Even low-income families who qualify for subsidies often cannot find child care spaces for their children. In addition to high costs and lack of spaces, the existing licensed care does not address the necessity of child care services for children of parents who work other than 9 - 5 shifts. The needs of rural families, native Canadians and children with disabilities receive little or no attention and, too often, there is no consideration given to children's language requirements. Most child care workers, the majority of them women, are paid wages well below the average industrial wage, and are denied the job security, benefits, career development opportunities, and the respect they deserve. They have been forced to subsidize a grossly under-funded service.
Child care is thus a critical access route for women.
Unless it is provided in adequate quality and quantity, the debate about the right to equal employment opportunity is academic for most women. Fundamental changes in the structure of the family and society have accompanied the expanding need for non-parental child care services. Women's participation in the paid workforce has increased dramatically. Increases in labour force participation are most striking for married women in the childbearing age groups. The nuclear family, with a breadwinner husband and a full-time homemaker and mother, is still frequently portrayed by policy makers as the typical Canadian family.