Gender and economic statistics: Using available data

1
Gender and economic statistics Using available
data

• UN Global Forum on Gender Statistics
• December 10-12, 2007
• Heather Dryburgh, Ph.D.
• Statistics Canada

2
Outline

• What do we need to know?
• What data are already there?
• Where are the information gaps?

3
What do we need to know?

• Economic statistics
• Evaluate the performance of an economy
• Monitor economic stock and flows
• Analyze macroeconomic trends
• Inform economic policies and decisions
• Used for international comparisons

4
What do we need to know?

• Womens and mens economic contributions
• Labour force participation (FT/PT, FY/PY)
• Value of unpaid work
• Self-employment
• Entrepreneurship
• Number of employees
• Company growth
• Unionization

5
What do we need to know?

• Factors affecting productivity
• Work absences
• Part time work
• Underemployment
• Occupational segregation
• Low income
• Rates
• Consequences

6
What data are already there?

• Labour Force Survey data
• Increased participation of women in the paid work
  force in Canada
• Increase in paid employment of women with young
  children
• Absences from work because of personal or family
  responsibilities (women have more)
• Women more likely to work part-time
• Trends in self-employment

7
What data are already there?

• Women in agricultural work
• Occupational distribution of men and women
• Occupational sex-segregation
• Number of child-care spaces, registered and
  non-registered
• Unpaid work
• Volunteer work
• Domestic work
• Caregiving

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What data are already there?

• Beneficiaries of Employment Insurance
• Tax data
• Contributions to pension plans
• Government transfer payments
• Income data
• Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics
• Census of Population

9
Female to male earnings ratio of full-time
workers, 1967 to 2004
Source Statistics Canada, Survey of Labour and
Income Dynamics.
10
Percentage of seniors with low incomes, by age,
2001
Source Statistics Canada, 2001 Census of Canada.
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Where are the information gaps?

• Detail, for example
• Entrepreneurs
• Intra-family resource transfers
• Informal markets

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Where are the information gaps?

• Basic information
• System of National Accounts?
• Do the data sources measure both mens and
  womens work and reality?
• Would it be useful for policy development to know
  economic flows disaggregated by sex?
• Would sex disaggregated data help identify
  possible missing information?

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Conclusions

• What do we need to know?
• Does our economic data account for the work and
  activity of both men and women?
• What data are already there?
• Have we exploited the already existing
  information?
• Where are the information gaps?
• Special surveys?
• Gender analysis?