Feminist alliance releases study on Canada's commitment to gender equality

The Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA), an alliance of 50 women's and human rights groups, has released a ground-breaking study analyzing the impact of Ottawa's budgets on women's lives over the past 10 years. Written by well-known economist Armine Yalnizyan, it is the first-ever attempt to track how women benefit - or not - from Ottawa's fiscal policies.

"Analyzing the patterns of federal decision-making during the deficit era (1995-1997) and during the surplus era (1998-2004), it has become clear that, in good times and bad, federal priorities actually ran counter to the promises made 10 years ago to improve economic security for women."