Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The Policy Challenge: Urban-Made Policies Don't Fit Rural Communities
Provincial and federal policy is developed in urban settings through a gender-neutral lens. The economic development needs of rural communities, and particularly those of rural women, are not well served by such policy. They need policies that respond to rural-specific challenges, such as transportation, the high cost of basic necessities, and limited access to child care and training.
Drawing from work by the Rural Women and Poverty Action Committee, Belinda Leach of Rural Women Making Change says income supports, like Employment Insurance (EI) and Ontario Works (OW), are examples of ill-fitting policy.
OW fines recipients for owning a car of a certain value, yet access to reliable transportation is essential for employment in a rural setting where long distances are the norm and public transit is very limited. In fact, 91% percent of rural women travel to work in a car; 1% take public transit.
Both OW and EI put rural women at a disadvantage because they are more likely to work part-time, seasonally and in self-employment, and thus less likely to meet the required number of hours to access support. (For more on EI eligibility issues for women, see inFocus January 2007, ACTEW’s policy newsletter.)
Rural communities also vary from urban ones in value-based attitudes, which are most obvious at election time but have daily effects in the interpretation of policy at the local level. For example, Leach reports that OW policy is applied differently in different places. Recently, women in receipt of OW in Oxford County were not allowed to take a skills based training program but women in a similar program in Toronto could take the program and, furthermore, earned piece rates.
Leach also offers the example of caregivers in Nova Scotia who are
entitled to more support if they stay at home than if they work. She
suggests that in rural communities, prevailing gender ideologies will
combine with such policies to encourage women to follow traditional roles.
To complicate policy issues further, there is great variation among the rural economies in Ontario. Some are agricultural or resource development based, while others are dependent upon manufacturing, food services or recreation. Some experience tremendous seasonal changes in employment levels. Those rural communities where workers can access diverse and well-paying employment in neighbouring urban areas are comparatively wealthier than more remote communities.
For more on rural poverty and related policy recommendations, see the 2002 report by Rural Women and Poverty Action Committee, "Rural Women Speak Out In the Face of Poverty" on the Women Today of Huron web site at: www.wthuron.ca/pdfs/FinalReport.pdf.
Drawing from work by the Rural Women and Poverty Action Committee, Belinda Leach of Rural Women Making Change says income supports, like Employment Insurance (EI) and Ontario Works (OW), are examples of ill-fitting policy.
OW fines recipients for owning a car of a certain value, yet access to reliable transportation is essential for employment in a rural setting where long distances are the norm and public transit is very limited. In fact, 91% percent of rural women travel to work in a car; 1% take public transit.
Both OW and EI put rural women at a disadvantage because they are more likely to work part-time, seasonally and in self-employment, and thus less likely to meet the required number of hours to access support. (For more on EI eligibility issues for women, see inFocus January 2007, ACTEW’s policy newsletter.)
Rural communities also vary from urban ones in value-based attitudes, which are most obvious at election time but have daily effects in the interpretation of policy at the local level. For example, Leach reports that OW policy is applied differently in different places. Recently, women in receipt of OW in Oxford County were not allowed to take a skills based training program but women in a similar program in Toronto could take the program and, furthermore, earned piece rates.
Leach also offers the example of caregivers in Nova Scotia who are
entitled to more support if they stay at home than if they work. She
suggests that in rural communities, prevailing gender ideologies will
combine with such policies to encourage women to follow traditional roles.
To complicate policy issues further, there is great variation among the rural economies in Ontario. Some are agricultural or resource development based, while others are dependent upon manufacturing, food services or recreation. Some experience tremendous seasonal changes in employment levels. Those rural communities where workers can access diverse and well-paying employment in neighbouring urban areas are comparatively wealthier than more remote communities.
For more on rural poverty and related policy recommendations, see the 2002 report by Rural Women and Poverty Action Committee, "Rural Women Speak Out In the Face of Poverty" on the Women Today of Huron web site at: www.wthuron.ca/pdfs/FinalReport.pdf.
Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research
