Social Welfare Policy in Canada - Week 5

[Intro to Social Welfare in the North] [Week 5: Gender & social welfare policy] Canadian families today - Significant changes in Canadian families over the past 50 years. - Outdated policies supporting families - Policies promoting childcare, parental leave, caregiver support, & gende...

[Intro to Social Welfare in the North] [Week 5: Gender & social welfare policy] Canadian families today - Significant changes in Canadian families over the past 50 years. - Outdated policies supporting families - Policies promoting childcare, parental leave, caregiver support, & gender income equality are needed Dual-earning families as Canada\'s norm - Increase in women\'s labor force participation in paid work - Canadian women have highest total work burden in G7 countries Women\'s employment rates - Over 3.6 million more women in workforce than 40 years ago - Mothers of young children more likely to work - over 35% work full-time - Women - not paid equally w/ men, perform more under-paid work at home Population replacement rate - Fewer children due to fewer parents - Fertility rate fluctuates - below 2 children per couple since 1970s Vanier Institute of the Family - Understanding modern families - National, independent, charitable organization focusing on family diversity & complexity - Promotes better family policies in Canada - Defines family - a combination of two or more persons bound by mutual consent, birth, adoption, or placement of children/family members - Responsibilities - physical maintenance, addition, socialization, social control, production, consumption, distribution of goods and services, affective nurturance of children/family members Changing families - Married couples dominate (65.8%) but are decreasing - 2016 = 21.3% of couples lived common law, 3x higher than in 1981 - Lone-parent families increased to 16.4% - 8 in 10 lone-parent families were female - Same-sex couples - for 72,880 couples in 2016, 1/3 married, 1 in 8 had children - Households - 5 or more people decreased from 1941 to 2016, 1 or 2 people increased - Affordable childcare linked to higher fertility rates & greater women\'s labour force participation Models of the family 1. The patriarchal model - Influenced income security policy, social programs, family law - Wife/mother responsible for home care & services - Husband/father earns income outside home 2. The individual responsibility model - Acknowledges formal gender equality - Shared caregiving & gender-neutral language promoted - Labour market policies encourage gender participation, including mothers 3. The social responsibility model - Prioritizes individual well-being over family unit - Treats every person as an individual (like healthcare system) Supporting family caregiving - Long-term fertility decline causing challenges - Ageing parents limit available support - Basic resources - time and money (in short supply for many) Childcare - 2 parental leave benefit programs (newborn or adopted children) - federal program (for families outside Québec) & Québec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) (Québec residents) - Benefits of early childhood education & care programs often outweigh costs, especially for disadvantaged groups - 60% of children in daycare, 75% not in regulated daycare programs - Families select various childcare solutions Parental leave system - Gaps - Employment Insurance system manages maternity/parental leave benefits - 1/3 of parents unqualified due to insufficient work hours - Low-income families receive lower benefits than middle-class families - New parental leave program offers 5-8 weeks extra paid leave for 2nd parent Childcare program in Quebec - Broadened access to maternity/parental leave benefits - Strengthened women\'s labour market participation - Increased family incomes - Less disparities than Canada\'s federal maternity/parental leave program - Improved access to 30% of mothers not eligible for support - Provides est. annual net gain of over \$200 million to the province - Encourages parental leave under the right conditions - Provides lessons for Canadian policymakers on the importance of affordable & accessible childcare Caring for the elderly - Long-term care system designed 50 years ago - Covid pandemic highlighted the need for national standards of care & increased investment - Over 80% of C19 deaths occurred in long-term care - Challenges - reliance on a subcontracted labour force, conditions in care homes - Almost 25% of seniors aged 65 & older are caregivers themselves - causing stress & strain - Friends & family spend up to 10 hrs/week caring for elderly Gender disparities & Covid - Crisis exacerbated existing gender disparities (esp facing intersecting forms of discrimination) - Women at forefront of crisis - providing primary care/support, majority of the frontline workforce - Gender-just recovery plan - focus on the needs & perspectives of women, girls, gender-diverse individuals Family benefits overview - Canada spends less than most OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development) countries on family benefits - Benefits for widowed mothers were introduced during WWI - The Family Allowance Act introduced post-WWII - Despite changes in program names & amounts, the principle of universal family support remains - Families receive tax exemptions, allowances, deductions to reduce personal income tax Income splitting - Conservative govt introduced an income splitting tax break for couples w/ children (2011) - Policy allowed married & common-law couples w/ children under 18 to transfer up to \$50,000 in earned income from 1 spouse to the other - Regressive - only benefiting families w/ a 2nd parent & families w/ large income differences - Did not benefit lone-parent families or lower-income families who have already benefited from other tax credits & deductions The Gender Gap - Income test incentives for non-working parents in 2 parent families = financial implications for the non-working parent & the country - Women are concentrated in low-paying occupations, industries, establishments - Gender segregation accounts for a significant portion of the overall gender wage gap - New budgeting legislation mandates reporting on gender & diversity in taxation & resource-allocation - Govt budgets often affect men & women differently due to their different social & economic positions - Govts have historically developed policies & allocated funding in a gender-blind manner