OTTAWA —
South Asian women have faced some of the biggest job challenges during the pandemic in Canada, and a new study looks more deeply at this group and offers insights into their experiences in the workplace.
More than half of South Asian women respondents to a survey by CulturaliQ and the Pink Attitude Evolution said they are planning to leave their jobs for other opportunities.
This share is higher than any other group of women in Canada, and 19 per cent more than the average of all women surveyed.
CulturaliQ is a Toronto-based cultural market research company. Founded in 2015, Pink Attitude Evolution is a Canadian non-profit organization that supports South Asian women across several industries.
Among South Asian women’s motivations for leaving their current role, 48 per cent identified unsatisfying work as a major reason, compared to 35 per cent of all women and 32 per cent of all men. The second most-cited reason for leaving their job was poor management, at 37 per cent.
“For this to change, it’s not just the work of South Asian women or women. This is everybody’s work,” said Puneet Maan, who is in the midst of a job switch, starting a new position as a vice-president for Laurentian Bank next week.
Maan said Wednesday that a big force in achieving her own career success was receiving workplace support and sponsorship. Sponsorship refers to a relationship between a protégé and someone of higher authority in the company who can help advocate for career opportunities.
When she returned from maternity leave, Maan said she noticed that those she relied on for support had left the company.
“I’ve had road bumps where I haven’t had sponsorship, I’ve had periods where I’ve had sponsorship, and those two times in my career felt very different,” she said.
Conducted from September to December 2021, the survey included responses from 2,200 women and men of various backgrounds, of which 700 were South Asian women, 400 were white women, and 158 were South Asian men compared to 300 white men.
The survey cannot be assigned a margin of error because online panels are not considered truly random samples.
Sixty-five per cent of South Asian women said they are considering going into business themselves, compared to 46 per cent of all women saying so.
Nita Tandon, CEO and founder of Ottawa-based containers and kitchenware company Dalcini, said Wednesday that this figure spoke to her own experience as an entrepreneur.
“You can only go through so many employers where you just don’t feel like you are valued,” Tandon said, adding that a part of the push for starting her own business was learning of a significant pay gap between her and other people of colour compared to their white counterparts.
“You start to feel this unfairness,” she said.
The ability to have control over her work was an attractive feature of the entrepreneurial path, said Tandon. “Let me create the environment that I want to work in, and also who I want to work with.”
The study also suggested that the pandemic has created more challenges for South Asian women.
Almost half surveyed said they plan to quit their jobs due to the pandemic, a higher proportion reporting so than all other groups of women.
Sixty-five per cent said the workload in their household has increased since the pandemic began, more than any other group of women surveyed.
South Asian women were most likely to say they lowered their salary expectations in the last few years, with 64 per cent saying so compared to the 50 per cent average of all women, and 45 per cent of all men.
Ruby Dhillon, CEO and founder of Pink Attitude, said on Wednesday that paying attention to this group is especially important as the Canadian labour force continues to shift and the country relies almost entirely on immigration for population growth.
“To have one of your largest, highly qualified workforce on the fence of leaving, I think that is something that should be alarming all of us,” she said.
Statistics Canada said South Asians make up the largest visible minority group in Canada, representing one-quarter of all working-age visible minorities.
South Asian women are also one of the highest educated groups compared to other visible minorities, according to the 2016 census.
In April 2021, the employment rate for South Asian women sat at 59.7 per cent, 15 percentage points lower than the rate of their male counterparts at 75.5 per cent. This is triple the gap between non-visible minority men and women, according to Statistics Canada.
Statistics Canada showed in July 2020 that South Asian women claimed the highest unemployment rate among other groups at 20.4 per cent.
The office of Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough said in a statement Wednesday that the federal government believes ensuring more women can enter and stay in the workforce is essential to a strong economy.
Qualtrough’s office said that $50 million in funding was earmarked in the 2020 Fall Economic Statement over two fiscal years for a women’s employment readiness pilot program. This program supports organizations to provide pre-employment and skills development support for women facing multiple barriers, and projects to help racialized women were one of the key priorities of the program, the office said.
“I think I, like many people of colour, have kept this to ourselves for a very long time,” said Tandon, referring to the working conditions laid out in the study.
“We’ve known there have been differences, but we’ve never wanted to say anything. And I think the only way things get you know there’s a shift is if we do speak up and let people know.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 2, 2022.
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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Darcy Kuemper made 16 saves for his first shutout of the season and 32nd overall, helping the Los Angeles Kings beat the Nashville Predators 3-0 on Monday night.
Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist and Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala also scored. The Kings have won two of their last three.
Juuse Saros made 24 saves for the Predators. They are 1-2-1 in their last four.
Kopitar opened the scoring with 6:36 remaining in the opening period. Saros denied the Kings captain’s first shot, but Kopitar collected the rebound below the goal line and banked it off the netminder’s skate.
Fiala, a former Predator, made it 2-0 35 seconds into the third.
The Kings held Nashville to just three third-period shots on goal, the first coming with 3:55 remaining and Saros pulled for an extra attacker.
Elsewhere in the NHL on Monday:
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DEVILS 3 OILERS 0
EDMONTON, Alta. (AP) — Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his NHL career, helping the New Jersey Devils close their western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored. The Devils improved to 8-5-2. They have won three of their last four after a four-game skid.
Calvin Pickard made 13 saves for Edmonton. The Oilers had won two straight.
