Childhood

Welcome to the world, baby girl.

If you were a woman born in Canada in the 1920s and made it past the age of 1, you could expect to live to be about 65. If you are a woman born in Canada today or any time after about 2009 and made it past the age of 1, you can add almost 20 years to that number; you’re likely to make it to around 83.

But we’re sorry to say… there have historically been, and still remain significant challenges in your future.

Welcome to “The Financial Lifecycle of a Woman”, a content series by The51 created for International Women’s Day, 2021. In this series we’ll be focusing on barriers that affect women throughout their entire lifecycles with specific attention to statistics[1] around financial growth and independence.

Being a girl today is not so unlike being a woman; girls feel the pressure of systemic barriers like poverty, racism, sexism and disruptions to their communities similarly to adults. These social and cultural realities form girls’ experiences and affect all aspects of their development and choices, from career prospects to personal health and self-esteem.

Now. Obviously, not all babies are brought into this world under equal circumstances. According to Statistics Canada…

1 in 3 Indigenous girls and 1 in 4 girls that belong to a visible minority are born into low-income households. As multiple studies have shown, socioeconomic status directly impacts children on a number of levels, including health, self-esteem and academic success.

Indigenous girls (and boys) are 2 to 4 times more likely to be in the foster care system than non-Indigenous children, and regardless of their background, 4 in 10 girls living with a single parent are also likely to grow up in a low-income situation. Notably, girls living with a lone mother were about twice as likely as girls living with a lone father to be in a low‑income household (42.0% versus 21.8%).

However… girls 6 to 9 score higher than boys on a measure of prosocial behaviour such as helping, social inclusion, and sympathy. Girls also rate higher, sooner, on emotional control such as regulating anger and aggression.

Worldwide, girls are more educated than ever—but we are still not offered the same educational opportunities as men. The compounded effects of stress, unequal opportunities and sexism—even when we’re too young to properly understand the term—have lasting effects. Add being a woman with belonging to one or more additional marginalized groups and the effects compound.

[1] The majority of statistics and research used here are from Statistics Canada. However, see our full bibliography at the end.

Teenage years and young adulthood

More than 8 in 10 girls aged 12 to 17 in Canada report a strong sense of belonging to their local community. However, almost one‑quarter of 15 to 17‑year‑old girls report experiencing high levels of daily stress; of boys the same age, only 9.3% report the same levels.

And if you’re a woman with ovaries, most of the time teenage years also introduce a new, sometimes arduous and rather costly monthly reality. According to Plan Canada research from 2018, one third of Canadian women under the age of 25 say they “struggle to afford menstrual products.” In fact, feminine hygiene products are among the top three material costs of being a woman across all age groups (except over 65). If you’re not a woman it may shock you to discover that, on average, we spend $200 a month more than men on personal appearance and hygiene products. Add to this the physical realities and social stigma of getting one’s period, (74% of young women report having been “accused” OF PMS) and it’s no wonder 70-83% of women have “missed school or work” or “withdrawn from social activities” because of menstruation.

If you get your first job as a teenager, get ready for that old familiar wage gap. A study commissioned by Girl Guides of Canada shows that in full-time summer work environments, teenage girls earn about $3.00 less per hour than their male counterparts. When surveyed, girls also expressed worry about future career opportunities, as they’re aware of the inequalities women still face.

Once you get into university, you might be surrounded by more women than men these days; the proportion of women aged 25 to 64 with a university certificate or degree grew at a faster pace than that of men, more than doubling between 1991 and 2015 from 15% to 35%. However, the number of women in certain programs like engineering and sciences like physics and computer science is still far lower than their male counterparts.

And for careers that result from diplomas and fields of study that lean more “pink” than “blue”, average salaries take a dive; earnings of graduates from fields of study with high female concentration are generally lower than in male concentrated fields of study.

Worst of all, while the gender employment gap decreases as educational attainment increases, it does not disappear. According to Statistics Canada, women with a college diploma earned 73 cents for each dollar earned by their male counterparts.

Career and family years

In the 1920s, the average marrying age for women was about 21 (for men, about 25). Today, women marry on average around age 26 (men, around age 29), but the stress that comes with coupling, either with or without children, is felt uniquely by women.

At ages 20 to 34, women are significantly more likely than men to report life stress. Women in this age group who were single or living with a partner without children tended to rate their life stress higher than men in these same family situations, however interestingly, women who were living with a partner with children reported similar life stress to men.

And let’s talk about unpaid labour for a minute.

In 2015, women in Canada spent an average of 3.9 hours per day on unpaid work as a primary activity—1.5 hours more than did men. This includes tasks such as housework and childcare. Describing an argument by Quebec journalist Marilyse Hamelin, Toula Drimonis writes, “motherhood continues to be a major cause of workplace discrimination, double standards, professional obstacles, guilt trips, exceedingly high expectations, and immense sacrifice for women. They are often the ones who end up relinquishing lucrative careers or personal interests to handle the overwhelming majority of child-rearing tasks.”

Add to these pressures the reality of often being the main caregiver for aging parents, and women are hit with a trifecta of stresses and responsibilities. More than their mothers and grandmothers were, and their fathers, brothers and husbands are. As Melissa Moyser and Amanda Burlock point out: “It is important to recognize that the unpaid work done disproportionately by women for their families facilitates men’s higher rate of labour force participation and longer work hours.”

COVID-19 has thrown into sharp relief how critical it is to provide families with affordable, inclusive, accessible, and high-quality child care. As McKinsey & Company write, “Many parents, particularly women, have had to make very difficult choices between employment and taking care of their families; choices that may have long lasting impacts on their family’s finances and wellbeing, as well on Alberta’s economic strength and competitiveness. Working mothers in particular could add $21.3 billion to Alberta’s economy by 2026, and are untapped potential if they can’t find child care solutions that meet their needs.”

Career and family life continued

As you settle into the main work years of your career, the word “settle” may not really apply at all. Statistics Canada notes that women’s careers are interrupted more frequently than men’s, and for longer durations; women take maternity twice as often as men take paternity leave. (Unless, that is, the mother is a self-employed entrepreneur; those women take maternity leave far less regularly.)

But carrying and birthing children aside, the work of child-rearing continues to fall disproportionately on women’s shoulders. Even as progress is made, and working mothers are normalized, “Women have retained "ultimate" responsibility for childrearing and household operation, in accordance with traditional gender roles” (Stats Canada). Furthermore, lone female parents have a lower employment rate than both lone male parents and mothers in couples, and in order to care for children women are more likely than men to work part‑time.

In fact, even when taking part in leisure activities, women are too often—not. Women not only spend less time enjoying leisure activities than men, when they do take part, they’re likely to be multitasking—doing unpaid work (like looking after children) at the same time.

And as women’s responsibilities multiply and grow, their recognition at work often takes a hit. There are many reasons why women are chronically underrepresented in leadership positions in Canada. Career interruptions are absolutely a factor, however, so is good old familiar prejudice. A report using research from Deloitte found that the Canadian banking sector had 38% female partners, the legal sector had 25%, and of private equity firms, only 12% had female partners. (VC firms, just 11%.) Interestingly, while women are underrepresented across the board in leadership positions in the private sector, in the public sector representation is equal.

And what about the category nearest to our hearts? According to Statistics Canada, while “increasing numbers of women have pursued business ownership as a labour market strategy in the past three decades, men continue to dominate self-employment.” Not only are women less likely to be self-employed, they’re less likely to incorporate. In 2015 just 34.2% of self-employed women have an incorporated business, compared with 53.2% of men.

That said, in the last year and a half Alberta has seen an enormous rise in entrepreneurship, and according to Alberta Women Entrepreneurs, 84/100 entrepreneurs in Alberta are now women (wow!)

Retirement

While the employment rate for older women is higher than it has ever been in Canada, reasons why women (and men) are needing to work longer into what were traditionally retirement-years are complex.

Some reasons are very positive: medical advancements mean people are living longer lives, the core workforce now has higher educational achievements than ever before, and lots of jobs are on the whole, less physically-demanding than in generations past. However, the financial situation for seniors in Canada is also to blame for the loss of “freedom 55”. The 2008/09 recession, global financial crisis, and decline in pension coverage combine to make sufficient savings and wealth harder to achieve for older Canadians. As usual, women are hit harder than men; according to CIBC, “on average, women aged 55+ have amassed approximately $125,000 in personal savings – half of what men have saved at $250,000”.

Plus, in later years, women face another unique kind of discrimination in the workplace: gendered agism.

We live in a society obsessed with youth and beauty. In early career years, the backlash of this obsession may translate to sexual harassment in the workplace, microaggressions, and pressure to maintain one’s appearance through time-consuming and often expensive grooming measures. In later years, it translates to discrimination in other ways. Women over 50 may find themselves forced out of their positions for illogical reasons, and then suffering extreme difficulty re-entering the workforce. Not only are the economic and social effects of agism detrimental to a woman’s wellbeing, the emotional tole is considerable, as low self-esteem makes achieving valuable employment even harder.

Obviously, men age throughout their careers as well, but men are perceived to “hit their peak” later than women, as the standard for women’s beauty and “showing signs of aging” takes place much sooner.

Finally, throughout our entire careers, women are less likely than men to take an active role in financial planning, and are on the whole still less financially educated than men, particularly among seniors. The unreasonable expectation that women take on the work of directing their own financial future after excluding them from that very conversation and education in their earlier years results in less advantageous savings and investment decisions—widening the retirement savings gap.

And so…

As we come to the end of our Lifecycle of a Woman series, there is a way to end things on a happier note: The feminist wealth transfer is an inevitable reality in Canada. In 2019, women directly controlled $2.2-trillion of personal finance assets, and this number is expected to grow by 70% by 2030. That means that in less than 10 years, women will control at least 1/3 of financial assets world-wide.

What will we do with our new-found financial leadership? What will the world look like—when women are finally able to participate as equal players in investing, entrepreneurship and economic growth? This is our CTA to you, our audience:

The time to start creating the financial feminist economic future has already passed. We’re in the thick of it, and if you haven’t already, it’s time to add your voice. Researching, writing and reading this series confronts us with some disappointing realities, but together we are changing things. Now!

Are you ready to join in?

We are The51.