Fairy tale endings elusive for girls
Canada.com
Jan 16, 2010
By Bronwyn Eyre

… As we all know, however, the reality of women and work doesn't always turn out happily ever after.

Senior SP reporter Jason Warick recently profiled Michelle Belanger, a Saskatoon single mother of two who earns only $10 an hour as a full-time office manager. She could have stayed at home and collected social assistance. But she says, "I like to work. I want to show my kids that it's good to work."

According to a recent Statistics Canada survey, Canadians are working longer hours than they were in 1980, but not necessarily earning more money. Almost half of any increase in overall earnings was due to more hours being put in at work.

For women, there's also the uncomfortable reality that while more of them graduate from professional schools, men continue to occupy the majority of post-grad power positions. According to a recent Catalyst study, it will take five generations before the number of women in Canadian corporate positions, for example, reaches 25 per cent.

That said, Canada currently faces a doctor shortage in part because of the high number of female doctors who cut back their hours, or quit altogether -- usually to take care of children.

Female doctors still carry "the bigger proportion of child care, housekeeping and elder care," said Dr. Brian Day, past-president of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA). "Burnout drives many women out of medicine altogether."….

Problem is, "comparable worth" was defined as "the same education, experience and life circumstances." In other words, the only women who can professionally keep up with men have to be able to work the same hours, which generally means they are divorced, unmarried or childless.

Clearly, children (or the lack of them) is the recurring theme. But as society presumably still wants children around -- and wants women to work -- why is the one-size-fits-all model still so ruthlessly imposed?…