Sun: Study ranks Winnipeg low on best places to be a woman
Winnipeg is far from the best place to be a woman in Canada.
A study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) has rated our city 20th out of the 25 best cities for women.
The rankings were based on gaps in men and women’s access to economic security, personal security, education, health, and positions of leadership in Canada’s biggest cities.
“I think it’s important to be able to look at this through a gender lens but, as a woman, I’m troubled that we’re near the bottom,” University of Manitoba sociology professor Susan Prentice said Thursday.
Victoria was No. 1, while Windsor, Ont., was last.
“It looks like the (personal) security is related to violence against woman and that’s one of the biggest reasons why,” Prentice said.
Winnipeg was No. 18 last year.
“We’re moving in the wrong direction,” Prentice said. “We’ve stayed about the same in only one category — education. In health, we fell from fourth to 13th, but that’s likely because of stress related to (personal) security, which has dropped to 22nd from 13th.
“And we really fell in women’s leadership in terms of those in elected office and women in senior management. It’s also distressing to see that there is still a large gap in economic security between men and women.”
Prentice urged all three levels of government to get together to address the issue of both personal security and health.