EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Voluntary Sector Initiative (VSI) Secretariat commissioned a research brief to outline some of the challenges women volunteers and paid staff in the voluntary and community sector face, to identify both gaps in research and indications of progress toward gender equality to advance in that direction, and to make recommendations on how to move toward gender equity in the voluntary sector. Reductions in core funding to the sector throughout the 1990s combined with increased client demands, reporting requirements and greater reliance on government service contracts, had substantial impact on the voluntary sector, and on the women who form a large proportion of the volunteers and staff within it. Hence, identifying gender inequities is important to the mandate of the VSI: strengthening the capacity of the voluntary sector and improving the relationship between the voluntary sector and the federal government.
While information about the voluntary sector information is incomplete, data indicate that on average, between 50 and 75% of non-profit sector employees are women; 54% of all volunteers are women; and in certain areas, the gender breakdown is 80 to 90% women. Scant information exists concerning other demographics such as age, ethnic or racial background, accommodation of people with disabilities, education level, or the types of jobs held. More fundamental questions of how many people work in the sector, under what conditions, not to mention their individual and organizational needs, remain largely unaddressed.
Through their involvement in the voluntary sector, women have developed skills, learned to manage organizations, sat on Boards of Directors and obtained greater access to economic and political power. Women in the voluntary sector now have improved access to power and leadership. But these gains have been undercut by longstanding under-funding of the sector. Most women in leadership positions have, and can barely retain, insufficient and transitory support staff. While significant progress has been made on many women's issues, including family supports, supports to women and children who are victims of violence, and health issues, there is also an uneasy perception that these and other women's issues have become more diffused, if not set aside for other causes or priorities.
Within the voluntary sector, salaries are low and benefits often non-existent. For large segments of the voluntary sector, particularly those in the social and health services, annual salaries have remained stagnant over the last decade, as low as $20,000 for day-care services and civic and social organizations and $27,000 for mental health and substance abuse services and social advocacy organizations. Many trained and experienced staff, including those dealing with demanding clients, earn just $10 per hour, and many agencies shifted to hiring new staff principally on a contract or part-time basis rather than as regular employees in order to save on payroll taxes.
Several studies show that workloads have increased for virtually all managers and front-line staff, including massive increases in paperwork, or administration. Both management and staff multi-task, taking on many different kinds of work, leaving managers less time to provide needed guidance to over-burdened staff dealing with increasingly severe client issues.
Reductions in government spending on services, especially social and health services, have led to an increased demand for volunteers, but now fewer people are contributing more hours. This situation can be extremely stressful for women already overextended but who feel they have no choice but to respond. Some groups grapple uneasily with such contradictions, relying on volunteers to keep a women's centre open, for instance, when asking women to work for free may reproduce the financial dependency of women, against which they have been struggling for so long.
Women's groups are also feeling increasingly marginalized in the area of information and communication technologies. Lack of funding for women's groups and other marginalized communities resurfaces as a major barrier to access and participation. A study of over 450 groups found that women's, consumer, human rights and recreation groups owned fewer modern computers (1.3 on average) than groups from the economic development, professional development and education sectors (between 3.8 and 7.8 on average) Groups in remote regions were even more ill equipped. The community sector, particularly women's groups, has been unable to take advantage of various programs and to assist in the development of coherent policies. A failure by the voluntary sector to re-examine the extent to which this has been so will widen the digital divide along economic, gender and geographical lines.
Accessibility remains the most important issue for women with disabilities, often of greater import than gender identity or discrimination, for both volunteers and staff. While some factors influence both men and women with disabilities, women face additional barriers, e.g., lower self-esteem than men and other women, making them feel extremely marginalized. Immigrant and visible minorities - with women often facing a triple bind of gender, race and poverty - also tend to be more marginalized in mainstream organizations.
The voluntary sector needs to examine its practices towards minority groups and women and to promote policies that increase employment equity. The issue of salaries and benefits needs to be addressed, as does the gender gap in the management structures. The voluntary sector must also do more to promote women-friendly practices to enable females among volunteers and staff to participate without incurring extra costs.
In a time when women's struggles are largely depoliticised, perhaps what is needed more than ever is for women to forcefully voice the need for adequate salaries and working conditions in a sector so vital to the well being of many Canadians.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Most of the following recommendations cannot be easily achieved, or they would have been implemented already. In a time when women's struggles are largely depoliticised, what is needed, perhaps more than ever, is for women to forcefully voice the need for adequate salaries and working conditions in a sector that is so vital to the well being of so many vulnerable Canadians.
Research:
- Undertake a thorough gender analysis of the sector to analyze the breakdown of occupations and to test for wage gaps.
- Perform a thorough comparison of the voluntary sector's wages and benefits with those of other sectors for positions with similar qualifications, responsibilities and duties.
- Examine how organizations promote gender equity through the use of the Internet and to increase women and women's groups' access to the Internet. Promote and implement existing ideas, e.g., Womenspace website.
Action with regard to employment and volunteer management:
- Promote the implementation of policies such as pay equity, employment benefits and pension plans. Organizations could be encouraged to develop general human resources guidelines or to find ways to promote good practices in terms of gender equity. A checklist could be one easy and accessible tool for organizations.
- Since less than 10% of community organizations are unionized, promote a better understanding of unionizing as a means to improve equality.
- Take stock of organizations that have implemented women-friendly practices, e.g., day-care and tax credits for employees and volunteers, and promote these practices across the sector.
- Develop guidelines for organizations on gender equity in management structures and also for volunteers as part of improved accountability mechanisms to funders and members.
- Profile accommodation and hiring practices in the voluntary sector - educate organizations on the discrimination women/people face in the sector in order to promote accommodation
- Promote awareness and understanding of gender equity in the voluntary sector.
Action with regard to participation in voluntary sector governance:
- Find ways to be more inclusive in VSI processes, and advocate for better representation of diverse groups, e.g., women/people with disabilities, as well as representation of various ethnic, class, and racial groups.
Action with regard to funding:
- Secure commitment of long-term funding from governments for the sector and for women's organizations in particular.
