United Nations Standards
Canadians got a nice boost to their subdued pride this summer, courtesy of the United Nations. According to a standard set of measures, Canada is the best country in the world to live in - No surprise to most of us.
Unfortunately, they chose to stifle our enthusiasm by saying that, with regard to women, Canada still had a long way to go. That according to factors surrounding education, life expectancy and health, the workplace, and political power - women were getting the short end of the stick when compared to men. Certainly their comments and conclusions deserve a closer look.
Education:
According to records submitted by Canada's colleges and universities, women constituted more than 56 percent of ALL degrees awarded for 1996/97. Locally, the University of Victoria awarded 1,512 regular degrees to female students and 954 to male students for the same period. Secondary scholarships were awarded to girls 54 percent of the time, province wide for 96/97. And in Victoria fully 2/3 of the scholarships went to girls.
Life expectancy and health:
Only seventy years ago, men and women's life expectancy was within one year. Now, women live more than seven years longer, despite recent scientific findings that suggest MEN should. Men continue to be the leaders in ALL of the top 15 leading causes of death; yet, according to federal health documents, receive less overall healthcare funding than women.
With regard to gender specific illnesses, men receive little more than half of what women receive. And prostate cancer, which annually kills 33 out of every 100,000 Canadians - versus 28 per 100,000 for breast cancer - received less than 1/13 the research funding given breast cancer.
And in perhaps the greatest indicator of mental health and general well being there is, suicide - men kill themselves more than four times as often as do women. For men 20-24 it is six times as often.
Workplace:
While taken as a whole, men clearly earn more money (on average) than their female counterparts. However, men tend to also work longer hours (ie. full-time or overtime), have more years of work experience, and do vastly different work. Why, then, should it be a surprise that when we measure the collective piles, men have more?
Paying someone less based on his or her gender has long been against the law in Canada. The only place that now routinely pays less, by gender, for the same work, is modeling - a profession in which men consistently make far less for the same work.
According to the WCB, men make up more than 90 percent of all work-related deaths and accidents. And while some people choose to see this as evidence of discrimination, surveys suggest that it is the result of men being far more willing and eager to take hazardous high-paying jobs, in their quest to be a good family provider.
And certainly nobody can say that women are being held back when they want to start their own businesses. StatsCan has reported for several years running, that most successful new businesses are owned by women.
Political power.
If we were to strictly do a headcount, women would seem to be at a power disadvantage. However consider that there is something more important than power, and that is influence.
Influence can best be illustrated in the relationship between a horse and its rider; the horse having the power, and the rider having the influence. If we again examine the examples of education, healthcare and the workplace, we see clearly that women are exerting - at the very least - equal influence in all of these areas. There is, after all, no ministry for 'The Status of Men' making sure that men get equal healthcare funding or access to school scholarships, etc.
It's extremely puzzling, therefore, that the U.N. has chosen such a narrow focus of concern with its criticism of Canada. And clearly their examination of our country was with one eye closed. Given the influence of a group like the U.N., that is a rather scary prospect indeed.
Sincerely,
Michael Jebbett September 18, 1997