At the intersection of global economics crisis and state anti-feminism: women in Canada, 2008-2009

Abstract

This paper traces the deterioration of gender equality in Canada as governments failed to understand how badly the 1991 recession affected women's economic status well into the mid-2000s, and then as an anti-feminist conservative government took office in 2006. The author provides examples of how anti-recession and economic recovery policies formulated by a government antagonistic to women's demands for equal treatment accelerated the economic deterioration women continued to experience between 2008 and 2012. The paper includes gender impact data on women's employment, access to unemployment benefits, participation in infrastructure stimulus programs, shares of personal income tax cuts, and the growing wage gap in Canada.