Women's Rights
& Gender Equality
We're doing the same work as men and still taking home less for it. We're more likely to be pushed out of the workforce by caregiving, more likely to retire into poverty, and more likely to be failed by an EI system built around a full-time, uninterrupted career that isn't the reality for far too many working mothers among us.
That's before accounting for a healthcare and justice system that too often leaves survivors of violence without the support they need. The result is an economy where we're working more for less, left without a voice. New Democrats are fighting to be that voice.
Equal Pay,
Actually Enforced
Employers get away with paying women 88 cents for every dollar paid to a man, according to Statistics Canada's 2025 numbers, and it gets worse from there: 79 cents for Indigenous women, 78 cents for racialized women. Pay equity has been the law on paper for decades, yet for far too many, it is still not the reality, especially for women who aren't unionized and have nobody there to actually enforce it on their behalf. That's why New Democrats are fighting for real, enforced pay equity, a minimum salary floor for federally regulated employees, and most of all, for the power to organize through unions, so we can negotiate for ourselves with our employers and take charge of the work we do.
Parental Leave Built For How Families Actually Work
Parental leave is supposed to give new parents time with their kids without losing their income. Instead, women returning from maternity or parental leave are too often penalized in their EI benefits, and the system wasn't built for the part-time, contract, and precarious work that disproportionately affect how women are actually working today. New Democrats will fight to expand and improve parental leave benefits, guarantee no parent is penalized in their EI benefits for having taken leave, and build an EI system that reflects how families actually live, not how they lived fifty years ago.
Full, Funded
Access To Abortion
Abortion is legal in Canada; however, for far too many, it remains inaccessible. Depending on where you live, getting one can mean travelling hours, paying out of pocket, or facing intimidation just to walk into a clinic. Although the vast majority of Canadians support it, government after government has refused to make the needed investments to actually make it accessible for all. That's why New Democrats will fight to guarantee abortion as a fully funded, universally accessible medical procedure everywhere in this country, and to protect the safety of the physicians, staff, and patients at the clinics that provide it.
Fund The Shelters Women Need To Leave
Leaving an abusive relationship takes more than courage; it takes somewhere to go, and yet, across the country, shelters and transition houses are turning women away for lack of space and lack of funding. If we want to protect victims from abuse, we have to ensure these shelters are never forced to turn anyone away. That's why New Democrats are fighting for adequate funding for shelters and transition housing, and for investment in the prevention, education, and access to justice that ending violence against women requires.
Free Menstrual Products And Contraception
Menstrual products and contraception are basic health needs, and for too many women and girls, the cost of both is a real barrier. For working women and girls, for those in poverty and those struggling with homelessness, no one should have to go without. That's why New Democrats are demanding a federal health subsidy to the provinces to guarantee free access to menstrual products and contraception for every Canadian who needs them.