Women and Children in the Economy: Reflections from the Income Tax System

I have been asked to speak on “women and economics” with specific reference to the Canadian tax system. It is my thesis that the economic vulnerabilities of women and children in this nation are reflected and reinforced in the tax system. Further, it is my view that societal attitudes about who should support, and how we should support, children contribute to a complex synergy within the economic/tax system. This has the potential to produce a new underclass of government dependents who are dependent because, paradoxically, they receive so little support. Finally, I end with a plea for a broader commitment to all our children, which goes well beyond, and is quite incompatible with, those programmes which define some children as a particularly problematic subset of the poor.