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Violence Against Women

Economic Independence

Violence Against Women

Domestic Violence - Ontario Statistics

Domestic violence continues to be an important issue for Ontario.

7% of Ontario women living in a common-law or marital relationship reported experiencing physical/sexual assault by a spousal partner at least once during the period of 1999-2004. ¹
- 8 out of 10 victims of spousal violence were female. ²

Domestic violence does result in fatalities. According to the 2007 Domestic Violence Death Review Committee Report for the province of Ontario:

Between 2002 and 2007 there were a total of 166 domestic violence death cases that resulted in 230 deaths involving 142 women, 23 children, and 65 men. ³
In domestic homicide cases in 2007 males were the perpetrators in 92% of the cases and females were the victims in 92% of the cases.⁴
The majority of male deaths related to domestic homicides between 2002 and 2007 were suicides by the perpetrator. ⁵

According to Statistics Canada data:

There have been approximately 25 female victims of spousal homicide each year in Ontario from 1975-2004. ⁶
Spousal homicides represent about 14% of all homicides in Ontario. ⁷

Domestic Violence - Canada-wide statistics

One in five homicides in Canada involves the killing of an intimate partner.⁸
Females are disproportionately the victims of police-reported spousal violence, accounting for 83% of victims, compared to 17% males. ⁹
Spousal violence is most prevalent amongst 25 to 44 year olds. ¹⁰
Just over one-third of spousal assaults are reported to the police. ¹¹
In 2004, Aboriginal women were three times more likely to experience spousal violence than non-Aboriginal women or men, and the rate of spousal homicide for Aboriginal women was eight times the rate for non-Aboriginal women. ¹²
Almost 40% of women assaulted by spouses said their children witnessed the violence against them, and in many cases the violence was severe.¹³
The social costs of violence against women can be high:¹⁴
- Spousal violence has psychological, physical, social and economic impacts for victims, their families and society.
- Estimated economic costs of violence against women in terms of health, criminal justice, social services and lost productivity range in the billions of dollars.

Shelter Use ¹⁵

On April 16, 2008, Statistics Canada conducted a survey of shelter use across the country. This survey found that:

Ontario Statistics

On the day surveyed 30,671 women and children were staying in various types of shelters across Ontario.
74% of women in Ontario shelters were there to escape abuse of a current or former spouse or partner.
For every 100,000 married, common-law and separated women in Ontario, there were 29 women in shelters to escape the abuse of a current or former spouse or common law partner.

Canada-wide Statistics

Over half of the abused women were admitted to shelters with their children.
Of the women in shelters claiming abuse, 65% reported psychological abuse, 55% physical abuse, while one-quarter of the women said they went to a shelter to protect their children from witnessing the abuse.
One in four women were fleeing harassment (28%) or sexual abuse (24%).

Sources:

1-2, 7, 9-10 Statistics Canada. Family Violence in Canada, 2008.

3-5 Sixth Annual Report of Domestic Violence Death Review Committee, Office of the Chief Coroner, 2008.

6, 8, 11-14 Statistics Canada. Measuring Violence Against Women: Statistical Trends, 2006.

15 Sauvé, J. and Burns, M. 2009. Residents of Canada’s Shelters for Abused Women 2008. Juristat. 29 (2). Statistics Canada.

Sexual Assault ¹

According to the General Social Survey on Victimization (GSS) 2004:

Fewer than one in ten sexual assault incidents are reported to the police. As only a small proportion of sexual offences are formally documented through law enforcement, the prevalence of sexual assault in Canada has been difficult to quantify.

Police Reported Data 2007:

In Ontario, there were 61 sexual assault offences reported to police per 100, 000 population.

Canada-wide Statistics:

Females are disproportionately the victims of sexual offences, while males are disproportionately the accused. According to 2007 police reported data:

97% of persons accused of sexual offences were male.
Female rates of sexual victimization were 5.6 times higher than male.

Age is implicated as a risk factor for sexual victimization:
- According to police reported data from 2007, 58% of all sexual assault victims were under the age of 18, with the majority (81%) being female.
- One quarter of police reported sexual assaults in 2007 were committed against children under the age of 12.
- The 2004 GSS identified that young people between the ages of 15 to 24 are 18 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than those over the age of 55.
Sexual assault incidents are most likely to occur when a victim and offender are known to each other.
- Over half (55%) of the sexual assaults reported to the GSS in 2004 involved an offender who was a friend or acquaintance of the victim, with stranger assaults accounting for 35% of incidents.
- Police-reported data for 2007 show that the victim and accused were known to each other in 82% of the sexual assault incidents. In approximately 18% of the incidents the accused was a stranger to the victim.
In sexual assault cases, charges were laid in over one third of cases reported. However, in adult court, sexual offences are less likely than other violent crimes to result in a finding of guilt.

Harassment

Canada-wide statistics:

According to the 1993 Statistics Canada Violence Against Women Survey 23% of Canadian women had experienced work-related sexual harassment in the workplace. Over half of these women (55%) were harassed by a co-worker. ²
Women who experienced sexual harassment in the workplace reported negative effects such as losing their jobs, damaged relationships with co-workers, losing friends, feeling stress with family members, depression, anxiety, loss of self-esteem, and physical illness.³

11% of non-Aboriginal and 21% of Aboriginal women in Canada reported experiencing stalking during the period of 1999-2004.⁴

In 2006, nearly 16,000 incidents of criminal harassment or stalking, which includes being followed, receiving threatening voice messages, receiving unwanted gifts or being repeatedly contacted, were reported to police. ⁵
76% involved female victims.
Most victims knew the harasser.
Women were more likely to be followed and spied on, and to have stalkers waiting outside their homes and workplace.

According to a Statistics Canada survey, the majority (63%) of stalking victims chose not to report incidents of stalking to police.⁶
Female victims are twice as likely to be stalked by a spouse as are male victims.⁷

Sources:

1 Statistics Canada. Sexual Assault in Canada 2004 and 2007. 2008.
2 Statistics Canada. Perspectives on Labour and Income: Work-related Sexual Harassment. Winter 1994. Vol.6, No. 4.
3 Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children. Workplace Harassment and Violence, 2004.
4 Statistics Canada. Measuring Violence Against Women, 2006.
5-7 Statistics Canada. Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile, 2008.

Economic Independence

Women and Work

The increased participation of women in the paid workforce has been one of the most significant social trends in Canada and Ontario in the past 25 years:

In 2008, 60% of all women aged 15 and over were part of the paid work force in Ontario, up from 42% in 1976. ¹
In 2006, 55% of all Canadian doctors and dentists were female, up from 43% in 1987. ²
In 2006, 36% of all Canadians employed in managerial positions were women, up from 30% in 1987. ³
The unemployment rate is currently slightly lower among women than among men in Ontario: 6.9% for men, and 6.1% for women. ⁴

The percentage of women in small business in Ontario has increased substantially:

Between 1996 and 2006, the number of self-employed women grew by 18 percent compared with 14-percent growth in male self-employment. ⁵
Women own, or co-own, almost 45% of small and medium enterprises in Ontario. ⁶
However, women are still less likely than men to be self-employed: 11% versus 19% in 2006. ⁷
Overall, women accounted for 35% of all self-employed workers in 2006, up from 31% in 1990 and 26% in 1976. ⁸

A relatively large proportion of employed women work part-time:

In Canada in 2006, 26% of all women in the paid workforce worked less than 30 hours per week at their main job, compared with just 11% of employed men. ⁹
In Ontario, women represent 64% of all part-time workers. ¹⁰
Across Canada, women have accounted for about seven in 10 of all part-time employees since the late 1970s. ¹¹
37% of Canadian part-time women workers aged 25 to 44 years cited caring for children as the reason for part-time employment, compared to 4.5% of men. ¹²

There have been dramatic increases in the employment levels of women with very young children:

In 2006, 64% of Canadian women with children less than age 3 were employed, compared to 28% in 1976. ¹³

However, women with pre-school-aged children are still less likely than those with school-aged children to be employed:

In 2006, 66% of women in Canada with children under age 6 were employed, compared with 78% of those whose youngest child was aged 6 to 15. ¹⁴
Single mothers are also less likely to be employed. 30% of single mothers in Canada with children under the age of 16 were unemployed in 2006.¹⁵

Women in Ontario are over-represented in some areas of traditional female employment: ¹⁶

Nursing, therapy and other related (87%), clerical and administrative (75%), teaching (64%), and sales and service (57%).
In aggregate, 67% of all employed women were working in one of these occupational groups.

Women also continue to be under-represented in some areas of traditional male employment. In 2006, in Ontario: ¹⁷

31% of workers in manufacturing were women, as were 21% of those in primary industries, and just 7% of those in transportation, trades, and construction work.
Women also continue to remain a minority among professionals employed in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics. In 2006, just 22% of professionals in these occupations were women, up marginally from 20% in 1987.

The wage gap is increasingly being seen as a productivity gap – when women are under-employed or not trained to their full potential (or both) there are productivity losses to the entire economy.

According to the 2006 Census, women working full-time, year-round in Ontario earned 71% of what men employed full-time, year-round made that year. ¹⁸
In Canada, women who have children do so at tremendous economic and professional costs; earning on average 12% less than women without children. ¹⁹
Women are the majority of minimum wage earners; according to the 2006 Census, 60% of minimum wage earners in Canada were women. ²⁰

Sources:

1 and 4 Statistics Canada. Statistics from the Labour Force Survey. CANSIM, table 282 0002. Labour force, employed and unemployed, numbers and rates, by province, 2009.

2-3, 7-9, 11, 13-17 Statistics Canada. Women in Canada: Work Chapter Updates, 2006.

5-6 Industry Canada, Small Business Policy Branch. Key Small Business Statistics, 2009.

10 Statistics Canada. 2006 Census of Population, Statistics Canada catalogue no. 97-559-XCB2006021.

12 Statistics Canada. Reason for Part time work by sex and age group. CANSIM, table 282-0014 and 282- 0001, Catalogue no. 89F0133X1E 2009.

18 Statistics Canada. 2006 Census of Population, Statistics Canada catalogue no. 97-563- XCB2006068.

19 Xuelin Zhang. “Earnings of Women With and Without Children,” Statistics Canada, March 2009.

20 Statistics Canada. “Perspectives on Labour and Income”. September 2006.

Women and Education

Women’s educational attainments have increased dramatically since the 1970s.

In 2005, 51% of all women in Ontario had some form of postsecondary educational training (up from 37% in 1972/73). ¹
In 2005, 53% of all Bachelor degrees in Ontario were held by women, 46% of Masters Degrees and 31% of earned doctorates. ²
Of the Canadian students enrolled in Universities in 2007/8, 58% were women and 42% were men. ³
However, the education patterns of women continue to differ from those of men, and clustering in traditional female dominated fields of study continues to persist. Of Canadian students enrolled in Universities in 2007/8: ⁴
- Women are over-represented in two major fields of study: education and health. 76% of students enrolled in education programs were women, and 71% of students enrolled in health and related fields were women.
- Women made up 27% of students enrolled in mathematics, computer and information sciences, and only 21% of students enrolled in architecture, engineering and related technologies.
The likelihood of women being gainfully employed increases substantially with the level of educational attainment. For example, in 2006, 75% of Ontario women with university degrees had jobs, while only 59% of women with a high school diploma were employed. ⁵

Apprenticeship Training/Women in the Skilled Trades

In 2007, women accounted for 10% of total apprentices in Canada, more than double the proportion in 1992 (4.5%). ⁶
Women’s registration in apprenticeship programs is on the rise. In 2007, 23.4% of new apprentices registered in Ontario in the major trade groups were women. ⁷
However, women continue to be under-represented in the skilled trades, despite the demand for labour in these occupations.
Women in Ontario have made little progress in entering apprenticeship trade groups that have traditionally had low numbers of women, such as building and construction trades, industrial and mechanical trades, and automotive trades. ⁸
- Of new apprenticeship registrations in Ontario in 2007, women represented 2% in the construction trades, 3.5% in the industrial trades, and 2.5% in the automotive trades.
The food and services trades continued to be the dominant trade field for women in Ontario. ⁹
- 62% of all new registrations in the services trades in 2007 were women.
- Over 93% of all new female registrations in 2007 were in the services trades sector.