At first glance, a report eyeing the gaps between women and men across Canada appears to paint St. John's as a haven for equality in employment, health, education and leadership.

But the report's author warns its numbers don't tell the whole story.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives looked at five broad categories in which women traditionally don't fare as well as men, ranking 26 Canadian cities by the distance between women and men when it comes to how much money they earn, how long they live and what percentage hold positions in public office.

St. John's comes in second place, thanks to relative parity in terms of how many women have jobs and college education compared to men.

Nobody wins when some of us are losing. - Coun. Hope Jamieson

But the report — The Best and Worst Places to be a Woman in Canada 2019 — also stresses that making it to the top doesn't signal success.

"Looking at gender gaps in Canada, progress has been incredibly slow and very uneven," said author Katherine Scott, pointing to a cavernous divide between men's and women's wages — despite landing more jobs, women still aren't making anywhere near men, on average — and emphasizing that women still only hold one-third of positions in office.

"Even after years of efforts we're still not where we want to be at this point."

Limitations of data

To make matters worse, Scott said the data by itself doesn't even tell the whole story.

"There's so much we can't report on," Scott said of the "enormous differences" in the barriers facing racialized, disabled or low-income women, which aren't parsed out in the report.

The CCPA found St. John's topped the list of cities in terms of the gaps between men and women. (CCPA)

The numbers are also vulnerable to other factors, Scott said; in St. John's in particular, the employment gap has closed not because women are making gains in the workforce, but because more men have lost jobs in recent years.

The number of employed men fell 76.2 percent to 71.1 percent, according to the report, while the rate of women's employment moved up slightly to 71.9 percent.

In other words, St. John's isn't ranking so well because women are doing better — the gap might simply be closing because men are doing worse.

Hope Jamieson, a St. John's city councilor who's been outspoken about gender parity, agreed the report doesn't mean equality is within close reach.

"The gap between men and women has decreased, but only because unemployment for men has increased," Jamieson said. "That's not a good news story. And nobody wins when some of us are losing."

Hope Jamieson says she sees a lot of women leading organizations in this province, and hopes that translates to policies that help women overcome systemic disadvantages. (Andrew Sampson/CBC)

But Jamieson said gains have been made, and she only has to look around the province — at governments, businesses and non-profits alike — to notice it.

"I sit at a lot of tables of people who serve communities, and those tables tend to skew radically female. So I think we just need to harness what already exists," she said.

Meanwhile, half the seats in the city chambers itself are occupied by women. That makes an impact, Jamiseon believes, when it comes to forming policy and chasing down improvements to public life.

St. John's city council is a good example of how policymakers' personal experiences can lead to change, Jamieson says. (Chris O'Neill-Yates/CBC News)

"Everyone on council does bring their own specific lens and their own experience to the table when we're looking at decisions," she said.

For example, council is currently focusing on sidewalk clearing and accessible public transit, she said, in part because so many councilors are parents. They personally know what it's like to push a stroller through piles of snow and try to take the bus with kids in tow.

"Having those specific perspectives represented is really important in crafting policy," she said.

Women still targets of abuse, violence

Women are also still at a disadvantage when it comes to issues such as gender-based violence, according to the report.

Those types of hurdles often aren't quantifiable by data, Jamieson noted, mentioning her own experience with "intense" abuse and threats she said she's received online for opinions she's raised as a councillor.

"I think if it were a man that said that, it would not have been met with the same vehemence," she said.

The solution, to Jamieson, is increasing women's visibility in decision-making positions. Simply seeing more women in power is a push for others to get there, making for more attention on women's issues.

"I think that's been an issue in St. John's for some time," she said. "Historically we haven't seen a lot of ourselves represented.

"Just having someone who looks like you in a position of authority makes it seem possible that you might, one day, do that."

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