After decades of progress towards equality, today’s women are feeling stretched from juggling home, work, child- and elder- care and community responsibilities. In the workplace, women still make only 70 per cent of men’s salaries, and for new university graduates, the situation is getting worse, not better. Poverty affects almost half of single, widowed or divorced women over 65, and more than 40 per cent of unattached women under 65.
Dalton McGuinty broke his promise to fix Ontario’s social programs and women’s and violence prevention programs after they were gutted by Conservatives. When child care, health care, long-term care and social services fail to deliver, it’s primarily women who pick up the slack. McGuinty failed to deliver on his promise to build 20,000 new affordable housing units and broke his promise to invest new provincial money in child care.
In 2007, women still don’t have an equal voice in making decisions for our society – only 1 in 4 of Ontario’s MPPs are women.
Today’s women deserve a break. The NDP’s Fair Deal for Women will make life better for women by:
- Investing in affordable housing.
- Raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour.
- Fighting violence against women by re-instating funding to women’s groups and violence prevention programs.
- Creating an arms length panel to recommend fairer social assistance rates.
- Investing in safe accessible, affordable child care for women and families who need it.
- Fixing the patchwork of home and long-term care, and ensuring high- quality care for seniors.
- Giving women a voice – the NDP is the only party with formal policies to encourage women’s participation and a goal of having women make up half of its candidates. The NDP’s diverse slate of candidates includes 42 women – the most of any major political party.
On October 10, you can count on the NDP to stand up for a fair deal for women in Ontario. McGuinty got it wrong. New Democrats will make it right.
Filed Under: Issue Sheets
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