LEAF Youth Commission blog

Sexual Violence

• 1 in 3 women has experienced some form of sexual violence that can be legally defined as  sexual assault (The Violence Against Women Survey, Statistics Canada, 1993)
• 54% of girls under the age of 16 have experienced some form of unwanted sexual attention. 24% of these have experienced sexual assault, and 17% have experienced incest. (J. Holmes and E. Silverman, 1992, We’re Here, Listen to Us: A Survey of Young Women in Canada)
• Fifty-one per cent of all Canadian women have experienced at least one incident of sexual or physical violence. Close to 60% of these women have survived more than one incident of violence.
  (Statistics Canada, 1993, “Violence Against Women Survey”, The Daily, 18 November, p. 1, 3)
• Six out of 10 victims who reported being sexually assaulted were under 17 years of age.
  (Statistics Canada, 2005, “Children and Youth as Victims of Crime”, The Daily, 20 April)
• In 2000, women made up the vast majority of victims of sexual assault (86%) and other types of sexual offences (78%).
  (Statistics Canada, 2001, Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile, 2001)

• In 2000, women made up the vast majority of victims of sexual assault (86%) (Statistics Canada, 2001, Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile, 2001)
• Of all women who are sexually assaulted, 69% are assaulted by men that they know. 38% are assaulted by husbands, common-law partners, or boyfriends (Facts to Consider About Sexual Assault, Ontario Women’s Directorate, 1995)
• In a Toronto survey, young women identified that their highest safety concern was about assault. Since women are most vulnerable to sexual assault, harassment, and other forms of gendered abuse, their concern is consistent with their experiences. (City of Toronto, 2002, Speak Up: Toronto Youth Talk about Safety in Their Community, p. 12)

Reporting Sexual Assault

• Victimization surveys show that less than 10% of women who are sexually assaulted report the assault to the police. (Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers Responsible for the Status of Women, 2002, Assessing Violence Against Women: A Statistical Profile, p.19)
• It is estimated that over 80% of women who are sexually assaulted do not report due to humiliation or fear of re-victimization in the legal process. For women of colour, that fear is worsened by the experience of racism. (Ontario Women’s Directorate, 2002, Sexual Assault: Reporting Issues,
  http://www.gov.on.ca/citizenship/owd/english/ publications/sexual-assault/reporting.htm)

Income and Poverty

Women and other marginalized groups disproportionately experience poverty.

Women form the majority (about 53%) of people living in poverty in Canada. About 12% of Canadian women are poor ¹, ( Statistics Canada- Women in Canada: A Gender-Based Statistical Report (2006), p. 134) and certain groups of women are more likely to live in poverty than most. Eleven per cent of Canadian men are poor.² ( Statistics Canada- Women in Canada: A Gender-Based Statistical Report (2006), p. 134) It is worth noting that the Low-Income Cut-Off (LICO) Table, the tool used by the federal government to determine the “poverty line,” probably underestimates the number of Canadians living in poverty.

• At all ages, women’s incomes are less than men’s. Canadian Labour Congress  (www.canadianlabour.ca)
  -  Women 25-34 and women 65 and over earn 30% less than same-aged men
  -  Women 35-54 earn 40% less than men in their age group
  -  Women 35-54 earn 40% less than men in their age group
• In addition to the wage gap, women also experience also occupational segregation (being clustered in lower-status, lower-paying jobs and excluded from higher-status, better-paying jobs), lower pension rates, less secure work, fewer workplace benefits, and more part-time/occasional work.
• Work and child-care are fundamentally linked, and the socio-economic impact of one issue on the other disproportionately affects women.
• Single mothers: Over 50% (51.6%) of lone-parent families headed by women live in poverty.
• Of single, widowed or divorced women over 65 in Canada, 41.5% live in poverty.
• Thirty-five percent of women under 65 who live on their own live in poverty.
• Nearly half of Aboriginal women live in poverty, whether they live on- or off-reserve.  Aboriginal women are twice as likely to be unemployed as non-Aboriginal women. The average annual income for Aboriginal women is $13,300, compared with $18,200 for Aboriginal men and $19,350 for non-Aboriginal women.

New-immigrant women between 25-44 years old who have a university degree and work full-time earn $14,000 less than Canadian-born women. CRIAW Fact Sheet on Women and Poverty (www.criaw-icref.ca), 2005