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Gender and economic statistics:

Using available data

UN Global Forum on Gender StatisticsDecember 10-12, 2007

Heather Dryburgh, Ph.D.Statistics Canada


Outline

• What do we need to know?

• What data are already there?

• Where are the information gaps?


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



• Women’s and men’s economic contributions– Labour force participation (FT/PT,

FY/PY)– Value of unpaid work – Self-employment

•Entrepreneurship•Number of employees•Company growth

– Unionization



• Factors affecting productivity– Work absences– Part time work– Underemployment– Occupational segregation

• Low income– Rates– Consequences


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



• 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



• Beneficiaries of Employment Insurance

• Tax data– Contributions to pension plans– Government transfer payments

• Income data– Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics– Census of Population


Female to male earnings ratio of full-time workers, 1967 to 2004

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1967 1974 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004

percentage

Source: Statistics Canada, Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics.


Percentage of seniors with low incomes, by age, 2001

17.2

24.4

34.0

11.0 10.3

14.2

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Age 65 to 75 Age 75 to 84 Age 85 and over

Women Men

percentage

Source: Statistics Canada, 2001 Census of Canada.


Where are the information gaps?

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


Where are the information gaps?

• Basic information:– System of National Accounts?

•Do the data sources measure both men’s and women’s 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?


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?

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