Women working full-time earn 70.5% of the amount earned by men in comparable jobs. Consequently, women continue to make up a disproportionate share of low-income Canadians. An astronomical 36% of families headed by lone-parent mothers live below the poverty line (after-tax LICO), compared to only 15% of male lone-parent families and less than 9% of two-parent families. In 2006, 40% of all children living in a low-income family were living with a single female parent.
There is a direct connection between women's poverty and women's homelessness, with housing being the most significant expenditure for low-income women. Rising rents, decreasing and inadequate social assistance entitlements, and an inadequate supply of social housing, across the country, |
makes homelessness a real threat for poor women in Canada. Homelessness exacts a severe toll on women's health and safety. The death rate for homeless women who live on the street is ten times that of women who are housed.
On the streets of Canadian cities, women without housing live in absolute poverty. Street homelessness exacts brutal toll on women’s health and safety. A recent studied showed one in five homeless women had been sexually assaulted in the past year and 84% suffered from at least one serious physical health condition.
* This analysis is based on public information available as of September 10, 2008. |
