Vancouver ranks 13th in list of best places to be a woman in Canada

A new study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) reveals the best and worst cities to be a woman in Canada. According to the study, Québec City is the best city to be a woman and Edmonton is the worst.

The study, by Kate McInturff, a Senior Researcher at the CCPA, ranks Canada’s 20 largest metropolitan areas based on a comparison of how men and women are faring in five areas: economic security, leadership, health, personal security, and education.

“Canada has made great progress in ensuring that men and women have equal access to health care and education, but that hasn’t translated into personal safety at home or promotion at work,” says McInturff.

Ranking the Best Cities for Women in Canada

1. Quebec City
2. Saskatoon
3. St. John’s
4. Montreal
5. Victoria
6. Toronto
7. Ottawa-Gatineau
8. Sherbrooke
9. Halifax
10. Hamilton
11. Regina
12. Winnipeg
13. Vancouver
14. St. Catharines
15. London
16. Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo
17. Calgary
18. Windsor
19. Oshawa
20. Edmonton

Among the study’s findings:

• Canada’s big three cities fall in the middle as a group, with Montreal in 4th place, Toronto in 6th place, and Vancouver in 13th place.
• Cities from Québec do better than cities in the rest of Canada, with Québec City, Montreal, and Sherbrooke falling in the top 10.
• Alberta fares the worst, with Calgary and Edmonton coming in 17th and 20th place, respectively.
• Women can expect to earn the most in Ottawa-Gatineau.
• Women in Calgary experience the lowest levels of poverty.
• Women in Vancouver have the highest life expectancy.
• Women in Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo experience the highest stress levels.

On Vancouver:

• Women in Vancouver have lower than average levels of full-time work, with 42 per cent of working women holding full-time jobs.
• Vancouver has one of the biggest wage gaps of the top 20 cities – with women earning 30 per cent less than their male peers.
• Vancouver has higher than average rates of poverty overall, and women’s poverty rates are slightly higher than those of men, with 13 per cent of men and 15 per cent of women living below the Low Income Measure.
• The majority of men (68%) perceive their health as good or excellent, but only half (51%) of women do the same.
• Women are more likely to have high levels of stress in their lives, with 27 per cent of women doing so compared to 21 per cent of men.
• The rate of sexual assault and intimate partner violence reported to the police in Vancouver is just below average. However, 90 per cent and 70 per cent of all incidents of sexual and domestic violence go unreported. Police reported levels of violence are influenced by municipal police practices with regard to recording and categorizing incidents.

“A closer look at the local picture demonstrates that the gaps can be closed—proactive pay equity measures are narrowing the gap in what men and women earn in capital cities like Ottawa and Victoria, and affordable childcare and family leave policies are increasing access to employment for women in cities in Québec,” McInturff says.

The study includes a small sample of projects underway in Canadian cities to help close the gender gap but warns these efforts are increasingly becoming invisible at the national and provincial levels as the organizations that used to provide a venue for communities to share their experiences and learn from one another are disappearing.

“Canadian communities have much to learn from one another. Federal and provincial governments also have much to learn from the local picture—about which policies are working and what strategies can be scaled up so that every community in Canada can lay equal claim to being the best place in Canada to be a woman,” McInturff concludes.

Women’s Equality in Vancouver: 

Image: Policy Alternatives

Source: Policy Alternatives | Featured Image: Woman in the city via Shutterstock