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Violence against women will not end unless women’s poverty ends.
As we said in Step 1, keeping women poorer than men is one way to keep power over women, creating greater inequality for women, depending on the gap in their income compared to men and to other women. Women make up the majority in all groups that experience poverty (including Aboriginal people, people with disabilities, people of colour, new Canadians, seniors and youth). One-parent led families are especially poor and most of them are led by women. The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in its response to Canada’s report in May of 2006, noted that there are no difficulties or barriers that keep Canada from doing what it needs to do to end poverty. In other words, it doesn’t have to be this way. Women stay poor because governments don’t do enough about poverty. Poverty and violence against women are closely linked Did you know that having a low income increases a woman's vulnerability to violence? Although women from all income groups may experience abuse by intimate partners, having low or limited income makes it harder for a woman to survive or escape. Here's why: - Minimum wage and social assistance rates are so low that women in abusive relationships have to choose between poverty and violence.
- Mothers on social assistance have their Child Tax Benefit Supplement clawed back in Ontario by about $120 per child per month. Research shows that their experiences of welfare are “profoundly negative”. Abusive men regularly make false reports of fraud to local welfare offices to get women cut off social assistance.
- Economic abuse often accompanies other forms of abuse in a relationship—for example, an abuser often controls or withholds money or prevents his partner from working or attending school/job training.
- Women who have experienced sexual assault may be forced to leave school either because it is no longer safe or because the psychological impact of the violence prevents them from being able to continue their education. This will have a long-term affect on their future, including on their economic security.
- Women who experience sexual harassment or violence at work are often forced to quit their jobs, throwing them into unemployment or forcing them on to social assistance.
- Women at high risk of violence may not have the means to move, leave a job or buy the security systems they need to be safe. Returning to school to upgrade or train and paying for child care may be out of reach financially. Paying for a lawyer to use legal supports may be impossible. Legal Aid may also be out of reach—in Ontario a person with as little as $13,000 income may not be eligible for Legal Aid.
- Women who are poor are more likely to be sexually exploited, trafficked or forced into prostitution to survive financially.
Some facts: - 1 in 7 women in Canada lives below the poverty line.
- Although women in Ontario earn the highest incomes among women in Canada, in 2003 the average incomes for all women earners in Ontario reached only 60% of their male counterparts. The Canadian average was 62%.
- Almost 40% of lone parent families headed by women are poor. The average female-led lone parent family is living $9,400 below the poverty line. Female-led lone parents live on less than 60% of the income of male-led lone parents.
- In 2000, the median annual income of Aboriginal women was $12,300—about $5000 less than all women and $3000 less than Aboriginal men.
- In the same year, women of colour earned $3000 less than other women in Canada and $9000 less on average than men of colour.
- 35% of women who recently immigrated to Canada (between 1991 and 2000) were living in poverty in 2001 compared to less than 20% of women who arrived before 1981.
- Women with disabilities earn an average of $5000 less per year than other women and almost $10,000 less than men with disabilities. Women with disabilities in Ontario are at the very end of the employment line.
More resources: Link to these sites for more information on poverty and to join anti-poverty campaigns to end the clawback, raise social assistance rates, demand a raise in the minimum wage and pressure for pay equity. You’ll find lots of ideas for action, too! The Colour of Poverty Ontario Needs a Raise to raise Ontario social assistance rates and minimum wage Campaign 2000: End Child Poverty in Canada DisAbled Women’s Network of Ontario Ontario Coalition for Social Justice Equal Pay Coalition Equal Pay—Federal: Canadian Labour Congress information on pay equity Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW) Women and Poverty Fact Sheet 2005 Women in Canada: Fifth Edition. A gender-based statistical report. Statistics Canada (2006) Walking on Eggshells: Abused Women’s Experiences of Ontario’s Welfare System (2004) Women Abuse and Welfare in a Rural Community: Rural Women Speak About Their Experiences of Ontario Works , Women Today of Huron, 2004. United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Concluding observations on Canada’s Report to the Committee, May 2006 Poverty Issues for Canadian Women. Monica Townson. Prepared for Status of Women Canada, August 2005. Bringing Down the Barriers: The Labour Market and Women with Disabilities in Ontario. Gail Fawcett, Canadian Council on Social Development, 2000. Workplace Harassment and Violence Report, Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children, London, 2004. |
