Covid-19 and Canadian Women Mental Health, Money and Societal Shifts

July 29, 2020

The Empire Club of Canada Presents

Covid-19 and Canadian Women: Mental Health, Money and Societal Shifts

Chairman: Antoinette Tummillo, President, Board of Directors, Empire Club of Canada

Moderator
Vivene Salmon, President, Canadian Bar Association, Vice-President, Country Compliance Manager, Global Banking, Markets Compliance, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Distinguished Guest Speakers
Andrea Carter, CEO, Wealthy Women Warrior, Building Better Organizations
Candies Kotchapaw, founder, Executive Director, Developing Young Leaders of Tomorrow Today
Elizabeth Naumovski , Vice-President Marketing, Caldwell Securities Limited, Financial Literacy Advocate
Dr. Samantha Wells, Senior Director, Senior Scientist, Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, CAMH, Associate Professor, Clinical Public Health Division, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University, Adjunct Professor, School of Psychology, Deakin University
Grace Pedota, Marketing & Events Coordinator, CSE, Canadian Stock Exchange

Introduction
It is a great honour for me to be here at the Empire Club of Canada today, which is arguably the most famous and historically relevant speaker’s podium to have ever existed in Canada. It has offered its podium to such international luminaries as Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, Audrey Hepburn, the Dalla Lana, Indira Gandhi, and closer to home, from Pierre Trudeau to Justin Trudeau; literally generations of our great nation's leaders, alongside with those of the world's top international diplomats, heads of state, and business and thought leaders.

It is a real honour and distinct privilege to be invited to speak to the Empire Club of Canada, which has been welcoming international diplomats, leaders in business, and in science, and in politics. When they stand at that podium, they speak not only to the entire country, but they can speak to the entire world.

Welcome Address by Antoinette Tummillo, President, Board of Directors, Empire Club of Canada
Good afternoon, fellow directors, past presidents, members, and guests. Welcome to the 117th season of the Empire Club of Canada, and our third summer pre-season event in the club's history. My name is Antoinette Tummillo, and I am president of the Empire Club of Canada, and your host for today's virtual event, "COVID-19 and Canadian Women: Mental Health, Money, and Social Shifts." I now call this meeting to order. Let me start by thanking our sponsors.

As a not-for-profit organization, these events would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors. I want to give special thanks to our Event Sponsor today, the Canadian Securities Exchange. Thank you. I also want to thank our Event Partner, VVC Live, Canada's online event space for webcasting today's event, and our Media Partner, National Post.

What a privilege it is for me to welcome our incredible panel:-Andrea Carter, CEO of Wealthy Women Warrior and Building Better Organizations, neuroscience-based diversity, inclusion learning, and development consulting. She brings over 18 years of research and practical application to her training, public speaking, and proven methods that support leaders and their teams. Candies Kotchapaw, founder and Executive Director of Developing Young Leaders of Tomorrow Today. She received the Top 25 Women of Influence in Canada award by Women of Influence Global. She's a Top 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women by co-authors Honorable Dr. Jean Augustine, Dr. Denise O'Neil Green, and Donna Jones Simmons. She's a Top 21 Youth Founders to Watch by Future of Good in 2020. Elizabeth Naumovski, Vice-President Marketing, Caldwell Securities Limited, and financial literacy advocate. She's a financial literacy advocate and a champion for women's issues. She's the creator and host of Finances: Personal, Wealth Professional, 2020 Award Finalist for the Mackenzie Investment Awards for Female Trailblazer of the Year. She's also the inaugural recipient of the 2019 Wealth Professional IFSC Institute Award for Financial Literacy Champion. Dr. Samantha Wells, Senior Director and Senior Scientist, Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at CAMH, and Associate Professor, Clinical Public Health Division at the Dalai Lama School of Public Health, University of Toronto. She holds the position of Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western University. She's also an Adjunct Professor in the School of Psychology at Deakin University in Australia.

This panel will be moderated by Vivene Salmon, President of the Canadian Bar Association. She's the first visible minority and first female corporate council in the over 100-year history of the organization to hold the position. Kudos to the Canadian Bar Association, and kudos to you, Vivene. She's also the Vice-President, Country Compliance Manager, Global Banking and Markets Compliance at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. She's a Certified Information Privacy Professional and holds a designation of CIPP/C from the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

Now, I just want to remind everybody on this call that this is an interactive event. We encourage you to take advantage of the question box below and let us know what's on your mind and if you have any questions of our panellists.

COVID-19 has impacted every country in the world differently. And within every country, each demographic has also been hit in very different ways. There are parts of the economy, such as the hospitality and retail sectors, where we are only now beginning to realize the devastation that this virus has caused, leading many iconic brands to declare bankruptcy after decades of successful growth. There are huge differences between the way the virus has impacted different age groups and different classes of people, with the poor getting the short end of the stick, as is always the case. There are differences between the way COVID-19 has been felt in different racial communities, although these differences are also often related to the economic stability of those communities.

People living alone experience isolation measures entirely differently than those cohabitating or in a family group setting. But one demographic which cuts across all of the demographics I've just mentioned has been particularly hard-hit, and that is the one that I belong to: that of women. We all know that women work in those industries that have been hardest hit, that they are statistically less economically stable as a group than their male counterparts, that they are far more likely to be victims of abuse and violence, and that they are so often trying to work, take care of others, and run a household all at the same time. These are, to say the least, difficult times to live through for many women across our country and around the world.

We have with us today five women who have thought a lot about this topic, and each one of them has a large following that they talk to regularly about these fundamentally important issues. They have gone far beyond just identifying the problem, however, and spent a lot of time thinking of solutions and positive ways forward. Each brings a particular perspective to the issues of COVID and Canadian women, and each has a lot to say on how this virus may have forever changed how women view their places in society and how they can cope and even succeed in this brave new world. We have, in short, assembled a super-panel, which I know we are all extremely excited to hear from today. So without further ado, I am delighted to pass the gavel over to our moderator, Vivene Salmon, to begin this important discussion, and to help us all better prepare for a future that may even be more different for women than for their male counterparts. Welcome to you, Vivene. And over to you.

Opening Remarks by Vivene Salmon, President, Canadian Bar Association, Vice-President, Country Compliance Manager, Global Banking, Markets Compliance, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Thank you, Antoinette, for that introduction, and thank you to the Empire Club for hosting this virtual event today. Wow, what a couple of months. We are just over halfway through 2020, which I think we can all say is one of the most turbulent years in living memory. Today, we are going to drill down a bit further to see how decades of progress in the women's rights movement are being overturned by the need for someone to stop working and essentially to stay home and look after the children. The big question really is: what long-lasting effects will the pandemic have on women's mobilization in the workplace and in Canadian society? I'm delighted to moderate this panel and share insights on these issues from the stellar panel of women. So ,let me begin today's discussion with you, Andrea. What would you say is the biggest challenge that most Canadian companies are facing right now, and how do you think this can be solved?

Andrea Carter, CEO, Wealthy Women Warrior, Building Better Organizations
Yeah, so, when I look at, really, the beginning piece of this, you know, there's such an important question to ask, because it sets the tone for why Canadian women are such an integral part of the economy and the workforce, and it highlights what corporate Canada stands to lose if we don't take measures to solve it. The real danger is a mass exodus of women from the workforce, and this hands down is the reason why corporate Canada needs to focus on increasing inclusion intelligence now more than ever. One of my favorite quotes from Simon Sinek is, "It's what you can't see that matters the most." And when it comes to the Canadian economy and workforce, women have been that background factor. So, the more progressive an organization has been with the learning and development of inclusion and intelligence, the better situated they are to retain their women.

But right now, we're seeing that most are not prepared for what's to come as of September. Oh, Vivene, you're, you're muted.

Vivene Salmon
Sorry about the mute. Can you all hear me again? Sorry about that. So, Andrea, we're going to continue on with you. What do you think the real danger corporate Canada is facing right now by not addressing what you touched on earlier, inclusion effectively, and what can you, what do you think corporate candidates can do to effectively turn things around?

Andrea Carter
Yeah, so, I think the caveat to this is that most companies have set a lower budget in this sector of inclusion intelligence and often recruit internal employees who aren't necessarily qualified to fill the inclusion intelligence gap from the perspective of truly understanding the compounding pressures that women face as opposed to men. So, for example, when corporations leave out the foundational organizational psychology and neuroscience of culture and belonging, we see workplace cultures that are more segmented and divided.

And we're also seeing a gap in the continuity of inclusion intelligence, meaning organizations might have diversity, but they're not effectively inclusive. And that's why we're seeing such a reaction to how we're handling COVID, and why there's such a gap. So ultimately, organizations without strategic inclusion intelligence inevitably have an increase in turnover, never mind having that global pandemic knocking on your door. So, while many experts have pointedly tried to, you know, bring inclusion to the forefront and why culture and belonging are crucial elements that drive organizational growth, because there has never been a threat that women might be there, it's never been taken as seriously as it should. So, we're now facing that danger head-on. And we need to curb its potential.

So, you know, how do we do that? I guess that's the big question. Because I think a lot of companies are starting to understand this, but most are struggling with a solution. So, I'd love to draw your attention to the page that we're on, and notice that there are two buttons underneath the webinar that are for downloads. The first is what I call The Undoing Effect—and this is proprietary content—which provides an overview of how to dig yourself out of the compounding pressures that we're struggling with right now. This can be used by anyone who's struggling with the fallout from COVID. And the second is called the Belonging Effect, and this provides an overview for corporate Canada to understand how inclusion enables systems for corporate cultures to thrive, and then it also provides questions to ask to determine what it will cost you if you start losing the women who work for you. So, this is really important for banks, law firms, mining companies, because those are all of the industries that are highly susceptible because of the positions that are held by women, and the lack of support that women are currently faced with.

So, when we look at, you know, the questions that organizations need to start asking, I think it starts with, you know, what is the experience for individuals at our company right now, and is it sustainable for the next 18 months? You see, what we're seeing over the past 139 days—I can't even believe that I'm saying that¬ has been an exuberant amount of fear-based behaviour, where people have gone into overdrive mode to protect their income and their jobs. But what's happening now is that we have this consistent blurring of lines between work and home life, so that momentum that we were on, it's starting to peter. And we're going to see this happen more and more as women continuously try and juggle work and children and understanding that this is simply just not sustainable.

So, while there have been a lot of leaders that have gone unaffected, there are too many—and I would say the majority of—Canadian women who have been expending an exuberant amount of energy trying to maintain their status. And it's happening primarily because women in the workplace and their needs have not been sufficiently supported. So, in order for us to prevent this, you know, whether that's the mass exodus that could be happening or, you know, really looking at a mass expenditure in mental health or sick leave due to the same reasons, this is a danger that corporate Canada will want to start actioning strategy to solve for.

Vivene Salmon
Thank you, Andrea. So, maybe ending on that mental health note, I think that's a smooth segue to our next speaker. I'm going to turn it over to Samantha. And perhaps you can provide a brief intro, and then I will speak about, ask you a couple of questions in terms of the mental health aspect.

Dr. Samantha Wells, Senior Director, Senior Scientist, Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, CAMH, Associate Professor, Clinical Public Health Division, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, UofT, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University, Adjunct Professor, School of Psychology, Deakin University
Sure, thank you very much, delighted to be part of this panel. In my role as a Senior Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, I've been conducting research on mental health, substance use, as well as violence in communities and across diverse populations in Canada for over 20 years. But never has it been more important to look at people's mental health, with lockdowns and stay-home orders in effect, job losses, people balancing work and homeschooling, as has been mentioned, but also, you know, worry about getting COVID, working on the front lines, worries about finances, the list goes on; pervasive impact of this pandemic. But what we're interested in right now is how this pandemic is impacting the mental health of Canadians. And in particular, whether there are differences between men and women, and how the pandemic is affecting Canadians and women.

So, what I wanted to mention is that we're running at CAMH a series of panel surveys, where we're able to track patterns over time in anxiety, depression, loneliness, alcohol use. And we're also looking at how people's jobs have been affected, whether they're worried about their finances, or whether worried about themselves, or a loved one getting COVID-19. And with these data, we've been able to look at, you know, whether there are gender differences. But also, another thing I wanted to mention is that, during this pandemic, we're also really concerned about women's safety. And with public health measures implemented to protect our safety in the context of the pandemic, these measures are also potentially putting women at risk, in terms of violence in the home. So, I'd love to touch on that as well.

Vivene Salmon
Thank you for the introduction, Samantha. So, maybe I'll drill down a bit further, and you can mention in your intro statement about CAMH, what are the surveys that are being conducted in terms of mental health and the impacts of the pandemic? What are your findings showing in terms of how specifically women's mental health is being affected?

Dr. Samantha Wells
Right, so what we're finding so far is that there are higher levels of anxiety, as well as higher levels of depression for women. But we are seeing some reductions over time, by the way, and some convergence between men and women over time. And we think that, you know, at the height of the pandemic, so, you know, in May, for example, in earlier days, you know, those levels of anxiety were especially high for women. And they are coming down. And I think that's because Canadians are starting to get used to this new normal. But also, the findings are corroborated by data from StatsCan, they also show higher levels of anxiety among women than men. And this could be reflecting some of the things that Andrea was mentioning, that, you know, women are very much stressed by many, many aspects of this pandemic. But we also know that women spend more time caregiving, doing household chores. And with the closure of schools and daycares, you know, women are doing even more unpaid work in the household.

We also found, by the way, that women reported feeling—more women than men—reported feeling lonely. And this is also really important. We know that women rely more than men on social supports for their mental health. Another interesting finding was that loneliness was associated with increased drinking for women. And we also found that about one-fifth of our sample reported increased drinking—and this was true both for men and women. So, and there's some preliminary evidence that women who switched to working from home were especially likely to binge drink.

So, there's a lot of issues here, lots of concerns about women's mental health, women's drinking behaviour, and as many of you of the people watching this panel today, we know that heavy drinking has immediate and long-term health effects. So, it's really important that in the context of this pandemic and as we move forward with uncertainties about what schools are going to look like in the fall, we absolutely have to monitor mental health going into the future and also make sure that we have mental health supports for women across this country moving forward.

Vivene Salmon
Thank you, Samantha. I have another question, and it's something that I think, unfortunately, is a very difficult challenge for society, and that is with respect to intimate partner violence. Why do you think intimate partner violence is such a big problem right now? And what is being done to help victims across Canada?

Dr. Samantha Wells
Well, this is just really on my mind. And it's been alerted, you know, at the very beginning of the pandemic, all of the experts in the area of domestic violence were on high alert. And, and before the pandemic, you know, there are numerous reports, including the World Health Organization, that one in three women who have, have had an intimate partner relationship, have experienced some form of physical or sexual violence from their intimate partner. But with lockdown orders in effect, these numbers are on the rise. The women are confined to their homes, there's no escape from their abusive partner. It's difficult for them to reach out for supports, especially during the pandemic. Increases in stress, financial stress, for example, but also increases in alcohol consumption, can further amplify these problems.

So, in terms of the numbers, there are numerous reports, including, for example, the United Nations put out a report that there have been increases in domestic violence in the order of, say, 25 to 30 percent worldwide, in countries around the world. But also, if you look closer to home, there have been, like in Canada, there have been reports that there have been increases in calls to violence shelters across Canada. Some shelters have reported even a doubling in calls for help. Police reports also show some increases, although we, we're a little bit careful about what those numbers tell us, because we know that many women don't call the police when they're in need of help.

In terms of what we can do to provide, improve women's safety, there are many recommendations that come forward from domestic violence experts. On top of mind is making sure that women know there's a place to go and that they can reach out for help. And of course, but this is especially worrisome right now, when women are more likely to be confined to their homes. But there are safe ways of reaching out, and a lot of the shelters have adapted their programs. They're providing alternate ways of reaching out by texting or email, for example. There are also a lot of resources online, so I encourage people to look, for example, at the Learning to End Abuse website, which is hosted by Western University, but also the National Web Network to End Domestic Violence. Those sites are excellent. But first and foremost, domestic violence experts recommend that women seek immediate help if they feel unsafe. Absolutely, that's essential. And, as I said, the shelters are open, remain open, and they also have taken extra precautions. They're, they're keeping those shelters safe, and clean, and so on. So, second, it, it, as I said, it may be risky to seek support, but there are ways to do it. Texting, for example, is an option, but also having a trusted friend who can—neighbour, or family member, they can reach out for support. But it's also important for women to find ways to cope with mental health challenges during this time. CAMH, the Centre for Addiction Mental Health, has some tips for dealing with stress and anxiety. They are available online.

But I also want to flag one more thing, and that is we all need to do our part to recognize when someone is at risk of violence. We all need to make sure that we can provide supports to someone, whether it's a sister, whether it's a niece, that we are there for them if they need help. And so, we can do our part to seek out those resources, reach out for help on their behalf. And, as I said, CAMH also has a pamphlet that provides a number of tips, as well, on how to provide support. And finally, it's essential that our healthcare system across this country provides supports to victims of violence across this country and during this pandemic and into the future.

Vivene Salmon
Thank you, Samantha. So, as part of a discussion about women, we also are thinking about the whole community of women, including racialized communities. And racialized communities have been particularly hard-hit by the COVID pandemic. Maybe we'll turn it over to you, Candies. Maybe you can give your brief intro, and then I will take it back to you then ask you a couple of questions.

Candies Kotchapaw, Founder, Executive Director, Developing Young Leaders of Tomorrow Today
Thanks, Vivene. And again, thank you to the Empire Club for having me on here. So, I really wanted to touch base on the impact of COVID on racialized communities, and particularly Black communities. I'm based in Toronto, and I am the Executive Director of Developing Young Leaders of Tomorrow Today. And I think when we're discussing the impact of COVID-19 on women, my work at DYLOTT is focused on Black youth. But there are women, of course, within that categorization. And so, what we've, what I've noticed prior to COVID, is that we've always had the challenge of socioeconomic disadvantage. We've always had the challenge of systemic anti-Black racism that is impacting Black communities across Canada. What COVID-19 has done is that it has exacerbated those socioeconomic inequities. It has exacerbated those social determinants of health challenges, the disparities faced by racialized youth and women.

What we're seeing is that structural inequities already existed, right? But now we're seeing how COVID-19 has come in and really has targeted these racialized communities that already have access barriers to equitable healthcare, that already had access barriers to equitable employment opportunities. And so, really seeing those disparities pronounced, based on women's experiences of disadvantage. I can speak personally from my own perspective, where, prior to COVID, I think from 2015—2016, sorry—when I finished my Master of Social Work degree, I've been in precarious work, right? And so, that was pre-COVID-19. And what we're seeing now for young people, and for Black women in particular, is that we're repositioned as essential workers. But essential work is, again, located in low-income opportunities, in those low-wage, really precarious conditions, where you're not even sure if, after COVID-19, you're going to have a job. You know, really reliant on some of the government subsidy programs that are available. But that insecurity of after those subsidy programs are no longer available, what's your life going to look like, right? So, those are really important pieces that I think are necessary to look at.

Also, when we're looking at the unemployment rates, the general unemployment rates among young people is at 30%, right? And that's not considering the unemployment rate of Black people prior to COVID-19. So, really, when we're talking about social determinants of health, we're looking at the high rate of infection for COVID-19 in densely populated communities. And again, those are specific communities that are racialized, right? That are low income. And so, we really want to pay attention to what a recovery is going to look like, and how do we reposition the focus of recovery to look at expanding those socio-economic disadvantages, looking at the solutions to addressing those, and also looking at it holistically in terms of looking at employment, looking at affordable housing, looking at healthcare, all those things. We need, again, to talk about childcare for women, and Black women. We know that we have to, most of us carry multiple jobs, in order to be able to afford the cost of living, primarily living in urban centers like Toronto. It's important for us to look at, you know, can it be sustainable for Black women to have three jobs, and then be expected also to be primary caregivers to our children, while also trying to maintain our own mental health, as Samantha and Andrea spoke about earlier. So, those are the key principles that I would like to bring to the table.

Vivene Salmon
So, I think that's a really nice segue, then, into discussing a bit about the financial impacts. So, Elizabeth, I'm going to turn it over to you. We know that Canada is a wealthy country, it's a G7 country. It frankly, is a destination for many newcomers to be able to give their families a good life, and hopefully a good future. However, we know that women have many challenges within our society. So, the future of many women in Canada, unfortunately, is to retire in economic straits, frankly, in poverty. How does this happen in our country?

Elizabeth Naumovski, Vice-President Marketing, Caldwell Securities Ltd, Financial Literacy Advocate
So, I just wanted to touch upon, women were already financially behind, even before the COVID pandemic. COVID just put a spotlight on it, because women are needed for an economic recovery. And if you look at October 2019 Statistics Canada, for every dollar a man makes, a woman makes 87 cents. So, if he makes $100,000, she makes $87,000. And if you look at ten years, a ten-year span, we're leaving $130,000 on the table. Now, I started "Finances Personal" the TV show because women in Canada do retire in poverty. And I believe that financial literacy is very important for everyone. Now, women retire in poverty. Why? Because we live longer than men, we have less money to retire with, and we make less. And the other thing is, what everyone else has been saying, is that we are the natural caregivers. It always comes back to women.

Now, nothing about this is new. When my parents immigrated to Canada in the early '60s, what did my mom become? A cleaning lady. She made low wages, she worked really, really hard long hours, worked part-time, and she needed childcare. The only difference is she didn't have technology. She had to hand-wash all her diapers when she got home after a hard day's work. And she's not essential for an economic recovery right now.

Now, if you look at all the women in the service sectors, whether it's nail salons, hair salons, eyelash salons, waitresses, cleaning ladies, not-for-profit charitable organizations, including the performing arts, hospitality, one of the key things I realized is that women service other women. We go to women to help us get through our daily routines. The charities and not-for-profits that were mentioned have a higher proportion of women workers and volunteers, and they're supporting marginalized women. And basically, when, you know, there was a COVID shutdown, everything came to a screeching halt. These women didn't get paid. And a lot of the women that Candies was speaking about, a lot of them were not eligible for the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit. A lot of these women get paid cash; they don't make enough money, and they're not going to get those benefits. You know, the majority of cleaning ladies are from someplace abroad, right? Look at the world from their perspective: they're unskilled, they don't know how to use a computer, cash jobs, no benefits. And women, as we said, typically end up being the caregivers, and they do leave the workforce because they have to go home to take care of their children, aging parents, or an ill family member, right? And so, now they're all struggling with exacerbated responsibilities during COVID, and they're trying to simultaneously balance childcare, online schooling, running a business, or working for a business without any downtime for themselves, and dealing with anxious children that don't even understand what's happening and don't know why they can't go out and play with their friends, right? So, even childcare is going to be harder once things open up. I mean, this morning they talked about phase three opening up in Ontario, in Toronto. But I mean, what is childcare going to look like?

One of the other interesting facts is that many workers who've been affected by COVID are not officially considered to be unemployed, because they were a jobless parent who wasn't able to work because they were at home, and they're not considered employed; they are unemployed. Right? But this is not just a Canadian phenomenon. As women around the world have been hit the hardest, and the longer this crisis drags on and worsens, millions of women will be left without work and in poverty. And poverty costs taxpayers and governments money, right?

Helping poor women helps your poor children and benefits our future society while levelling the playing field, so that everyone can benefit. But right now, if you're looking at employment gains, men are experiencing it as senior managers, while women are experiencing larger unemployment rates. In June, Statistics Canada reported that the employment recovery during the COVID pandemic has been the slowest for working mothers with school-age children. Once again, we're looking at childcare here. And the thing is, women are starting to make a decision: do I stay at home and take care of my children, or do I actually go and work? And this is not a decision that we should be making right now, because you need to be able to take care of your children and make money so that you can feed them.

And then, I was thinking about women in retirement, because as we had said in the introduction, women in Canada retire in poverty. So, I looked at a 2017 commission study by the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), and they basically said that 43% of low-income seniors in Canada are women. And remember, women live longer than men; the average life for a woman is about 83 years old and the average life for a man is 79, which means we need to save more money, make more money, and be in the workforce undisrupted. So, even with all the gains that have been happening right now, it took COVID to bring this to the forefront, and remind us that we make 13% less than men. And you're probably thinking, well, why is she bringing up a 2017 study? Because we're talking about post-COVID. However, if you look at pre-during-and-post-COVID, women are still going to retire in poverty, which we can't allow to happen.

QUESTION & ANSWER

Vivene Salmon
Thank you, Elizabeth. I feel it's been a really informative discussion. We are going to move to the question period; we have many questions that are coming in right now. The first question is from Wanda DeShawn, and she was asking if we could touch on how the pandemic is adversely impacting women with disabilities, and if there's anything, in the panel's view, that we can do as a society collectively to help address them. So, maybe I will turn that over to Samantha to start, and perhaps Candice, you have a perspective regarding racialized women. Over to you, Samantha.

Dr. Samantha Wells
Thank you. We're currently not doing research on, on women's disabilities. But, you know, just off the top of my head I am, you know, I would be I would expect that the, they are especially affected by this pandemic in in a variety of ways, in terms of access to services, in terms of supports. But also in terms of just the, the stress associated with this pandemic. So, absolutely, and I think it's a really inter important question, so I thank you for that question. And it, it, it actually makes me think I better go back to my team and look at what, what could be done in terms of research, but also in terms of building more supports for people with disabilities.

Vivene Salmon
Maybe over to you, Candies?

Candies Kotchapaw
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Wanda, for that question, that's a great question. And, and actually, I have a background working with adults with disabilities, and, from autism to physical mobilization challenges. And what I know from, from working—again I worked in social services for over 12 years—and so, what I know from working with adults with, with disabilities, from acquired brain injury to physical mobility challenges, is that there was already a disparity that existed in access to healthcare for them.

So, now with COVID-19 compounding those challenges, what we know is that their need for support is far greater. Support in terms of workers who can understand their disability and how their predisposition, their, their physical predisposition further exposes them to, to rates of infection for COVID-19. So, recognizing those challenges that exist. We want to make sure that in the healthcare system, their health status is prioritized. We want to ensure that they have emergency access right away. One, because of the fact that people with disabilities often don't seek health, healthcare, don't seek out the health care system at the rates that people without disabilities do.

Also, most people with disabilities don't necessarily have the capacity to share all the things that are, that they're concerned about. Their mental health, in particular, is not something that is of, of great, the reporting on, on mental health within disability community is, is not reflected in health equity. So, we want to make sure that we position ` at those statistics there.

The other thing is that we want to make sure that when we're looking at care homes, that the workers that are supporting these people with disabilities, that the workers are, are properly trained, that they're understanding the needs that are coming prior to COVID, but also compounded by COVID. We want to make sure that we position those workers with the training, with the, with the knowledge that is going to provide the best care to these, to these individuals.

Vivene Salmon
Thank you, Candies. So, we have another question, and I think I might be turning this one over to Andrea. This person is asking, Andrea: do you have any advice on how women can deal with organizations that are not being supportive or understanding of women who have young children, and have primary responsibility for their care, and for schools and day cares, and also, given that schools and daycares are closed?

Andrea Carter
Yeah, thank you. That's such an important question right now. It's definitely something that we need to look into more in-depth with. Personally, I think one of the biggest myths that we're faced with right now is that it's too expensive to solve the childcare issue, and that it's not necessarily corporate responsibility. You know, if you look back to what Québec did in the '90s, when they introduced heavily subsidized daycare, this actually resulted in an economic boom that delivered a fiscal windfall that more than paid for added costs. So, what I think what we need to do is we really need to look at the numbers, and we really need to help organizations understand what will happen if women leave the workforce because they can't care for their children. And that includes school-aged children who are not capable of sitting in Google Classroom calls without supervision.

So, if you, like, let's drum this band back, let's take this to numbers, because that's what organizations truly understand. You're looking at $113 billion, that's what accounted for women with at least one child that made up the pre-Corona annual earnings and represented 40% of household income, according to research provided by Carleton University in June 2020. So, really, when we're looking at this, we have to start looking at the corporate Canada model of what turnover costs. And the reason that turnover cost is so important is that if you look at a large organization—let's just take a, you know, a bank, for example, and we think of like 10,000 employees. It's highly probable that the banks have not necessarily factored in the cost of losing 10 to 50 female employees, just as a result of COVID complexities. And understanding those numbers is a direct reflection of inclusion intelligence that is often undervalued. And that's exactly what this woman—or I'm assuming it's a woman—this person has written in about. Essentially, what we're looking at is that we're lacking the belonging effect. And belonging is more than just inclusion. So, if we look at inclusion and diversity, one of the things that we see a lot of is that you might have diversity, but we don't have true inclusion. Women have yet to fully be accepted and included, because there hasn't been a need to look at the costs companies will incur by losing those women who are currently employed. And this is something that needs to be addressed.

So, when it comes to the neuroscience work that I've been involved in in the past four years, there is a one percent difference between the male brain and the female brain. And that suggests that brain structure and neurochemistry have much to do with performance and the pay gap. So, going back to this question, it's really important for us to look at how men and women handle pressure, performance, and reaching their potential within the workforce. Because, when women have too much pressure—and compounding pressure was something that we experienced globally, and this is the first time we've seen it to this extent because of the pandemic. And what happens with women is that when we have too many compounding pressure issues, for example—I'm going to break it down to very clear pieces: you have all-day meetings in Zoom, you have work that needs to be done that isn't getting done because you're sitting in meetings, you have children that are crying or struggling with their work in the background, you still have meal prep, you still have to answer emails, you still have to look at the things that pop up you still have to look at. And if you're a leader, you have to look at the team and how you're managing your team and what their issues are going through.

Now, the way that the female brain works—because our brain looks at things and predisposes us to way more variables, consider more options, and see more context, and visualize, you know, a wider array of solutions, this is part of the benefit of women. But research also shows that when organizations don't leverage these elements, this is what leads to secondary pressures, and it further compounds the pressure that we're feeling, which then diminishes our influence and our capability in our career.

So, the first thing that I would suggest is to start by looking at your own compounding pressure. So, download that Undoing Effect first. Then, take a step back and start looking at the costs. Because the way that you can address Corporate Canada or an organization that isn't actually looking at these numbers is to start looking at the cost of losing good people. And that is something that's often overlooked or lost. But when we start to accommodate for those elements, that's what will shift an organization's need to start paying more attention. And that's the, these are parts of the ways that we need to look at how we're going to support women, moving forward.

Vivene Salmon
Thank you, Andrea. So, the next question, I think I'm actually going to turn this one over to you, Elizabeth. And Suzanne Robinson is asking: what are your thoughts on the cost-benefit of a Guaranteed Basic Income in Canada?

Elizabeth Naumovski
That's not something that I can really comment on. However, I can talk about some solutions that I think that will help women in Canada going forward. I think that we have four important solutions post-COVID. One is we have to value a women's pay. Number two, as everyone has been saying, childcare. Number three, which is very near and dear to me, is financial literacy—we have to help people to help themselves. And I think pension plans are important as well. And that was mentioned in one of the studies that I was talking about. I went back to the Health Care of Ontario Pension Plan, and they talked about the importance and benefits of having an employer pension plan, because without them, women have to rely on government assistance throughout their retirement. And I think this is the decision-making leadership roles are, it's really important right now. I think everybody has to step up, whether it's Corporate Canada, and the government, to come up with these solutions.

Vivene Salmon
So, we have another question, and I think maybe I'll have—because we are getting close to our time—and I think I will ask the question proposed by Brenda Spiegler, and maybe have each of you give a very, very short response. Brenda has said: what can be done to allow women to return to the workforce? We're going through this pandemic situation, and what is the challenge in terms of how can we have women return to the workforce when they have young children at home? And consequently, then, what does it mean to truly support women in these situations and within corporate Canada? Oh, I think I will start with you, Samantha, as you are the first in my screen.

Dr. Samantha Wells
Thank you. A really interesting question around returning to work. And I think the key, here, is that I think Andrea hit the mark, really ,around workplace culture has to change. And the way that workplaces think about teams and attracting, you know, diverse employees, and not just women but women from a variety of backgrounds and ethnicities and, and so on. That we need to be open to diverse workplaces, employees. But the other thing I really wanted to touch upon, if I have just one second, and that is work performance is really a challenge right now. And I think that what worries me is that when we have these standard ways of measuring employee performance, I worry that women are going to be sliding behind. Men are going to get promoted; they're going to advance into other positions. And it's something that is really a concern in the sciences, for example. There's a recent study just published—and sorry to take up this time—but it just shows that women are falling behind in terms of their productivity. And it's another topic that I think is really important.

Vivene Salmon
So, thank you for that. I do think those comments were very useful, so thanks, thank you for sharing that. Maybe I'll turn it over then to Elizabeth, if there's something that you would like to add, in terms of how can Corporate Canada truly support women, especially as we, hopefully, transition back to work at some point.

Elizabeth Naumovski
You know, I always go back to financial literacy. I think it's important to teach people how to save their money and how to use it. And to me, I think we need to make frugality fashionable again. I know that we've always talked about having emergency funds. And right now, for a single mom or someone who's at home trying to figure out whether to keep your job or put food on the table, emergency funds are actually a luxury, and I get that. But I think what we need to do is go back to a needs versus a wants life. And I think that, whether it's the government or whomever it is, we need to teach people how to save and how to live frugally, so that they are well-prepared for the next pandemic, or whatever the universe ends up throwing our way.

Vivene Salmon
Thank you. And Candies—yes, Candies, over to you. And especially, in terms of the racialized community and racialized women in particular, what do you think corporate Canada can be doing to support racialized women and racialized communities more in the workplace?

Candies Kotchapaw
So, I'm going to just draw attention to a report that came out by the OECD this week about the impact of automation on unemployment, and particularly women's employment. And what at that report noted—it came out on July 23rd—and what that report noted is that the impact of automation was already going to have a disadvantage, pose a disadvantage to women, because of the industries that women are often employed in. And so, what we know already is that the transition to the digital space has been so quickly advanced over the course of the last six months in particular, using, women having to be using Zoom and other forms of communications in the digital space, really, you know, it leaves behind women who don't have that technological access, right? I think Corporate Canada needs to focus on that reality, primarily within racialized communities. We already knew that a lot of communities across Canada did not have access to reliable internet, right? That's a place to start looking at the internet space, and the accessibility there, is going to be important.

The other piece to that is the training and the knowledge mobilization for upskilling, right? A lot of women are employed in low-skilled workforces, and we need to be able to provide the learning and the opportunity to upskill for the preparation for future of work. What am I meaning by future work? I'm talking about the jobs in automation, in AI, and in cybersecurity. Those types of jobs that are sustainable, that will mitigate the impact of precarious work. We need to be ready to position women, racialized communities, to be able to occupy these jobs, right? The industries that are now being dubbed as essential; they're going to be phased out. We're experiencing another industrial revolution. And we have to recognize the jobs that are going to be phased out, the re-marginalization that is going to occur because of the phasing out of the low-skilled jobs. And then how do we prepare communities to engage in the new economies that are emerging because of the transition from that hard, you know, hands-on labour, to more of the intellectual labour.

Vivene Salmon
Thank you, Candies. And we are drawing close to the time. So, Andrea, I'm going to give you about 30 seconds to answer the question. What do you think corporate Canada could be doing better?

Andrea Carter
So, to specifically bring women back into the workforce, I think we need to look at, specifically, flexibility. I think we need to look at reducing our workweeks from five days-a-week to three days-a-week. I think we need to look at how we can help women put concentrated time into delivering baseline performance, so that they are not so burnt out due to the expenditure of energy that is going into trying to, you know, maintain their job and, and just stay on top of all of the other elements. And I think, really, we need to revisit expectations. And I think companies need to take a moment, a pause actually, and look at what the expectation is for them within the next three months to within the next 18 months. What can they do to support women, so that they're not actually going to lose them? Because this is the biggest danger that we're faced with right now.

Vivene Salmon
Thank you, Andrea. And with that, I will say that we have so many questions in the chat feature. Unfortunately, we are not able to answer them all today. Perhaps we need to have a second follow-up to this session. And so, with that, I'm going to turn it back to Antoinette, and then I will say goodbye.

Antoinette Tummillo
Thank you. Yes, I agree. This probably can use a follow-up. I've got a million questions I want to ask and drill down with you guys. But I will turn this over to Grace Pedota, from the Canadian Securities Exchange, to give the appreciation remarks. She's the Marketing and Events Coordinator. And Grace, over to you for the closing remarks.

Note of Appreciation by Grace Pedota, Marketing & Events Coordinator, CSE, Canadian Stock Exchange
Thank you, Antoinette, and thank you to the Empire Club for hosting this event today. On behalf of the Canadian Securities Exchange, thank you all for taking the time to speak with us today, and lending us your perspectives on one of the most important issues of 2020, and how it has impacted Canada and the women who live here.

Concluding Remarks by Antoinette Tummillo
Great, thank you, Grace. Again, you ladies were amazing. Lots of things for us to take away and think about. I think we need to have one more conversation about the role our partners play in all of this, because that's something I'm surprised—maybe there was a question that was asked. I, you know, I have two kids, I've had a career, and I have the most amazing partner in the world. And our marriage is a partnership. And, you know what? He's got to suffer as much as I have to suffer—although I have to prod him a little sometimes. But having said that, lots of good information here. And I think corporations and all the things you're talking about could make life a lot easier for women. So again, thank you. Thank you, Vivene, for doing a great job moderating. Thank you, Dr. Wells, Elizabeth, Andrea, Candies, and Grace, for supporting this very important conversation. I now adjourn this meeting. Thank you.