: “Fathers’ use of paid parental leave“

Maternity Leave: How America is Failing its Mothers

“There are only two countries in the world that do not guarantee paid maternity leave: The United States and Papua New Guinea. Despite the fact that the US ranks second in the world for highest GDP, while Papua New Guinea falls at 139th, working women in both countries face the same fears, often having to choose between motherhood and a career.”

“In this episode of ‘Ovary Action’, Broadly travels to Sweden -- a nation that offers 480 days of paid leave -- and Papua New Guinea to compare how their policies fare against our own. Host Tracie Morrissey explores the options for new mothers with contrasting incomes, along with the policies that could improve the grim state of unpaid maternity leave in the US.”

An interview with Amber Scorah, a mother whose 117-day-old baby died during his first day in daycare, is included in this episode. Read the powerful, deeply personal article Amber wrote for The New York Times here.

Broadly, March 8, 2016: “Maternity Leave: How America Is Failing Its Mothers” [video, 54:14 min.]

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Women's Work and the Global Childcare Crisis

“The world is facing a hidden crisis in childcare. That crisis is leaving millions of children without the support they need, with damaging consequences for their future. It is also having severe impacts on three generations of women -- on mothers, grandmothers and daughters.” 

“There is an urgent need to solve the global care crisis to improve the lives of both women and children and to grow economies.”

“There are 671 million children under five in the world today. Given labour force participation rates that exceed 60% globally, a large number of these children need some sort of non-parental care during the day. Early childhood care and education programming is not managing to match this need. At most, half of three- to five-year-old children in developing countries participate in some form of early childhood education, typically for a few hours daily. We know very little about what is happening to the rest, but all the evidence points to a crisis of care. That crisis is heavily concentrated among the poorest children with the most restricted access to early childhood support.”

Overseas Development Institute, March 2016: “Women’s work: mothers, children and the global childcare crisis - Report” (91 pages, PDF)

Overseas Development Institute, March 2016: “Women’s work: mothers, children and the global childcare crisis - Executive Summary” (8 pages, PDF)

Overseas Development Institute, March 2016: “The global childcare crisis: who bears the burden? - Infographics”

“Children as young as five, but more often young adolescents, are being left to look after the youngest members of the family, missing out on schooling and perpetuating the cycle of poverty, the report warns.”

“Mothers are forced to choose between their earning potential and their daughter’s education. This is a choice no mother should be forced to make, and no child should have to live with.”

“All the case studies illustrated childcare projects that helped women earn more money while their children were safer, and usually went on to a better education.”

“In Gujarat’s tobacco farming region, for example, the Self-Employed Women’s Association, a trade union, has set up 20 childcare centres for 900 children up to six years old. Mothers reported they now had more money to cook nutritious meals, elder children were going to school more often, and infant mortality had decreased.”

The Guardian, March 4, 2016: “‘Hidden crisis’ of small children left home alone while parents work"

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Book of the Week

Intimacy at Work: How Digital Media Bring Private Life to the Workplace, by Stefana Broadbent. Walnut Creek, Calif.: Left Coast Press, 2016. 116 p. ISBN 9781629580951 (pbk.)

From the publisher: "According to some social critics, the digital age involves a retreat into the isolation of intelligent machines. Acclaimed scholar Stefana Broadbent takes another view, that digital technologies allow people to bring their private lives into the often alienating world of work. Through ethnographic evidence and data gathered from large samples in Europe and the U.S., Intimacy at Work looks at a paradox in modern life: Although human beings today spend so much of their waking hours working, they remain increasingly connected to family and friends -- because of digital and social media. This book -shows how portable communications sustain personal networks offering a sense of identity, comfort, support, and enjoyment in the workplace; -demonstrates through numerous case studies that digital technologies provide a kind of 'safety net' in times of economic crisis, softening the precariousness of existence; -is a revised edition of a volume published in French Travail, 2011), which won the prestigious AFCI Prize for books on business communications."

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