The Economic Experiences of Black Women in Canada
4 mins read · February 20, 2020
Jen Katshunga, Notisha Massaquoi, CCPA
Summary
According to StatsCan 2016 survey data, the Black population now accounts for 3.5 percent of Canada's total population. Yet, the Black community continues to face systematic disadvantages such as fewer opportunities for career advancement and less access to essential services.
In this report, the authors examined the experience of Black women and girls in Canada, as part of a larger project looking at Canada's progress in achieving women's rights and gender equality. The report highlights the data points from the 2016 Statscan Diversity of the Black population in Canada survey, addressing several challenges and issues faced by Black women in Canada, in various areas like education, health, criminal justice, labor market, and academia, as well as highlighting a lack of important data.
Key findings
Black women in Canada's labour market:
The labour force participation rate among Black women was 66.1 percent, over 5 percentage points higher than non-racialized women.
However, the unemployment rate among Black women was roughly twice the rate of non-racialized women (12.2 percent vs. 6.4 percent).
Black women earn 59 cents on average for every dollar that non-racialized men make.
Black women are subject to discrimination from employers who screen out job applicants with African, Asian, or Muslim "sounding" names or those who live in specific neighbourhoods, even when these applicants have equivalent qualifications, education, and experience to others.
Employers' use of police record checks in the hiring process can entrench the exclusion of over-policed communities of colour from the labour market.
The lack of disaggregated data creates historical and social barriers:
Many equity statements fail to translate to action and do not come with the resources necessary to implement positive change. Researchers have found that employment equity policies increase representation selectively. For example, Black women are systematically subsumed in the individuality of women of colour and similarly in the broader category of women. When organizations claim they are taking measures to address inequality, they mean inequality for women in general.
The continued use of the term "visible minority" in the Census and other Statistics Canada surveys and legislation (such as the Employment Equity Act) erases Black women, obscuring "the degrees of disparity in treatment and specific human rights concerns of African Canadians." This causes Black women to become more invisible, masking the specific historical and social differences and barriers they face.
Consequently, the data needed to better understand the labour market and related experiences of Black women are either not collected appropriately or are not collected at all.
Thus, collecting and reporting on disaggregated data — based on characteristics such as race, ethnicity, gender and gender identity, ability, sexual orientation, faith/spirituality, age, immigration status, and country of origin — is crucial to help set a baseline and measure progress towards greater equity. In addition, the government should remove the reference to "visible minority" in legislation such as the Employment Equity Act.
Takeaways
This article stresses the necessity to design a comprehensive national gender equality policy to address structural factors such as anti-Black racism that leads to Black gender inequality. In addition, to enhance economic opportunity for Black women, there is a need to provide start-ups with capital, mentorship, and other required support, to help boost entrepreneurship. One of the key elements suggested in the article is the need to develop an annual reporting mechanism that coordinates the collection of race-based statistics to monitor and improve the status of the Black community in Canada, with particular attention to Black women and children.
Read the full article here.
References
Katshunga, J., & Massaquoi, N. (2020, February 20). Black women in Canada. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
