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Best city to be a woman

A study has found Victoria is the best city in Canada to be a woman, in spite of the wage gap between men and women worsening slightly there in recent years.

The study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives looks at differences between men's and women's access to economic and personal security, education, health and positions of leadership in Canada's 25 biggest cities.

The CCPA says Victoria is the only city on the list where more women than men are employed, and they account for nearly half of all senior managers and elected officials.

But it says the wage gap in the city is on par with the rest of the country, with women earning 73 per cent of what men do — slightly worse than five years ago.

In Windsor, Ont., the city ranked worst in the study, the wage gap is actually smaller than average, with women making about 75 per cent of what men earn.

But only 23 per cent of elected officials and 34 per cent of senior managers in the region are women, and women are more likely to be living below the poverty line than men.

"Our prime minister is setting a feminist agenda for his government. That means federal departments are starting to ask the right questions about how their policies and programs impact men and women differently," says study author Kate McInturff, a senior researcher at CCPA.

The CCPA also says that sexual assault is the only violent crime that's not on the decline in Canada, and every city still struggles with high rates of sexual and domestic violence.



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