VANCOUVER -- From being subjected to catcalls to unfair treatment at work, nearly 60 per cent of women in B.C. say they've faced some form of discrimination because of their gender.
Younger women were more likely to say they'd faced discrimination, with 25 per cent of women aged 18-34 saying they'd experienced "a moderate amount" of gender-based discrimination compared to 13 per cent of women aged 35-54 and nine per cent of women over 55 who said the same.
Six per cent of all respondents said they'd experienced a significant amount of discrimination; 15 per cent said they'd experienced a moderate amount; and 37 per cent reported experiencing a small amount of discrimination. Thirty-six per cent of women surveyed said they had not ever been discriminated against because of their gender.
The results are based on a poll conduced by Research Co., a Vancouver-based polling firm. The online poll was conducted from Dec. 12 to 16, 2019, and from Jan. 21 to 24, 2020, among 800 adult woman across B.C. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
According to the poll, 28 per cent of B.C. women said they had faced verbal harassment, while 24 per cent said they had been sexually harassed. Twenty per cent said they had experienced unfair treatment at work, and 12 per cent said they had lost out on a potential job because of their gender.
Women in northern B.C. were more likely than women in southern B.C. to say they had experienced sexual harassment (32 per cent of women in northern B.C. reported experiencing sexual harassment, compared to 22 per cent of women in southern B.C.). Women who live in northern B.C. were also more likely to say they had faced unfair treatment at work (27 per cent) compared to women who live in southern B.C. (22 per cent).
