A town hall meeting turned confrontational after members of the public disagreed with the Gender Wage Gap Steering Committee on how they framed the fundamental problems underlying pay equity.
About 60 people, mostly women, showed up at the Courtyard-Marriott to share issues they have with the wage gap.
“Caring for and instructing children was something traditionally done and still often done predominantly by women without pay,” said Janet Fredette, a childcare worker at Centretown Parents’ Cooperative Daycare Centre.
“My centre will see reduced funding of approximately $42,000 by 2020 or earlier,” Fredette said, adding that reduced funding may mean the centre closes for good.
Midwives in Ottawa are in the same position as childcare workers, said midwife Elyse Banham.
As of 2013, midwives do 90 per cent of the work that doctors do, but make 50 per cent less money, Banham told the committee, referencing a 2013 report from the Canadian Human Rights Commission for Pay Equity.
From there, the discussion became less organized when the crowd began to disagree with the steering committee.
“If women walked away from the jobs that they are currently underpaid for, we would not want to live in the communities that we would be left with,” said Melissa Redmond, a professor of social work at Carleton University.
Underpaying women is unacceptable because it’s 2015, Redmond said, using Trudeau’s line before sitting back down.
Before the meeting ended, it all came to a head.
“If you go into engineering you can make a lot of money, and that’s just not the way to talk to women, that’s just not what appeals to women,” committee member Linda Davis said.
“Saying if you want to go into engineering you could develop an irrigation system that could save lives, now the women is paying attention,” she said. The crowd disagreed.
“It’s weird to me that you actually think it’s because women don’t care about or don’t understand money,” said a woman who did not share her name.
Another unidentified woman agreed that she felt the committee was not approaching the problem of pay equity the right way.
“Do not come here and show us a graph and ask us ‘Why is this happening?’ You know! Tell the truth!” Redmond said as the room erupted in applause again.
The discussion about pay equity will continue through out the province this fall as the Gender Wage Gap Committee travels to different locations.