The latest scorecard on the quality of life for women in Edmonton shows finances, education and health are on track, but safety and leadership are still major problems.
The Women’s Advocacy Voice of Edmonton (WAVE) released the latest Edmonton Women’s Quality of Life scorecard Friday.
The report measures five key areas: finance and economy, leadership, political empowerment and participation, education, health and wellness, and safety.
According to the report, women in Edmonton are on par or above the Canadian benchmark in three of the five categories, but score well below on leadership and safety.
The results mirror the first scorecard released in 2017, however the report says the rate of sexual assault is “substantially higher.”
Part-time work
The report says full-time employment for women fell two per cent since the first scorecard and one per cent more women are now doing part-time work.
“That may be influenced by external conditions like access to childcare and the recent economic downturn,” said Ward 2 Coun. Bev Esslinger.
The report also shows that twice as many women in the city do part-time work as men.
Overall, education was a strong category in the report. It showed women have a slight edge on men for high-school and post-secondary completion.
Despite the near parity, WAVE committee member Dilara Yegani says the number of women training for the trades is very low.
“Women are at three to four per cent in mechanics trades,” said Yegani, adding that women make up nine per cent of the group training to be engineers or in construction jobs compared to the Canadian benchmark of 14 per cent.
Sexual violence
The rates of sexual assault and sexual violence has widened in Edmonton, rising about eight per cent since the first scorecard.
Back when the first scorecard was released, Edmonton was nearly 20 per cent above the national average for sexual assaults.
WAVE vice chair Meghana Valupadas says the higher number may be due to more people feeling empowered to come forward.
“Although it’s a number I don’t think any municipality is proud of, it shows that people are coming forward,” Vulpadas said. “They’re talking about it and that’s one step closer to eradicating sexual violence.”
The scorecard shows that intimate-partner violence in Edmonton is down slightly in 2017 from 2016, but the city is still significantly above the national benchmark.
Mary Jane James, executive assistant at the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton, says improvements in the area are small, and more needs to be done to educate everyone, including men and boys, about the treatment of women.
“Sexual violence persists because of the normalization and trivialization of the issue,” James said.
Women aren’t faring well in leadership or political roles either, said the report.
Although the number of women running at all levels of government has increased, it has not always resulted in women being elected to represent a larger share of the elected positions.
The report says in the 2017 civic election, the number of women candidates increased by eight per cent. Two of Edmonton’s 12 elected councillors are women.