JES Projects
Increasing Access to Quality Childcare in BC
Childcare is key to closing the gender wage gap in Canada. In countries where childcare is accessible to all, women are able to pursue lucrative opportunities and minimize the financial losses often caused by juggling caring responsibilities with their careers.
JES is committed to advocating for affordable childcare and supporting economic opportunities for women, while also ensuring that childcare workers receive decent work, fair wages, and safe working conditions.
Our Increasing Access to Quality Childcare in BC project is assessing current employment practices and policies among the province’s childcare workers—who are predominantly low-income women—and seeking to improve their working conditions by equipping them with education on employment rights and workplace policies. JES researchers are also engaging women childcare workers in stakeholder interviews, and incorporating their insights into the design of policies and practices to increase their representation in sector leadership.
Our vision is to support improved working conditions for childcare workers, increased access to licensed childcare, and greater financial stability for all women in British Columbia.
- At the project’s conclusion, JES will have contributed to addressing systemic barriers in British Columbia childcare by advancing inclusive policies and practices, strengthening networks to accelerate systemic change, and supporting positive distribution of authority, voices, and decision-making power in the childcare sector
