The SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch was a reminder that while we can shoot a car into space, we are unable to solve persistent social problems such as pay equity. What a time to be alive! Equal Pay Day, marked this year on April 10, draws attention to what has always been one of the most glaring […]

Chances are you know someone working part-time, from contract to contract, or in a low-wage job — and research shows that person is most likely a woman. Across Canada, women account for 70 per cent of part-time employees and 60 per cent of minimum-wage earners. There is a lot at stake for women — and gender […]

There is a lot at stake in this year’s city budget. YWCA Toronto supports new revenue tools to stop unacceptable service cuts, and we urge Council to make a substantial investment in Toronto’s poverty reduction strategy. This is critically important for women in our city, who have disproportionately higher poverty rates. The women we work […]

Toronto City Council made history and sent a strong message by unanimously adopting TO Prosperity, our city’s first-ever poverty reduction strategy. Now, Council must fund it in the 2016 budget. YWCA Toronto has joined with over 50 civic leaders in calling on Council to ensure that the 2016 budget includes the funding necessary to reduce […]

Piles of overdue bills. No cash for your child’s field trips at school.  No benefits plan to cover dental or medical expenses. No retirement savings. No quality child care. Precariously employed women are stuck in neutral while an affluent country prospers and advances around them. Since the 1980s, we have a seen a rise in […]

More and more reports tell us that income inequality in Canada is growing. The gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider while the number of quality jobs and public services is shrinking. Today it is estimated that over 4.5 million Canadians are living in poverty: 36% are aboriginal women, 35% are visible […]

As soon as I announced that I was pregnant, the warnings began: Get on the child care subsidy list. Put your name down on as many child care waiting lists as possible. Do it now. Little did we know that there were 16,802 children ahead of us and that a subsidy was well out of […]

Dorothy said it best, “there is no place like home.”  Home is our refugee, our castle…home sweet home.  But what if you did not know how long you would have a place to stay, perhaps a day, a week or a few months?  What if you were not sure what address to put on your […]

There are 16,802 children in Toronto currently on the waiting list for affordable child care. Many of their mothers make weekly phone calls, crossing their fingers and hoping that a space has finally opened up for their child. With their children in a secure and safe child care centre, women can get back to work, […]

Many of the women who walk through our doors at YWCA Toronto have firsthand experience with the realities of urban poverty, making them well informed to weigh in on the City of Toronto’s TOProsperity: Toronto Poverty Reduction Strategy, due to be released in late 2015. When the City asked YWCA Toronto for feedback on how to […]