Realwomen of BC - Real Women - Career Choices for Women

REAL Women of Canada: Canada''s Alternate Women''s Movement Career Choices for Women
REAL Women believes that women should have career choices which include the financial option of remaining at home, if they choose. At the present time many women do subordinate their own careers, desires and material needs for their families by choosing to remain at home as full time homemakers. Many do so at great financial sacrifice, struggling to live on a limited single income. This dedication to the role of motherhood should be encouraged, not discouraged, by our tax laws and legislation. At the very least, government policies should remain neutral on the issue of career choice for women. Public policy should treat the woman at home and in the workplace equally. Therefore, REAL Women has recommended: A homemaker''s tax credit and child tax credits extended to cover low to middle income families so as to permit some flexibility of choice for women. Taxes should be reduced for single-income families which currently pay much higher rates than two-income families because the latter are allowed to file separate returns. Alternately, single income families should be allowed to split the family income so as to enable the husband and wife to file separate returns. For women in the work force, adjustments must be made to allow for their family responsibilities. The market-place was designed by men for men, and women frequently have different career paths by choice. Adjustments must be made to accommodate these differences. Job sharing, improved benefits for part-time workers, extended maternity leave, short-term contract work to allow women more flexible schedules and "in home" employment should be encouraged. A child care system in Canada should provide equally for women in the home and women in the paid work force. The needs of children, as well as those of the parents, need to be taken into consideration. Parents should be able to choose the kind of child care according to the family''s values and the needs of the child. This can be done by way of direct payments to the family which would provide the flexibility of keeping its child support monies for a parent to stay in the home, to spend on day care, whether government or community operated, or private (such as a nanny or relative) or a combination of the above. Our positions may not please everyone, but in a free and democratic country all groups must be free to express their views. Other organizations may arrive at different conclusions and take different approaches to those of our organization. However, no group should suffer discrimination because of its approach or point of view.