WINNIPEG

Victoria takes top spot of best Canadian cities to be a woman in, Winnipeg low on list

The Canadian Press Published Tuesday, October 17, 2017 12:22PM CST Last Updated Tuesday, October 17, 2017 1:57PM CST

In this file photo, the Fairmont Empress Hotel at the Inner Harbour in downtown Victoria, British Columbia, Canada is shown on Sunday, May 4, 2008. (Deddeda Stemler/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

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OTTAWA -- A new study suggests Victoria is the best city in Canada to be a woman, despite the wage gap between men and women there worsening slightly 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.

Winnipeg was ranked at number 17. The study noted the gap between men's and women's employment rates in Winnipeg is narrower than the national average, as is the wage gap, and that Winnipeg women are "more likely than men to have completed high school, college or university."

However it also noted women experience a higher rate of poverty than Winnipeg men, and fewer women take on political leadership roles than in other cities.

In Windsor, Ont., which 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 the study says 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.

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.

"Statistics will never be a substitute for the full experience of lives lived. But as signposts they mark the spot where more attention is needed from our political leaders and policy-makers," says study author Kate McInturff, a senior researcher at CCPA. "We hope they follow through."

Here is the CCPA's ranking of the cities it studied:

1. Victoria

2. Gatineau

3. Hamilton

4. Kingston

5. Vancouver

6. Quebec City

7. St. John's

8. Sherbrooke

9. Halifax

10. Toronto

11. Ottawa