We Need a Plan to End Ontario’s She-cession

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Personal Support Workers. Cashiers. Early Childhood Educators. Cleaning staff. Parents.

Women and gender diverse people have carried us through the COVID-19 pandemic in their places of work, whether on the high-risk, frontlines or holding it together at home.

Women who are Indigenous, Black, and racialized, with precarious immigration status, living with disability, and/or from the 2SLGBTQ+ community have borne the brunt of the economic disaster wrought by COVID-19 – subject to the very first “she-cession” in history. 

This pandemic is not over and neither is the she-cession. Task forces and tax credits do not go far enough. What we need is a plan.

As a coalition of YWCAs from across Ontario, we are calling on the provincial government to:

1. Invest in long-term, gender-focused upskilling and training to help women access well-paying jobs.

2. Sign the federal agreement to create a universal, accessible, high-quality affordable child care system which would support women’s workforce re-entry.

3. Enact decent work conditions to improve labour and employment standards in feminized industries.