CEDAW/C/CAN/CO/8-9
seeking and indigenous girls, as well as girls with disabilities, who continue to face
difficulties in gaining access to high-quality education.
37.
The Committee recommends that the State party:
(a)
Increase grants and remove the funding cap on the Post-Secondary
Student Support Program to ensure that indigenous women and girls have access to
funding for post-secondary education;
(b)
Strengthen its strategies to address discriminatory stereotypes and
structural barriers that may deter girls from progressing beyond secondary
education and enrolling in traditionally male-dominated fields of study, such as
mathematics, information technology and science;
(c)
Establish national guidelines or standards to harmonize sex education
curricula among provinces and territories and allow the Federal Government to
hold them accountable for implementing such guidelines or standards;
(d)
Ensure that a zero-tolerance policy on violence and harassment that
includes counselling services, awareness-raising efforts and effective reporting
mechanisms, is effectively implemented in all schools;
(e)
Continue to combat discrimination against disadvantaged groups of
women and girls in access to high-quality education, including by adopting
temporary special measures, and ensure the effective monitoring and evaluation of
the impact of such measures, to inform remedial action.
Employment
38.
The Committee is concerned about the slow progress made in the field of
employment and more specifically about:
(a)
The persistent gender wage gap in both the public and private sectors,
which adversely affect women’s career development and pension benefits, the lack of
effective legislation on the principle of equal pay for work of equal value at the federal
level, even in the public sector since the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act
(PSECA) has not delivered any results, and the lack of such legislation in the private
sector in most provinces and territories, as repeatedly noted by the ILO;
(b)
The continuing horizontal and vertical occupational segregation and the
concentration of women in part-time and low-paid jobs, which is often due to their
parallel traditional child raising and caretaking responsibilities, as well as the low
representation of women in managerial positions in companies;
(c)
by fathers;
The lack of affordable childcare facilities and the low use of parental leave
(d)
The prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace, especially in male
dominated sectors, such as Canada´s Policing and military environments, and the lack of
effective measures to deal with such harassment measures and to inform women of their
rights;
(e)
The limited access by indigenous, Afro-Canadian, migrant, refugee and
asylum-seeking women, as well as women with disabilities, to the labour market;
(f)
The practice of issuing employer-specific closed work permits, which
makes it challenging for migrant workers, including caregivers, to leave abusive
employment situations.
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